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Calzaghe's Vegas victory available free-to-air from BBC2

23/04/2008

The BBC is to provide the first free-to-air screening of Joe Calzaghe's light heavyweight title win on Sunday.

The Welshman weathered a first-round knockdown from Bernard Hopkins to retain his title in Las Vegas, after a split decision from the judges extended his unbeaten record to 45 fights.

While judge Adalaide Byrd scored the fight 114-113 in favour of Hopkins, the scoring of Ted Gimza (115-112) and Chuck Giampa (116-111) in favour of Calzaghe saw the Newbridge southpaw retain his world number one spot after the hardest fight of his career.

And while the 36-year-old's victory was watched by a 14,000-strong crowd at the Thomas & Mack Centre - the majority of whom were Welsh - its viewing figures in the UK were restricted to viewers of the subscription channel Setanta Sports.

However, following the rating success of the re-run of Calzaghe's victory over Mikkel Kessler last November - to which six million viewers tuned in - the pugilist's promoter Frank Warren has again sold the rights for free-to-air screening to the BBC.

The fight, which Calzaghe called "one of the toughest" of his career, will be shown on Sunday April 27th at 12:00 BST, with Ronald McIntosh presenting and Jim Neilly on commentary duties.

"It wasn't pretty and it wasn't my best night but I know I won," Calzaghe said after his win.

"It's my second world title in a second division and I am in America. It is the icing on the cake for my career."