was calzaghe beatable ?

Bika was a dangerous opponent - as strong as, if not stronger than Joe, with endurance and a punching skill set on par with Joe. Joe had to work the entire fight to get his respect. I didn't see anything crazy about his approach.

 

No way was Sakio Bika as skilled as Joe Calzaghe and Joe's approach to fighting Bika for the first six rounds was to match him head on in a rip up ( Joe as often as he did in his career fought down to his opponents level ), after Joe had finished ****ing about letting Bika headbut the **** out of him and decided to box then the true level of each fighters skill set became evident , Bika is an decent enough pro but not on Calzaghe's level as we have seen in his career , when he steps up to World class level he loses . Don't get me wring here either I like Sakio and wish he was a more active fighter because on his day he is a tough enough test for any of the title holders but will always fall just a bit shy due to his indiscipline .

 

was calzaghe beatable .....?

was jesus a jew?

 

I didn't say Bika was as skilled a boxer as Joe, I said his punching skill set was as good. He was fit, fast, strong and an accurate puncher. He landed body shots on Joe that made me wince just watching. He couldn't change up his work rate or control the pace of the fight like Joe did, but he could work at top pace like that for twelve rounds. Having the top work rate was Joe's domain so Joe had to find a way to counter someone stronger than him, who was willing to work as hard.

I've seen Joe fight down to his opponents level. I think he got in like that for a reason. He wanted to show he was ready to mix it.
As a strategy it sometimes worked better than other times. It worked well if he quickly gained his opponent's respect. The thing with Bika was, he kept backing himself to match Joe and this sent Joe back onto his 'getting respect' bike.
Joe's adaptibility was the difference. It took him all night to find it, he never dominated Bika, but he did make the space he needed to score cleanly, and be seen doing so.
People said it wasn't a good performance, but as probably his toughest fight, I disagree. Joe had to find something in himself to define a winning performance to the judges, against a tough opponent who showed he was dangerous for the whole twelve rounds. Bika punched him hard enough and often enough into finding it.

 

I can't argue with any of that mate fair goes to you , the frustrating thing about watching Joe over the years was he was defo game enough to mix it with anyone who cared to go down that route to draw him into their fight plan despite Joe having the option and tools to completley out boxing them .

 

I don't think many fighters, maybe apart from BHop, drew Joe into their fight plan. If they did, it wasn't for long. I think opponents tried to mix it because it was their best mode for survival. Joe fought on initiative. Often his opponents would hand it to him. A classic example of Joe robbing his opponent of the initiative was vs RJJ. It was Joe's workrate that did it.
Against Bika he had a new set of problems. Bika's workrate just wouldn't hand him the initiative. The handful of times Joe was able take the initiative, he was able to score cleanly. If an opponent had worked that out during Joe's career, and they had a trainer clever enough to work out a strategy to combat it, Joe mightn't be undefeated today. But they didn't, and he is.

 

I think in the Byron Mitcheal fight Joe got suckered into Byrons fight after all when Byron got jobbed in Germany after basically beating Sven Ottke fighting Svens type if fight he wasn't going to leave it to the judges and although sticking Joe on his arse couldn't finish it off as Joe responded to Byrons fire with his own fire , premature stoppage ? Well yes I would certainly have preferred the ref to have given Byron the benefit of the doubt and allowed him to see the round out at least ,

I was at the Charles Brewer fight also and although Charlie's game being that of boxing Joe should have fought his way instead of charlie's way . Very entertaining fight as it was .

 

Fair enough. Though I reckon when Joe did fight his opponents way it was part of how he measured them. He certainly never lost because of it.
I'm envious you got to see him fight live.

 

We are really lucky here in the UK in as much we get to see all these guys fight live mate , you know your boxing mate are you a trainer ? .

 

No, mate. Just another arm chair expert. But when I hear a lot of trainers talking to their fighter in a bout, I think I could do better.

 

Josey you seem very impartial when it comes to Joe, how did you see his fight with Robin Reid?

I've only watched it the once but I thought it was a razor close either way (admittedly I gave the slightest edge to Reid) but it's probably the closest I've ever seen to a loss for Joe (I refuse to watch the Hopkins fight) and a pretty decent hard fought performance by both men.

After watching this one though I haven't the slightest doubt that a Roy Jones circa 94-97 puts a severe beating on Calzaghe despite Joe's amazing ability to find a way to win.

 

Didn't think Byron got jobbed against Ottke Josierelli...actually thought there was little controversy in it.

 

Like I said earlier in this thread Griff Joe stunk the place out a few times in his career but a poor Joe beat a good Robin that night agreed by the tightest of margins , Robin got well and truly ****ed over v the underestimated Ottke ,

Rocky I remember watching the Mitcheal fight and thinking he did enough to get the nod , it was a S/D in Svens back yard which is equal to a victory in all but name mate, but I will watch it again when I get chance and score it with pen and paper when I do.

 

Yea I agree mate anyone can shout "throw more punches" down the phone

 

Yeah he definately looked ordinary in it and what I remember most is Reid couldn't miss with his right hand especially the lead right hence why I think a prime Jones would batter him as Jones' lead right was lethal.

That said Joe did look to have hurt his left hand early in that fight so either way it was a bloody gutsy effort by him to stick it out for the win.