Saying Euband was past prime is every bit as stupied as saying Hopkins built his career on beating up small guys. Eubank was 31. You aint declining at that age.
You are if you had so many wars in the ring like Eubank did by the age of 31, if you look a fighters prime by his age you dont know ****!!! Bowe was ****ing old by the time he fought Golota, hard fights take more out of you than age, just look at bowes speach before 3 wars with Holyfield and after that fights, remember hard fights can make someone shot very early age wise!!
Since i dont know anything about his amateur career can you tell me, if he was undefeated in his last 3 years as amateur, how come he wasnt on 1992 olympics in Barcelona??? just wondering.
Politics. They didn't like the fact that he wouldn't work with the coaches they had selected and ultimately they didn't put him in the qualifying tournaments.
World championships, European?? he was maybe undefeated but he didnt fight the best in the world as amateur, he fought only in Great Britain?? i believe it was politics because every athlete dreams of Olympic games, just dont understand how he didnt fight in no big amateur competition.
Politics, again. He held the ABA making him the best british boxer in his division but he wasn't selected to go to those tournaments because like I said, he refused to work with their coaching staff and worked with his father instead. He had some huge international wins at amateur though, including Chris Byrd.
Watch Calzaghe brutally executing Peter Manfredo Jr. The guy was a beast, an assassin, with finishing prowess that makes a prime Mike Tyson look like Paulie Malignaggi's even ***gier cousin.
Let the carnage begin... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgTJhEdj5M&feature=player_embedded[/ame] :rofl
He outgrew the weight and the Welsh ABA wouldn't let him have a box-off at the weight above so never put him forward for the British Trials. Welsh ABA = Jobs for the boys.
The problem with the "he was shot"-argument is that it is far to convenient. The the very second a favourite fighter lose he was "shot". The very moment a hated fighter wins his opponent was "shot". But was this or that guy really shot or was he just made to look that way? Age is not an absolute criteria, but it is one of the few that are somewhat objective. And I believe a HW suffers a lot bigger risk to become shelters then a SMW.
Calzaghe always got up to beat his opponents after he was sent to sit on the canvas. I saw at least 3 times when he fought Byron Mitchel, Bernard Hopkins, and Roy Jones Jr.
I didnt say he was shot i said he wasnt prime by that time he had fought harder fights than Calzaghe ever, no matter the weight wars take away from you and the fact is he wasnt nowhere near his prime.
A lot of the stoppages in those videos are typical of ref stoppages in Britain. If a fighter is taking a beating and is losing every round the ref will look for the first oppotunity to stop the fight. It can be annoying as we all know that there is always the chance, no matter how small and how out classed an opponent is getting that he could land one good shot to turn it around, but on the flip side it does protect the fighters more. Britain has a very good safety record these days. It is not as apparent in championship fights (even domestic championship fights) but anyone who has watched a lot of lower level british boxing (i.e. a young prospect vs a journey man) you will see a lot of these types of stoppages. Like i say, it can be annoying at times but i suppose its better in the long run. If a fighter has been taking a beating, has virtually no chance of winning and no title is on the line then why make him take even more of a beating?