How Good Was Joe Calzaghe * really *?

If Joe beat Sven Ottke I imagine boxing fans would view him as the GOAT of SMW (those who don't already).
As far as British boxing fans are concerned IMO the problem is that the "Pride of Wales / Italian Dragon" is Welsh with Italian origins.
Even Joe Chalzaghe has declared that he will support Italy against England at UEFA 2020. It's not really a statement that your countrymen love you; fans.

 

Most Welsh, and for that matter Scottish and Irish, people would support Italy, or any country for that matter, against England.

 

One of the greatest Supermiddle s.
Unbeaten, got to give the man credit.

 

Overrated. Did not want to go over to the States to fight any of the big names in their primes. Sure they may have seen him as too risky given his unorthodoxy and skill, but he did not even make the effort. He always seemed content to be a big fish in a small pond (UK Boxing).

 

JC was Better than he LOOKED and honestly I am not a big fan of him either...

his apparent constant hand injuries/problems affected him as with many fighters and the necessary changes inevitably follow. He like so many Brits since the birth of the WBO titles stayed put, but that doesn't always mean they weren't actually up to scratch, though some weren't.

My point is Calzaghe WAS Good & Good Enough to be more, but he wasn't the only scrappy looking Champion in Boxing History and he was a bit more enjoyable than a Spoiler Bhop, a Poser Eubank, a Faux Fighter Fury or a Showboating Roy, who admittedly, for a time atleast was the goods, but just another overhyped ***** in the end.

for me the question isn't was JC Good Enough, YES, but for me the question is WHY have we got Far, Far too many questions for ALL of these 'supposed' greats???

the answer is they just aren't TRUE Greats at all, P4P and H2H in the Historical sense...

keep in mind JC & BHop & RJJ and all the rest would have been L-HWs cum HWs in the past and fighting all the Marshall's, Conn's and Joe Louis' throughout Boxing right up to the 1980s for example.

JC was good enough, but it's the Modern Game, the Divisions, Titles, No Contender Eliminations so to speak and the few Number of fights for many of them, it ALL Must be seen contextually when thinking just Who & Where they might have been fighting and just how valid do all the weight divisions and few fight title proliferations actually translate to, in such conversations and evaluations.

 

Joe Calzaghe was one of the best ever at that weight, 168.

He would have been competitive with anyone.

speed, good movement decent power and good recuperative skills! and heart.!

 

He was pretty darn good.

He was a brilliant boxer, and a brilliant swarmer, and he could effortlessly switch between the two styles.

He just used to switch through the gears, until he found something that his opponent didn't have an answer for.

His career was hampered by chronic hand problems, and difficulty landing big fights, but at his best he was an exceptionally difficult fighter to beat, and of course nobody did.

 

Bang on assessment.

I lived through the era.

Yes, he was a great fighter. But he spent a decade defending a lightly regarded belt against mostly low level opponents.

I was a fan of his in the late 90’s, where I was genuinely interested in what his ceiling was.

What put an end to that for me personally, was his constant whining in the media, of how he wanted career defining fights, but where he didn’t do anything at all in order to try to change his circumstances.

He was a great fighter, and he had injury issues. But the truth is, he had no ambition to test himself to the limit, and he was happy being the big fish in the small pond.

His decade long WBO reign was similar to Eubank’s. But the difference between the two fighters, is that Eubank admitted that he was just content to defend his WBO belt, whereas Joe always claimed that he’d been robbed of bigger fight opportunities.

Joe had a lot of talent, but he was happy to fight whoever Frank Warren and the WBO lined up for him.

I’ve also found that he is massively overrated by many people.

I’ve seen numerous guys who proclaim him to be a top 10 P4P fighter of all time, with some even proclaiming him to be the GOAT.

The last time I checked, out of his 45 opponents, only around 10 of those were world level fighters, with non of them being great fighters in their prime, and only Hopkins actually being a great at all.

I wouldn’t argue with anyone proclaiming him to be the GOAT at SMW, based upon his ability, his resume, accomplishments and longevity. But to me, he was never a true ATG on the level of guys like SRL etc.

For me, he can’t be ranked as high as a guy like Mike McCallum.

I don’t think that he can crack a top 50-100 list.

 

The difficulty in landing big fights, was because he stayed in Britain fighting mostly low level opponents.

But do you think he genuinely wanted those big fights, when he did nothing to change his circumstances?

 

He was more enjoyable than a showboating Roy?

For a time at least, was the goods?

Roy was great for 15 years, where he was considered the no.1 fighter in the world for around a decade.

Roy was overrated?

 

I don't know .. to me the best win was over an old but still very difficult Hopkins who still was giving everyone fits ... that aside I don't know of he was very good and well matched or more but he was very smart because he got out on top and stayed out ...

 

Yes I do.

I think that he was seen by many as a high risk low reward proposition.

He was obsessed with breaking into the American market, but ironically it was his win over Kessler, and subsequent drawing power in the UK, that brought his breakthrough.

What most people don't know, is how bad his hand problems were.

According to the gym rats, he had no choice but to retire when he did.

 

He was an exceptional fighter who sadly never fought another exceptional fighter in their prime.

The depth of his resume is often underrated though. He has a lot of wins over world level or fringe world level SMWs.

I suspect from 6th or 7th best win downwards, his resume is the best in SMW history.

Not bad given his best win was up at LHW.

 

Okay.

But how can you truly believe that, when he spent years under the radar, defending a WBO belt 21 times against mostly low level opponents?

He wasn’t obsessed to break into the American market. Otherwise he’d have changed his circumstances.

You’re talking about a guy who fought a guy called Mario Veit twice, and after he’d already beaten him in a single round in their first fight.

You’re talking about a guy who wouldn’t go to America in the late 90’s-early 00’s, even with Showtime’s backing.

A guy who literally starved himself to fight unknown guys in a weak SMW division, when he could have targeted better named fighters, in a better division up at LHW.

I was there.

I lived through it all.

He couldn’t claim to want the best, whilst he was fighting bogus WBO title defences against non world level opposition who nobody but the WBO had ever heard of.

It’s nonsense.

Joe liked flirting with the idea of fighting guys like Roy, yet never actually did anything proactive in order to make it a possibility.

The Lacy fight was his breakthrough fight for America. And the main reason he was such an underdog against Lacy, was because the American fans and media had hardly seen him.