Joe Calzaghe paper champ at Lt Hw

21 Super MW title defences makes him a paper champ, huh?

 

clearly says LH.

and its true. Joe was too slight to be a bonafide LH, and didnt have a blinding attribute to make up for it like Roy did. Thats why he was getting floored by forthysomethings in that division.

Credit to Joe for trying something different and attempting to do a Roy Jones Jr but he was never going to be able to do what Roy did. I suspect Calzaghe wanted badly to be like Roy, he idolised him, thats why he invented the slappy technique to look really fast (though unlike Roy it missed 80% of the time). But he always short of the full pack in the dpeartment, no shame, in that, few could do a RJJ.

Calzaghe had to do a runner after fighting too old guys at LH because of his lacking, whereas Roy would stick around and just keep knocking prime LH guys out.

 

he only fought at LHW twice, the Ring Magazine title means **** :yep

shame Calzaghe never fought B-hop when he was at his prime

 

dawson would've gotten it too if he manned up.

 

I don't see why a boxer with the Ring Magazine title is considered a linear champ

 

you'd be a clown to ignore that hes in his forties.

 

In 1996, Virgil Hill became the unified WBA-IBF champion by defeating the German champion Henry Maske. Hill in turn was dethroned by Poland’s Dariusz Michalczewski in 1997. Shortly after defeating Hill, Michalczewski was wrongfully stripped of all but his WBO title. From 1997 to 1999, Roy Jones, Jr. convincingly defeated top-flight competition to win all three major titles (WBA/WBC/IBF). Both Jones and Michalczewski share blame for failing to make a bout between them occur. It defies reality to insist that Michalczewski’s “linear” claim made him the sole champion, denying Jones the title despite his having held as many as six sanctioned titles at once, and being widely considered one of the pound-for-pound all-time greats.

Based on his skill level and accomplishments demonstrated in the ring, often against top opponents who fought Michalczewski more successfully, Jones demonstrated his superiority as best he could without actually fighting Dariusz. Jones was widely recognized as the undisputed champion, not only in his home country but in most of the world, based on his demonstrated skill level and accomplishments. His final unification bout with Reggie Johnson in 1999 had solidified his claim, and put the burden on Dariusz to seek out a fight with Roy Jones rather than the other way around. Fittingly, this was the same year that Ring Magazine recognized Jones as their champion.


In December 2004, Glengoffe Johnson defeated undisputed light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver in a split decision, yet the major sanctioning bodies refused to recognize Johnson as champion, because he granted Tarver a rematch instead of facing their mandatory challengers. Johnson insisted he was the real champion even without a belt, and he had the backing of Ring Magazine and many boxing experts, so we had an unusual case where a fighter was able to retain wide public acclaim as champion even without the recognition of a major sanctioning body. When Tarver won the rematch, he was unquestionably considered the top light heavyweight in the world. Lineal championship enthusiasts were forced by their own logic to accept the unremarkable Zsolt Erdei as champion at this time.


http://www.arcaneknowledge.org/sports/linealprob.htm#s2

 

Nice article : I posted this on another thread



http://www.linealchamps.com/page4.html

For anyone wanting to check the history

 

Um ...

 

Credit to Joe for trying something different and attempting to do a Roy Jones Jr but he was never going to be able to do what Roy did. I suspect Calzaghe wanted badly to be like Roy, he idolised him, thats why he invented the slappy technique to look really fast (though unlike Roy it missed 80% of the time). But he always short of the full pack in the dpeartment, no shame, in that, few could do a RJJ.



Yeah Calzaghe wasn't juicing or on illegal performance enhancing drugs for a start. As much as I liked watching RJJ in his prime, once the lab shut down RJJ started to get beat - a sad fact.

 

If we go by Linear Championship, this is defined by the man who beat the man.

Michael Spinks vacated his titles at LHW and moved up to HW, leaving the linear championship vacant.

1996, the #1 Maske and #2 Hill had a box off to decide who is the lineal champion.

Dariusz Michelovskiovic (AKA DM) then beat Hill

Gonzales beat DM

Erdei beat Gonzales

Erdei moved up to CW vacating his LHW titles.

Pasal and Dawson had a box off to who wins the vacant lineal title.

Hopkins beat Pascal to become the lineal champion.
--------------------------------------------------------

The only title Calzaghe held at LHW is, The Ring. And The Ring gave its belt to Undisputed LHW champ + P4P #1 Roy Jones Jr, instead of Lineal and WBO champion DM.

If we accept The Ring's decision to give the LHW crown to RJJ, then Calzaghe has claim to a title at LHW, otherwise he was a paper champ.