JOE Calzaghe will jet off to Disneyland with his wife and kids later this week with the world at his feet and the biggest pay-day of his life not far away.

His second-round stoppage of the 'Slamma from 'Bama', America's twice- world champion Byron Mitchell, in Cardiff on Saturday, was simply sensational.

To get up after being put on the canvas for the first time in his career to knock down his rival and then finish him off with a fusillade of unanswered punches was the act of a true champion.

He was already the greatest boxer to come out of Wales, and is now arguably one of the greatest to have come from the British Isles.

But though the 30-year-old Newbridge southpaw would not admit it, his fantastic display in his 13th WBO world super-middleweight defence could just as easily have been unlucky 13.

Make no mistake, the right- hand punch which floored him in round two had him stunned and wobbling.

Sitting at the ringside, just feet away, I had a clear view and for just a few seconds I feared the worst.

But as Mitchell rushed in for the kill, Calzaghe showed the instincts only natural fighters and great champions possess.

He somehow managed to slip his rival and caught him with a peach of a right to put Mitchell on his backside for the mandatory eight count.

That count did Calzaghe a favour, too, for it enabled him to clear his head, and he duly launched a ferocious onslaught on his opponent.

A massive number of clubbing blows to the head, most right-handers and afterwards claimed to be 17, had the American rocking across the ring.

And as he wobbled in his corner another crunching right-hand blow forced top international referee Dave Parris to step in and stop the fight after 2min 36sec of round two.

Whatever complaint from the Mitchell camp, and it was muted, Parris did the right thing.

But Mitchell, just as he had in the first round, showed amazing strength and courage to stay up under a Calzaghe onslaught born of frustration.

I said in my big-fight preview on Saturday that I had never seen Calzaghe looking so fit and ready to pounce, like a caged tiger.

And so it proved in that first round, as all his pre-fight plans to box behind his jab, pull his opponent in and then hit him with his best punches were forgotten.

He rushed in from the start and almost immediately slipped over. He got up to nail Mitchell with two big right-hands before a succession of jabs.

Two more big rights followed before a succession of left-right combinations wobbled Mitchell, and I don't know how he stayed up.

In the second round Calzaghe again landed a right hook, and right and lefts to the head, but then Mitchell landed a big right before another as Joe moved forward, put him down, looking dazed, and the crowd hushed.

It was the defining moment in Calzaghe's career, his first knock-down, and he really did look dazed and in danger of defeat.

But Mitchell made the mistake so many do in such circumstances, and rushed in instead of standing back to find the clinical punches.

The result was that Calzaghe somehow managed to avoid him to land a telling right of his own, and the rest really is history.

It was an amazing end to an amazing fight on an amazing bill, when only one fight lasted any distance.

It was all smiles from the Calzaghe camp afterwards, and rightly so. But it could just as easily have been all tears.