From the opening bell Calzaghe dominated every stage of the fight. He did everything he was supposed to do including some things his opponent should have done. Calzaghe was the aggressor, always getting off first and keeping Lacy on the defensive. Lacy, whose defense leaves a lot to be desired, took a tremendous amount of punishment in every round, but to his credit he kept coming. 

Calzaghe punched in combinations throwing everything from left hooks to uppercuts. He punched from a variety of different angles landing with frightening accuracy. For the first time in his career Lacy was the one getting beat up and his bloodied face told the story better then any ringside commentator. Unable to discourage Calzaghe from coming forward, Lacy was slowly reduced to a punching bag with the only hope resting on his punching power. When a fighter becomes completely reliant on a miraculous one-punch knockout the fight is usually all but over.  

For the remainder of the fight Lacy would continue to take more punishment with each round while looking outclassed in every exchange. Calzaghe’s ring movement and constant offensive onslaught drained Lacy and frustrated him. By the end of the fight Calzaghe was so dominant that he fought with his hands completely down around his waist, while taunting Lacy at times and making him look like a completely beaten fighter. In the later rounds Lacy looked beaten down both physically and mentally, as he continued to throw desperate right hands that came one at a time and that Calzaghe avoided with no great difficulty. 

Calzaghe was able to take the fight to his opponent, showing that despite popular opinion, he was the stronger man. He punched in combinations while using his jab effectively and even dominated on the inside. Lacy seemed to completely forget about his jab and his whole strategy seemed to rest on landing one big shot. He appeared overconfident and not properly prepared for a fight of this magnitude. To add insult to injury Lacy also suffered his first knockdown in round 12, which just underscored the dominance of Calzaghe in the fight. Even after winning every single round Calzaghe came out for the 12^th and final round determined to knock Lacy out and this he nearly accomplished. The final scores were 119-105, 119-107, 119-107 all in favor of Joe Calzaghe, now the unified IBF, IBO, and WBO champion.