Prime Calzaghe is a H2H Beast

It's possible

But if you think of his best wins, if they were in their primes they probably would have handed him losses.

 

0, zero, null, **** all chance bhop or jones beat calzaghe. RJJ fought tomato cans, bhop lost to jermain taylor twice.

H2H CALZAGHE beats any edition of those overrated yanks.

 

The Taylor fight doesn't matter considering Bhop and Calzaghe already fought, and many many many people had Bhop winning, and even if you think he didn't, then it was a close fight

A 33 year old Bhop would obviously do better than a 43 one

Jones had inhuman roided speed and reflexes in his prime and KO power, he knocked Calzaghe down when he was absolutely shot to **** I'm sure he again could have done better in his prime

 

Nah, quite the opposite.

Prime Calzaghe is an H2H defeat waiting to happen.

Calzaghe built his record fighting mediocre opponents and past-prime names. Why do you think that was? Why didn't he do a Carl Froch and start seeking out the toughest fights available from day 1?

Because he was a technically deficient fighter who would have been picked apart with ease by the right fighter. His defence and punching technique were poor.

Calzaghe is overhyped due to a dominant win over a C-class punching bag in Jeff Lacy. Even his wins over guys like Kessler and Reid, and the knockdowns suffered in wins over the likes of Salem, Mitchell, past-prime B-Hop and shot-to-hell Jones show his limitations and weaknesses.

Put prime Calzaghe, put any Calzaghe, in there with the types of fighter he never fought - prime world-class skilled boxers like Ward and Dirrell - and he'd get outsmarted, outslicked, outclassed and outboxed. Calzaghe was ripe for that all throughout his career. He relied far too heavily on handspeed and workrate, his technical flaws were glaring and would have been ruthlessly exposed by many fighters.

Calzaghe in the ring with mid-late 90s Roy Jones or early-mid 90s James Toney or a prime Bernard Hopkins? These guys ain't Robin Reid. He'd have got sorely, severely outclassed. Anyone who understands technique must know this.

 

i agree but dont bother,soon the calzaghe cocklickers will come.

 

"prime world-class skilled boxers like Dirrell"

come on YDKSAB

 

that dude just gave an excellent breakdown, yet you claim he knows nothing about boxing?

atsch

 

Calzaghe always beats Hopkins IMO. Bad stylistic match-up for Hopkins. Jones is another debate, but Joe has a chance.

Calzaghe is a H2H nightmare of course, his combination of chin, heart, determination, work-rate, skills, speed and stamina make him a tough night for any fighter between 168-175. Unfortunately this thread will be taken over by Americans who will tell you that the likes of Dirrell (who hasn't done anything) is far better than Calzaghe... Americans dislike Joe because he beat their favourite fighters. This thread would have been better in the British forum

Carl Froch started seeking out the toughest fights available from day 1? Did you just start following boxing 3 years ago? In Britain, hardly anyone had heard of Carl Froch when Calzaghe was the man, and at that time Joe was seeking fights with the likes of Kessler and Hopkins, Top class world champions. Carl Froch only fought for his first world title at age 31, 6 years into his pro career! Calzaghe fought for his first world title at age 25, 3 years into his pro career. Froch got fortunate with the Super Six tournament, which gave him great exposure for his career. Joe didn't get that fortune, I bet you didn't know the likes of Ottke and Hopkins turned down big money offers to fight Calzaghe in 2001-2003? Joe was willing to travel to Vegas and to Germany to face them.

Wrong, his unique style is what made him so hard to beat.

Mitchell was a big puncher who knocked out Frankie Liles, he put Joe down, and in the same round Joe knocked him out. So much for weaknesses. Salem rocked Joe with a massive headbutt right before the punch that knocked him down. Hopkins and Jones scored KD's when Joe was over 36 years old. There's one thing all of those knockdowns have in common though, Joe got up off the canvas each time, didn't get KD'd again and found a way to win.

Calzaghe also outpointed Chris Eubank, prime undefeated Kessler and he beat Hopkins, when Hopkins was on the best run of his career. After losing to Joe, Hopkins turned in a career best performance against Pavlik, so much for past prime...

You think Dirrell would beat Calzaghe!? Are you serious? I could understand you naming Ward, even though I disagree, but Dirrell? What has he ever done? He lost to Froch, and crumbled under the pressure of the limited Arthur Abraham. The best win of Dirrell's career is him getting knocked out

Like his terrible flaws were exposed against Hopkins?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9SfWjk00cs[/ame]

Early to mid 90's James Toney got outworked by the likes of Drake Thadzi and Dave Tiberi James Toney did very little after leaving the MW division, Calzaghe would outwork him to a decision at SMW.

As I stated above, Hopkins' kryptonite is fast 2 handed volume punchers at a fair weight. Calzaghe always beats Hopkins.

Jones is a tough debate, but I think Joe stands a good chance, particularly against clean Roy Jones (after the Richard Hall fight).

 

its important not to undervalue Joe, he had excellent longevity mindset and outstanding fitness, with a skill set level with Robin Reid, who is a pretty good boxer. He recovers VERRY quickly from knockdowns. He has an awkward style thats difficult to figure out, and he stuck around defending his minor wbo title for a very long time, which even though it was 'the crap title' that noone wanted still takes a solid decade of commitment despite most of his opponents being **** beyond belief.

Important also not to overvalue him, he gets unstuck against superior boxers, and his legs let him down when faced with guys who can unlock his awkward southpaw style. And he loves himself a bit too much for a minor world title holder in a then diluted division, especailly if he thinks his wins over oldie ATGs are prime wins. That arrogance mixed with his obvious lack of self confidence and cowardzagism ihiding in Britain were a strange brew.

 

Dirrell has a world-class skillset for sure. He hasn't achieved much yet, he has some mental frailties sure, but his technique and his skillset are excellent. I had him beating Froch by 4 points, didn't think that fight was particularly close. If Dirrell can get himself right mentally he could become a great fighter.

 

Dont drag Dirrell into the debate, it exposes you as someone who talks much but knows little. It's over two years since he pulled out of Super Six and his only accomplishment since then is knocking out a can, sacking his promoter lol, turning down a career high payday from Bute rofl), and hanging out with the yes sayers Floyd surrounds himself with. And he still has no upcoming fight -().

When Dirrell fought Froch he pulled through thanks to excellent reflexes, but his boxing skill was so amatuerish that even the zombielike Froch was able to tag him. Against AA he crumbled and shortly after scored his greates accomplishment during a sad career; getting a DQ win by beeing out could. Such an ugly victory.

Dirrell is and remains irrelevant.

 

The "knockdown" against Jones was total and utter bull****. Go back and watch the video. It was Roy's forearm that connected on Joe's face and it should not have counted as a knockdown. Are you telling me that a fighter can hit his opponent with forearms and elbows and if he goes down be rewarded with an extra point? The ref made a mistake and called it a knockdown when it was CLEARLY an unintentional forearm shot. A great example of why boxing needs instant replay!! As far as the theme of the thread is concerned, I agree with the thread starter Emallini, Joe is a nightmare for ANYONE from 168 to 175 for the reasons he stated, plus his very underrated ring IQ and ability to make adjustments, ring generalship and recuperative powers. He also had very good power early in his career until he began experiencing hand problems and was forced to alter his style and become a volume puncher. BTW, I am a ****in yank.

 

I agree with the OP actually, 168 is not particularly deep and Joe would handle a lot of the past and current champs, Ward included IMO, he'd lose to Jones and maybe Toney at his best though.