It could have been the news that Messrs Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Willis swarmed round to congratulate him, or the vision of an entire Las Vegas casino seemingly coming to a halt to salute him, or that of a mere boxing media conference being interrupted with a message of congratulations from Downing Street.

Yet, somehow, what best offered the sensation that Joe Calzaghe really had propelled himself on to a new tier of celebrity was to watch a boxing legend following and fawning around the Welshman at the Thomas and Mack Arena as if recognising both the scent of a superstar and one last seriously expensive meal ticket.

Roy Jones Jnr wants to be part of Calzaghe's projected farewell bash in front of 60,000 at the Millennium Stadium in November and he won't be the only one.

How it made Frank Warren chuckle. "We chased him for six years and he never wanted to know Joe," the promoter said. "Now they're all chasing but Joe's in the driving seat. He's broken America. He's the man now."

America only saw 'The Man' working at 75 per cent of his ability. They saw him under-perform in a fight which he could easily have lost and, to some eyes, did. Yet, ultimately, even in an ugly but never less than engrossing scrap, how could they not acclaim a man who picked himself off the canvas after a minute, endured confusing early lessons and was simply damned if he was going end up a loser?

In the debate over Calzaghe's legacy, there will be those churls protesting that a split decision points win over a 43-year-old in no way embellishes it and that the evidence was that a younger version of Bernard Hopkins would have comfortably prevailed.

Yet boxing is sometimes about stomach as well as skill and, again, this is where Calzaghe won. Spirit is what beat Hopkins.

"I took him to school," boasted Hopkins. The Drogba School for the Performing Arts presumably, such were the theatrics when the weary American, craving respite from Calzaghe's relentless pursual, spun his time-out break to more than three minutes in the 10th round after a low blow.

Calzaghe believes he may have stopped Hopkins then if referee Joe Cortez had not ruined his momentum by letting the American get away with ham acting which could only have impressed the booming Governor of California at ringside. "He was cheating," Calzaghe put it simply. His face today, dotted with eruptions caused by Hopkins's head, offered the evidence.

Who was the warrior? Hopkins had banged on all week about taking Joe into dark places yet, even after catching him cold with a short right in the opening minute, he was happy to match his dark arts with the odd deliberate low blow himself in the next round. It could have come straight from Hopkins's alma mater, Graterford Penitentiary.

Even if Hopkins did point to his blemish-free visage to suggest the computer statistics which showed that Calzaghe had landed 232 blows were a nonsense, and while he scoffed that the Welshman had hit as hard as his sister, he was blind to the idea that, despite having a four-point lead after three rounds, he lost the 115-112, 116-111, 113-114 verdict because he was so comprehensively outworked on the retreat over the last seven rounds.

He cut the sort of charmless loser boxing rarely sees; a real shame since his refusal to give any credit to his conqueror goaded Calzaghe into reminding Hopkins of his original tasteless taunt all those months ago about "never being beaten by a white boy".

A great night, which was illuminated by nearly 10,000 Welsh supporters, did not need this sour ending, yet Calzaghe could be forgiven after a week of torment from his opponent's motormouth.

How refreshing, instead, to hear genuine respect from Calzaghe's potential final opponent. It's not the lure of a potential £10million pay day in Cardiff which had Jones pronouncing Calzaghe as the best operator in the world alongside Floyd Mayweather.

"He got knocked down, was confused but he changed his tactics mid-fight, kept coming on and won," Jones said. "That tells me he's a true champion."

The praise was no more than was merited. In a land which has always viewed Limey fighters through a horizontal filter, here was one now ruling the world in two weight divisions, unprecedented in British boxing history.