I'VE NEVER seen a fighter with a better engine, work rate than joe calzaghe. the only other guy who competes in this regard is edwin valero.
Calzaghe, easily, although a lot of people like to hate on him for his resume and therefore don't like to admit the special things he could do as a fighter
Yeah but you have to take into consideration the calibre of fighters he mostly faced and the British stoppages he got where he went wild with slaps and fooled the ref into thinking the opponent was hurt, that happened quite a lot. He was like a small child dizzy from lemonade and started spazzing out.
I don't doubt that he could punch harder than given credit for, I could never call him a puncher though and his technique was awful, I found him painful to watch and then he would showboat and id lose the will to live.
I agree with you to a certain extent, my thoughts on him have never changed and although he was a effective fighter and very difficult to beat, his style meant I could never be a fan of his or allow him a lot of praise. Each to their own though, everybody has their own preferences of what they look for in a fighter, I like a classic boxer/puncher or a eye pleasing counterpuncher, the whirlwind, 100mph, high workrate style I dislike.
My ageing father trying to be 'cool' is less cringe worthy than JC showboating. As for the ko %, a poster on the Classic made the interesting point that a ko % is more likely to indicate the level of opposition faced than a fighters punching power. Had a better engine than Pac though.
Yeah he did have the better engine and agree with the % comment, common sense tells you that, Calzaghe spent 10 years fighting at home against well lets be kind and say less than stellar opponents, occasionally a decent opponent was thrown in and it would go the distance, i.e Reid, Brewer, Bika etc. The fact he couldn't get the ghost of Roy Jones out of there speaks volumes about his power imo.