The Most Overrated British Fighter?

Gotta be Turpin. As good as he was at brit level, he was lucky to catch a below par Robinson on his sight seeing world tour an his decision win made his rep for life an forever cemented his credentials as a all time great brit fighter with rose tinted glasses wearing brits. Was handily dispatched by a better prepared Robinson in a quick rematch but that win in their first fight was enough to forever enshrined him in brit boxing history.

 

Uh, Ottke retired undefeated and actually unified another major belt while Joe was stuck on his WBO title ways. Ottke was clearly the cash cow at the time, you're bashing Ottke for defending his belt in Germany but what in the blue hell was Calzaghe doing from 98-04? Matter of fact, since 98 until 2004 both Ottke and Calzaghe were ranked 1 and 2 in the Super Middleweight rankings yet Joe absolutely wanted nothing to do with a bout between the two.

I actually live in America and have been following boxing since I was a kid in the mid 90's. Trust me when I say nobody knew or gave a damn who Jeff Lacy was, he was just a belt holder in a crappy division, especially around 04 or 05 with the metaphoric rise of Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather while the old guard of DLH, Jones Jr, Trinidad and Mosley rapidly declined. That's like giving extra credit to Vitali Klitschko for beating another heavily hyped American in Chris Arreola, who was compared to Riddick Bowe at the time and favored to be the first boxer of Mexican descent to become the HW champion.

Kessler was a fine win but he was coming into the bout with a reported injured hand.

"It's not Joes fault that Hopkins still made history after losing to Calzaghe." I don't get what this means, so does Calzaghe get the credit of beating Kelly Pavlik despite openly ducking him? Does Joe become the oldest champion in boxing history because he managed to land a couple of karate chops from different angles on Hopkins in an extremely controversial fight? Um, yeah okay, sure.

Uh, wtf are you talking about? Calzaghe in his own words clearly said Roy Jones Jr. was a washed up bum, yet decided to fight him anyway. Jones was the p4p number 1 boxer and face of boxing from 94-03. Why in the blue hell would he go to Europe, wtf did Joe have to offer besides a worthless WBO belt in which Jones wasn't interested in? I mean, really....

Yeah, Calzaghe is the GOAT at 168 but that's not saying much. Canelo has about 5 bouts there and is already top 5 all time in the division, it's not a very historically deep division.

 

The problem for American fans is that Calzaghe only registered with them from the Lacy fight onward.

But the guy was legit at SMW for a long time previous to this when he outlasted all other title claimants of his division, albeit with his D list belt.

But D list belt or not, the resume was stronger than American fans realise. As strong as you can get in one weight class.

There wasn’t anyone of any value that Calzaghe missed out. He eclipsed Ottke once everyone realised the farcical nature of the decisions ottke was receiving in Germany and from drawing comparing results between common opponents with Calzaghe. The other champions were Woodhall, Mitchel, Kessler who he beat anyway.

Calzaghe was never really a rival to Jones or Hopkins in the SMW weight class. Jones left the division before Calzaghe won a title there. Hopkins was never a champion there.

 

So how can Calzaghe be overrated at SMW then? Compared to what?

 

I don’t know about that really. From what I have read at that time, in his own country, Turpin was celebrated only in equal terms with Freddie mills and Bruce Woodcock. If you take those three together, two of them were at least world champions. Woodcock never was.

Even though the Robinson win is still considered a massive upset and Turpin himself still regarded a massive talent in the U.K., Randy is just as tragically remembered for being the “64 day hero” who ended up with crippling debts and a victim of suicide. Which on balance puts things into a different perspective altogether.

 

The problem with your posts you throw names around without any context, i've already told you that Sheika between 2004-2009 was barely active. He'd had 4 fights in 5 years, and when he fought Jones had not fought for almost 2 years. Beating Sheika at that point is not saying much.

Lacy as i already said was ruined by Calzaghe, and had been struggling vs C class fighters for the past 3 years before fighting Jones. Again beating Lacy at that stage is not really a high point everyone knew he was shot.

And now your mentioning Felix Trinidad, another completely shot fighter that had 2 fights in almost 6 years. Had come out of an almost 3 year retirement, fighting atleast 4 weightclasses above his prime weight.

Again i don't know why you keep ignoring these facts, and want to try and spin a narrative that Calzaghe's win over Jones is a "good win". Is it a coincidence that your the only one on this thread that has that opinion ? I've already gave you the facts about the opponents, aswell as a statement from the man himself Calzaghe saying "beating Jones at that point meant nothing" i mean what further evidence do you need ?

It's pretty simple Jones never beat one single rated top 10 fighter after his losses to Tarver x2, Johnson. Calzaghe was still competing at a high level beating fighters like Kessler, Hopkins, end of.

 

Lol, no worries. Years back I went to a fight and put quite a few under my belt. Got home, thought I’d do a write up on the fight on the boxing site I was posting to at the time. Each and every sentence came out as gobbly gook no matter how many re-attempts. Eventually, I said to myself forget about it and I didn’t submit a thing. Lol.

 

Good arguement, but if he had been British he would be considered one of the greatest Brits of all-time.

 

He’s the greatest 165-pound welterweight I’ve ever seen.

 

I go for Froch, based on him getting into the HOF. An accolade he’s nowhere near deserving of.

Tyson Fury somewhat too. Based on people thinking he’d beat everyone ever easily and is in the GOAT discussion.

 

Saunders hasn't reached the status of historical significance, so, if anything, I would say he's underrated for his level. He acquitted himself well in his fight against Canelo, and I mean that genuinely, with no pun intended. His brash and crude behavior makes him an unpopular figure, but he's far from the most overrated.

On the flipside, I think Conteh gets points simply by being a lovely, sophisticated, sporting, gentle everyman.

 

Give over. Tito was way past finished come 2008.

 

Turpin was inconsistant a landlord in my town was a sparring partner of his he said he was ***** mad.
On his night he was a genuine world class fighter .

Turpin wasn't."handily despatched,"s Robinson was in danger of being stopped on a cut eye and the stoppage was controversial.
Here are the score cards.
Turpin. 4-4 4-5 3-5.
An old steel erector I worked with was in the Navy docked in the US ,he went to the fight and said its was pretty humdrum, until the last round.

 

I might be wrong but I always got the impression Turpin was a bit of a simpleton. Albeit a dangerous one. Talent in bundles but just too unstable to really benefit from it

 

Lacy was awful, he did he beat after Calzaghe out-classed him?