Loads of fighters suffer from bad hands, and various other injury problems too. But this is Saint Joseph of Calzaghe we are talking about here so it gets blown out of all proportion by his fanatical fanboys, just like everything else associated with him.
Even akfter the crap performance against Evans Ashira, in his fight before Jeff Lacy, Joe pulled his hands out of his gloves and the knuckles were swollen as ****, he winces, holds it out and goes "that's painful" Calzaghe had severe hand problems
He was an amazing talent, anybody who says otherwise must not know so much about him Bill knows his stuff though, I think he's just one of those people who may need to appreciate Calzaghe over time eh Bill? Mann yStewart LOVED him, Jim Lampley looked up his amateur career and did some research and openly said "wow, you can see why this guy is undefeated" coming from guys who are just puppets of usual hype machines, that means something Joe Calzaghe was a great great fighter, he had some supernatural skills that should be appreciated by any so called boxing fan
Calzaghe had immense work rate and fitness. He often looked just as fresh in the last round as in the first, and his engine was just unquestionable. He was a pressure fighter in a sense as he used to just over whelm opponents with the sheer amount of shots he'd throw. I never understood why guys that lack a 12 round engine choose pressure fighting as a tactic. Take Hatton, and Macklin for example. Both of them would apply relentless pressure and throw the kitchen sink at their opponents from the opening bell looking to just blitz them. Yet neither of them could really fight the full 12 rounds at that pace, they'd both start to tire and get hit more as their hands would come down from exhaustion and would usually end fights losing the last few rounds. Happened to Hatton against Collazo and Macklin against Sturm and Martinez to some extent. It only works if you have good hurtful power and you can keep the pace up like Calzaghe could, if you're going to gas then it's a recipe for disaster. Most people get knocked out when they're just too tired to take the punches any more, Macklin against Moore is another good example of this.
Mental discipline, when I boxed as a teen, I was dynamite for the first 1 and a half rounds, but if I couldn't stop my guy, all too suddenly did my lungs feel like lead and my arms like concrete. Once I got going I couldn't pace myself at all, and with bad stamina(athsma) I was ****ed, and I lost fights I should have won based on skill level, just on a lack of pacing myself due to mental discipline, Calzaghe never hadt hat problem, hell, either problem
He often says that he used to run and up and down the hills in Wales training from age 9 or something and that he thinks his lungs developed so much from those young years that his stamina has always been prolific. If you mess around a bit as a youngster and get into the boxing properly at 21/22 you'll never have that natural peak fitness that someone like Calzaghe had.
Yeah, if you had his style but had my lungs, you'd be beaten pretty quick, his stamina was something else And I remember Dan Birmingham and Kesslers trainer insisting that Calzaghe would slow down, Birmingham wanted Lacy to jab and unload with the hooks, saying Calzaghe would walk into one after he burns out, Kesslers trainer just told Kessler to keep bombing Calzaghe til he knocked the fight out of him, but Calzaghe just chugged on, remarkable after the first round against Lacy, Birmingham assured Jeff : "He CAN NOT keep that pace" how wrong he was
broke every time he hit something harder than a marshmallow, but he still knocked the **** out of guys, pretty much
Actually I must say, despite his failings in other areas, Cloud has a good tank and work rate for a big guy.
Calzaghe could have turned water into wine. Now I know he never actually did it, but he could have done if he had wanted to, just like he would have beat prime Roy Jones - if he wanted to.
I do think it was a horrible way for him to go out against RJJ in the end. Show boating against a washed up old man who still even managed to drop him in the first round! Especially as it was more than 2 years after his auto biography in which he explicitly stated that RJJ was finished and that he would never fight him as he was just a corpse and a shell of his former self.
You've got to question the sanity of Calzaghe fans. This guy flat out said that he didn't want tough fights - yet his fans think everyone ducked him. He flat out said he knew his limitations (which is why he would want the crown jewels to fight Roy Jones) - yet his fans think he's some all time great. He flat out said that Jones was shot and fighting him would mean nothing - yet his fans credit him for this win. The list goes on, Calzaghe must be laughing his head off at these gullible idiots who've made him rich.