Calzaghe's BBC show great for his Personality

The odds against the undisputed world supermiddleweight champion being voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year were cut last night as Auntie bowed to parliamentary pressure to screen his epic victory over Mikkel Kessler at prime sports viewing time.

Scroll down to read more:

The entire 12-round fight will be shown on BBC1 at 1.10pm on Saturday, finally going out to a wider audience — and Sports Personality electorate.

Ladbrokes, having shortened Calzaghe's odds from 12-1 to 10-1 for the BBC contest, will no doubt cut them again today after the Prince of Wales presents a lifetime achievement award to the Pride of Wales in recognition of his 10 years and 21 successful defences as a world champion.

Prince Charles will conduct that investiture in Cardiff Castle, just across the road from the Millennium Stadium where Calzaghe delivered his master-class in the noble art in the early hours of Sunday. BBC 1 — whose recently departed controller Peter Fincham was the corporation's principal opponent to prizefighting — obtained second rights to show the fight after complaints from leading politicians about the publicly funded Beeb failing to respond to the national interest in boxing.

Cardiff's estimated late-night live attendance of 50,000 included Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, while a TV audience of 300,000 was remarkable for a Setanta network in its infancy.

As the reaction to Calzaghe's achievements reached fever pitch, support grew for Sir Henry Cooper's proposal that he should be knighted. "Why not?" asked promoter Frank Warren.

"Who says you have to wait until you're 100 and long retired? Sir Galahad was still fighting when he was a knight!

"Where's the nasty entourage with Joe? Where's the bad behaviour of so many sports celebrities?

"Joe is mature, talks common sense, is respectful, acts as an ideal role model and gets kids off the streets and the drugs and into his father's gym."

That cry will become louder whether or not Calzaghe goes on to a marquee fight in America against boxing's self-styled Executioner — world light-heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

That may be just as well because Hopkins is by no means as certain to meet Calzaghe's challenge next spring as the first noises out of his camp seemed to indicate.

Calzaghe is eager to face Hopkins for the first of the two mega-fights he is seeking in what he says, at 35, will be his final year in the hardest game.

Hopkins rattled his Executioner's sabre, as usual, but Warren warned: "The ball is in Bernard's court but it's been there before.

"Six years ago it took us only 30 minutes to agree a deal for him to fight Joe — and it took him only another 24 hours to scupper it by turning round and demanding double the money.

"Hopkins is a dedicated student of boxing and knows just as well as we do that he would be badly beaten. At 42, does he fancy that?

"This would be a huge event. I would sell it out within an hour. But it's going to be a struggle trying to make it happen.

"Yankee Stadium and all that? Let's wait and see what Hopkins is saying in a week or so."

Meanwhile, Calzaghe is basking in his new-found popularity and British boxing is relishing its renaissance.

David Haye challenges Jean- Marc Mormeck for the world cruiserweight title in Paris on Saturday.

Ricky Hatton seeks to dislodge Floyd Mayweather Jr as the supreme pound-forpound fighter in Las Vegas on December 8, the night on which Amir Khan aims to confirm himself as a world champion in the making by stepping up in class against Graham Earl at Bolton Arena.

All that and Sir Joe. America, eat your fighting heart out.