Joe Calzaghe had been sitting with the press for about 15 minutes in a suite high up in the Planet Hollywood resort when a message was relayed to him. “The Prime Minister's office have been on the line,” it said.

“Tell them I'm busy,” Calzaghe retorted, tongue firmly in cheek.

But Calzaghe had every right to feel full of himself as he sat on top of the world. Less than three years ago, he was being written off and widely ridiculed for supposedly ducking big names, refusing to box too far from home and being content with low-key defences of his WBO title. No one seemed to want to know Calzaghe.

Since then he has unified the world super-middleweight title and in the early hours of Sunday proved himself to be the best light-heavyweight in the world, too, by beating Bernard Hopkins. This time, a host of Hollywood A-listers wanted to meet him.

“I met Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis - Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tom Jones came back for a drink and the other day I met Al Pacino,” Calzaghe said. “That's not bad, is it? It's been an eventful week, not like when I box in Cardiff. You wouldn't see Al Pacino in Newbridge.

“I've done it all now, haven't I? I've been boxing for 25 years and for years and years I couldn't get those career-defining fights. I can't really believe it.” Frank Warren, Calzaghe's longtime promoter, described Calzaghe as “a 15-year, overnight sensation” and also offered the 36-year-old a partnership in his promotional business when he retires, probably later this year after one more bout.

Roy Jones Jr, the legendary four-weight world champion is the favourite to be in the opposite corner for that contest, although many would favour a bout against Kelly Pavlik, the world middleweight champion. “There haven't been any talks about that,” Warren said. “I would be surprised if Pavlik came up a division.” For the moment, Calzaghe will be going on holiday to contemplate whether he will really step in the ring only once more.

“How many fighters retire undefeated?” Calzaghe said. “Very few, because they keep going too long. When you get older and your kids grow up, you realise there's so much more to life, your priorities change. I'm still a guy from the valleys. I've got a nice house and a nice car, but I don't need ten houses and ten cars.

“But it's one thing saying it [retiring], it's another thing doing it. But I don't miss it when I'm not training, you know. I don't miss hitting the bag. I am in training for about half of the year now anyway, so you could say I'm already semi-retired.”

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