Sport in Wales played at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but after no Welsh players were selected for the team they decided to leave the Great Britain team to allow their players greater international exposure. Wales has a strong connection with the sport of boxing, particularly in the South Wales Valleys, with fighters such as Tommy Farr, Freddie Welsh, Jimmy Wilde, Dai Dower and Johnny Owen all competing at the highest level. Joe Calzaghe, born to a Welsh mother and Italian father and raised in Newbridge, retired in 2009 as an unbeaten world champion. Other former world champions include Enzo Maccarinelli, Gavin
Barbados Joe Walcott the aggressor throughout the bout, landing more clean blows, though there was a great deal of clinching and wrestling throughout the furious bout, likely a result of the mismatch in reach between the two opponents. In the first round, Walcott brought Gardner to his knees from a left and right to the head for a nine count, though Gardner returned to the fighting unfazed. Walcott won the world welterweight title on December 18, 1901 in Buffalo, New York, from reigning champion James "Rube" Ferns achieving a technical knockout in the fifth round. Ferns, from the reaction of the Buffalo crowd