Calzaghe is massively underrated. Has very good wins and took the best on in SMW and arguably LHW (didn't fight Dawson). The only reason why he is really overlooked is because it wan't until late in his career that he went overseas to fight, which is pretty much a prerequisite to becoming an ATG.
He beat Hopkins, and yet Hopkins gets more credit against the guy he recently beat than Calzaghe does for beating Hopkins and many others. Staying undefeated.
come on if cal was black, with the same skills he had, coming from the us, than a lot of people would be all over him and they, he got power, he fast, he is a slick black g and things like that. just remember how hyped the ko artist, than unbeaten jeff lacy was. he was like next sm king and hyped this way. after the masterful, athletic, elegant way he beat lacy there should be one thing obvious, joe was the real deal :yep also the war with kessler gave him respect from my side. lets also not forget, people dont give credit for the X win, but X always came into the ring with great shape, always was well trained, what I mean by that, half a year after the calzaghe - X fight hopkins had one, some say his best performance of his career against pavlik. so why wasnt he that good in the joe fight? because a joe is better than kelly and b joe was that good that he didnt let X be good and when you do win vs a legend, fighting your and not your opponents fight, than you should get respect. like I said the X - pavlik fight showed us X stillw as very dangerous and still a world class boxer, but joe was 'just better and a world class boxer himself :hat
its the skin factor, when you black, you right away athletic and very good, when you wight with the same skills, than you a light punching college kid but I can understand, every sport has his people and blacks are the best in boxing, in swimming even if they were good, they get underrated, because its a white mens sport.
Underrated because: 1) His fans overrate him. 2) He is undefeated. 3) He beat several high profile, popular fighters at the end of his career. 4) Mostly 2).
I think Calzaghe's as a fighter is severely underrated by fans, but his resume has so many holes in it that it is difficult to defend. As a fighter people only see his dodgy punch technique and forget about all the other stuff which makes him great. He had a great chin (flash kd's a side), phenomenal workrate, very good ring iq (only fighter to take the second half of the fight away from B-Hop), great footwork and an almost unrivaled will to win. One thing i love is how much credit someone like Paulie Malignaggi gets for winning some minor world titles with brittle hands and no power, but for some reason the same logic doesnt apply to Calzaghe who had a far greater career with equally brittle hands and similar power?
Race aside here's my breakdown of Joe Calzaghe. Wins the Wbo title from a shot Chris Eubank. Spends the next 9 or 10 years holding the title hostage fighting no hopers in the UK while the cream of talent are all fighting each other in the states. Finally Calzaghe decides to take on a so called challenge in the form of ovarrated American Jeff left hook Lacy,Calzaghe exposes and batters the one dimensional Lacy and finally wins some admirers. In his best win imo Calzaghe beats tough Danish fighter Mikkel Kessler in a hard fought but well earned victory. In between Calzaghe refuses numerous offers to fight Carl Froch in a big domestic super fight claiming Froch wasn't in his class. Calzaghe finally goes to the States and fights 40 something B-hop slapping his way to a decision. Then the icing on the cake beating a completely shot RJJ and calling it a day. We can safely say Joe played it safe and probably had one of the most carefully guided careers in boxing,if he had decided to fight RJJ and Bhop a little earlier in his career would things have gone as smoothly?Highly doubtful......,