Rating Joe Calzaghe

He does divide opinion, somewhat of an enigma, I feel the style he perfected was not very pleasing on the eye, the punches were seen as more of a hybrid slap, also as with most southpaws the stance lends itself to a awkward look, no doubt he is ( well should be ) in the top 2/3 of British boxers, with Wilde, Lewis, Lynch, in the mix, as for comparing him with Hagler, Duran, Leonard,etc, well that is another matter, I wouldn't personally , but yes, generally he is overlooked and underrated.
stay safe buddy.

 

I thought his career was brilliant. Beat a lot of top raters and managed to retire undefeated. It’s true that he had some close decisions go his way but I never thought they were gifts or robberies. As for how he rated among the greats it’s kinda tough to make any solid assessments. For one thing the super middleweight division is relatively young by comparison to most other weight classes. For another, while he certainly beat a lot of top rank men, few or none of them possessed stardom or charisma except for perhaps the aged versions of Hopkins and Jones. Regardless Joe Calzaghe was an excellent fighter

 

Overrated. Heavily overrated. I think a case can be made for him losing to Hopkins and that doesn’t brew with me when Hops is older then me dad in that bout.

 

When your best win is a controversial win over a 137 year old Hopkins you know something went wrong

 

Not as high P4P as fellow British fighters like Fitzimmons, Wilde, Lewis and Fury IMO.

Very good fighter. I remember him having a good win over Lacy; some posters on this very forum thought Lacy would be too strong and athletic for him.

Ultimately, he spent most of his prime years fighting average opponents. By the time he moved up, it was too late. Had he moved up and beaten a prime Tarver and some other top 175/168 pounders, he could have ended up in an all time top 50 P4P.

H2H i can see him having the perfect style to beat an annoying fighter like Ward. On the other hand, if he was going to run into an even quicker fighter like prime Jones, i can't see him winning this type of fight.

Where does he rank all time at 168? No idea. In no order, i consider Jones, Ward, Calzaghe, Canelo, Toney and Eubank to be the best i have ever seen. Calzaghe should be rated a top 5 all time super-middle. And yet he is so hard to rate. He showed so much ability vs Kessler. Its just such a shame he played it so safe for most of his career.

 

He's going to be underrated on the whole because he is one of these guys a lot of posters/people just don't seem to like or take to. Unlike others of this ilk he just doesn't seem to have many that embrace him. He's got a lot going against him. Wrong division/wrong time, boring style, plain Jane personality etc.

Of course there are also legitimate question marks over his career and resume.

 

For me he's up with the best of British, the Lewis brothers Ted and Lennox, Jimmy Wilde, Jem Driscoll, Benny Lynch, Ken Buchanan, Randolph Turpin etc etc
I didn't know his amateur career was so stellar and maybe he didn't go to the Olympics simply because his Amateur Club wasnt fashionable or his trainer (dad) wasn't well in with selector, it happens.
A difficult to watch style, solid punch, solid chin, brittle hands but he did manage to drop the concrete headed Chris Eubank
Not his fault that he missed the primes of Benn, Eubank, Watson, Collins and Graham, Calzaghe vs Graham would have stunk anyway.
His win against Jeff Lacy was probably his defining fight and stamped the class in his resume

 

Or it went right? people act like he’s some mighty man. He’d just be “another opponent” type in other eras. A stiff contender and a brief champion at best.

 

He's the greatest Supermiddle for me.
Ten years reign and unbeaten.

 

One of the best British boxers ever,and definitely Britain's best ever super-middleweight. And one of the best ever super-middles per se.

 

Yep. Not a good sign at all.

 

Definitely one of Britain`s best but he is not an all time great