Who's Legacy was Greater - Calzaghe or Wlad Klitschko?

wlad may have been poleaxed by relative nobodies many times over but thats only through dint of actually trying to climb the ladder in some way, and he eventually did get to be dominant once his brother left the scene, and he stayed there for a few defences. It is easy to laugh at a supposed "atg" for getting wiped out by retired fatties etc but it takes guts to keep coming back rather than avoid a few beatings.

Joe in comparison, whenever he challenged for a major title (and on those two occasions, he won, to his credit), scarpered for smaller fry straight away EVERY time to avoid getting wladded out. Odds are that joe would have picked up as many loses as wladdie had he not ran from defending them.

Wlad, for all those bad, rather unique failures, developed courage to follow through. It is only through courage that we reach our full potential. Joe would have achieved more, had he accepted some beatings from the major players he zigzagged constantly, and been forced to push himself harder as a boxer and become better...something wlad managed by honing his defence to become relatively undisputed.

Might joe have been able to make unified title defences like wlad did, beat byron mitchell and robin reid fairly or beat an uninjured kessler, froch, and several others instead of running from them in gibbering fear? If he got better in the way wlad did after getting pasted out repeatedly, he might have, and surely he'd lose to some, but now we wont know.

 

Calzaghe hands down. Wlad gotta be one of the most overrated fighters ever.

 

how can you say this, Wlad was a largely undisputed champ defending them all by the end of his reign with a handful of good defences albeit for a short time?

Joe didnt manage that at all, although he had a few good defences too.

 

Wlad had devastating losses to second rate fighters in his prime. Even if you have the health excuse for the Brewster loss, what about the Corey Sanders loss? He had glaring weaknesses and a suspect chin. His best wins are second rate. Wlad was a robot who never really shined, even in his marquee wins. Calzaghe did that and then some. Calzaghe had better movement, toughness, and a better boxing brain.

No contest. Wlad was not even the best heavyweight in his era, as his brother was better than him.

 

At first I was going to say klitschko but its actually harder to decide than i thought. A lot of the calzaghe wins people laugh at are actually very similar level to most of wlads defences

But ill say wlad tried to test himself more.

 

yeh but to be fair, this is about daring to great and succeeding. Wlad kept trying, he went out to land a legacy after his losses and after brother left the scene, joe avoided a legacy whenever possible, apparent from his best effort in his legacy being a 43 year (stillgood but no longer elite) old man. Its one of the worst legacies of a long term champion in history...and thats even if you class him "long term" seing as he challenfd for his first fully recognised title at 33?34? (and left the division in just over a year after). Wlad stuck around for decades still trying, with fails and success in equal measure.

I dont see wlad being rated having the higher legacy if he'd got easily outboxed and then rallied on tank vs a 43 year old evander holyfield for a life n death split decision - that would RUIN Wlads legacy!

If joe was the stuart hall of SMW then wlad was the dennis andries, he kept trying and kept building.

There is a degree of similarity between them early in their careers, both of them hid with the wbo title for years, but thats the only similarity. Wlad went on and on to better things, joe briefly did but cut it short.

 

Calzaghe was a 2/1 underdog against Lacy and JC had a bum hand, almost pulled out but decided against it. I wouldn't say JC never dared to be great. The way Wlad fought in the ring, he never really dared to be great. Always a safety first fighter. I would say his fight against AJ is the first time I really saw Wlad "Dare to be great".

I don't think we'll ever see eye to eye on this one.

 

Calzaghe .

Sam Peter was the HW version of Jeff Lacy.

Compare the performances . Wlad went life n death with his Jeff Lacy.. Nuff said.

 

my main man has spoken, unless dinovelvet has something to say, /thread this

 

exactly, he was 2-1 underdog against a crapartist, thats some indication of his paucity of legacy at the age of 34, a year and a half before he retired from title fights.

Your evidence works against you, not for you.


Its easy to engage in a fight when you know you are fighting a 90% bumfest like myger mtcyhisname, and joe did that so very often...made easier because wales was starved so long of any boxing success so they never complained.
There is unfortunately a side effect of joes bumkillng, it means that any welsh fighters that come after wont enjoy such easy forgiving support again, which is unfair on them.

 

Herol defending Wlad, that might be a first.

 

aha but wlad stopped peter.

joe was unable to stop jeff, though he battered him...though that mnore to do with joes style and strength being so powderpuff.

 

Calzaghe actually hits hard. Especially with his speed, it makes those punches hit even harder because most opponents don't really see them coming. Might want to give Lacy's punch resistance some credit here. He was busted up and brutalized but still kept going. Powderpuff punches don't bust you up and ruin your career overnight.