I would go with the Starie fight. One of the worst fights imaginable as far as spectator appeal goes. A real bore of a fight.
You seem to be having an argument with yourself here or at best, sounding very confused with what point you are trying to make. First you say Malinga was a average fighter and to back that up, give the example that he lost to Benn and Eubank and then you seem to counter your own argument by adding that he did then beat Benn in a rematch which kind of negates the whole point of using the loss to Benn in their first fight as an example of Malinga being an average fighter, don’t you think? You’re even making me confused now in trying to make sense of what point you were trying to make. Lol.
Kind of seems like Joe was in a bit of a funk during that stretch, fighting guys way below his level (Starie, Evans Ashira, Mger Mga-something or other). Good call, much better response than arguing if Robin Reid (a world champ and Olympian) was world class or not.
I'm not sure on his worst performance, but his best performance for me was Hopkins. He out Hopkins'd Hopkins.
Reid was a good, dangerous fighter. Poor footwork, struggled with decent movement and had questionable stamina that often resulted in low output, but he was a good counterpuncher, very sharp and accurate with his right with good timing and technique as Calzaghe found out. Good puncher too and a strong chin if not the most difficult to find. The Ottke fight showed what he could do when he was focused and on point, disgraceful what happened. Malinga was a bad style for him and he was past it by the time of Lacy. IIRC though he really rocked Froch too early in their fight before being overrun. Also, won his belt on foreign soil by ko leaving nothing to shite judging.
Bearing in mind that Reid fought the two most dominant supermiddles of the era to close decisions, won a world title on the road, defended three times, and beat four world titlists during his career, it seems odd to label him as “not world class”. I would say Thornberry was Calzaghe’s most uninspired performance. Unlike Starie, he had virtually no credible wins or obvious top level skills. Starie showed flashes of ability during his career, and had a very credible win over Clinton Woods bearing in mind Woods’ later run at 175.