It’s not unusual for a fighter’s relative strengths to peak at different times. Foreman is an extreme example, but there’s lots of top fighters who were better at different things across their career while still being at a high level. Calzaghe was probably at this physical peak around the time of the first Veit fight, and his hands were not a massive problem at that point. In terms of confidence, ring generalship, and putting it altogether, the Lacy fight is the obvious one. The younger Calzaghe hit harder and was probably quicker, but the later version had perfected his style and had the assurance that came from coming through gut checks and knowing his true level. I think the earlier Calzaghe had some confidence issues, liked to operate in his comfort zone with the result that he could fight down to the level of his opponent, and sometimes got caught between styles. Calzaghe’s performances were a bit uneven during the mid part of his career, but again not that unusual. Erik Morales looked very beatable when he first moved to featherweight, when in theory he should have been in his physical prime. There can be a lot of things going on outside the ring (not to mention inside a fighters head), that can result in something other than linear progression and decline.
de luxe puddings compared to those 2 who fought each other twice - Tony Dosh PPV yet to fight a live opponent and even failed to clean out the puddings shelf
Calzaghe rightly gets criticism for staying at home for years and years and not facing the best. Collins went everywhere and fought the best, even as s ridiculous underdog, and benefitted from what he learned.
Confidence? Think you're getting that mixed up with how his Dad MADE him go ahead with that fight or he was leaving. Read Joe's book, these are his own words. The man was a mental midget.
Calzaghe was actually the one who backed out of the Ottke fight. Ottke and his team did try and make it happen a few times. And while I can understand Calzaghe not wanting to fight in Germany, Ottke was the champion at the end of the day while Calzaghe only had a meaningless alphabet strap, so the onus was on him to travel.
joe travelled 1.3% of hes whole entire career only ward tops that feat with a perfect 0% the two apperent greats hell throw ottke in out of the three its roughly 1.8% travel out of 300 % combined so to be a great you need to stay put with the ref favouring you heavily
Everybody knows that the reason Ottke retired an unbeaten champion is because nobody could be bothered with going over there to fight him and having to deal with the terrible and Golden Boy level corrupt judging. Although people can argue the same of Calzaghe I don't think he ever really benefitted from biased judges, even the Reid fight that was close, Joe deserved it.
He was comparing their desire/ambition. Brook fought GG and Spence back to back. Joe was happy to fight Mario Veit twice.
Check Brook's 3 fights BEFORE and AFTER the above two fights - he has had his fair share of pony. Calzaghe fought Kessler then Hopkins back to back. Brook fell apart when in the ring with 2 elite fighters, being absolutely pasted both times, yet Calzaghe rose to every occasion. And STILL the undefeated World Champion, 46 fights, 46 wins and in the Hall of Fame - the fighting pride of Wales. Enjoy these elite Brits when they come around mate.
