SMW has only gained legitimacy over the past decade (partially because of Joe). he never fought in the REAL divisions (MW, LHW) when his contemporaries were in their prime. For me Joe is like that guy who was the best ball player on the street who never made it to the big league but has become a local legend.
Bad divorce at the time. Valid reason to avoid that fight, and joe was inactive during that period. Joe ducked nobody.
LMAO. how can you expect a SOMEBODY to remember the name of a NOBODY?:rofl No one outside of Bum-fuk England knows who a nobody like Woodhall is. LOL, drunken Clowns!
What a rude man !!! Well Im not English (I'm Scottish) and I know perfectly well who Richie Woodhall is. But then again, you probably think Scotland is a town in England.
No he never ducked anyone though he often took the path of least resistance. He reigned during a weak era and Ottke avoided him like the plague. Some of his opposition were inexcusably bad like Pudwill, Mkrtchyan and Salem and he allowed Ottke to over shadow him by unifying first which often meant he was ranked below him. Calzaghe was clearly the best fighter of his generation at 168lbs but he should have pushed for greatness more he allowed his promoter to pit him against some pitiful opponents. He should have unified first before Ottke and he should have fought more american opposition to get more recognition on the other side of the Atlantic like Ottke did. He did face some decent opposition though like prime Reid, Eubank and Kessler.
People consider him a ducker because he was undefeated. Also, by beating a black man after race was brought up introduced more haters. It became a race war because Hopins is a clown. So now people go back and say he never would have beaten anyone decent in his prime.
tbf...mitchell, brewer & tate were the top americans at 168 during his early years as champ. he faced 2 of them & the other one pulled out of a fight at short notice. the only american "superstar" at 168 he could have faced during his reign was lacy. he tried to make a fight with b-hop too...but it didn't come off. i think you have slightly unrealistic expectations on that point tbh. & "like ottke did"? brewer, mitchell & tate, then. no...i don't get it at all. :huh
He should have fought Roy Jones in his prime at 168. Anybody that fights Eubank that early on is not ducking, but really the only knock on him is not fighting Jones. Alot of people actually did not want to fight him.
Scottish, England, they both are the same, and you can put Ireland and Bum-fuk Wales in there too. Nobody knows those bums you call fighters anywhere else. If they have any decent talent they end up moving to the US or at least Canada. Lol, that's the same as Ukrainian saying, we're not Russians. LOL!!! :yep:rofl:rofl
While Calzaghe did fight Brewer and Mitchell he should have fought them first before Ottke did. At the time it seemed like he was facing Ottke's left overs, his career quite frankly was shockingly managed he's probably the most naturally gifted British fighter ever yet massively under achieved based upon his actual ability. By allowing Ottke to fight these ranked Americans first and unify 2 of the major titles while only holding the lightly regarded WBO title he created a false image to the American boxing pundits that he was simply a euro level champion, which is why he was often ranked below Ottke during most of his reign when in reality he was vastly superior to Ottke. It is not at all unrealistic for Calzaghe to have faced Mitchell before Ottke did and so unify before Ottke did or for him to face slightly better opposition then Salem or Pudwill. Calzaghe could have rematched Reid or beaten any number of the former WBC champions like Theobela, Lucas, Catley etc instead of guys like Ashira. Had Calzaghe done these things his resume would have at least been more impressive, beaten top ranking US fighters of the time, unified 2 titles, beaten numerous former champions instead of total unknowns. Like I said before he was horribly managed throughout the majority of his career.
Presumably you've never watched Jones in the Olympics. You were probably still a toddler back then, licking windows & sticking crayons up your arse.
You saying that Roy Jones had world wide recognition and acknowledged as Super man even back to his days in the Olympics? AWESOME DUDE!!! :yep:good