People of England: who had the better career closeout, Calzaghe or Lennox?

Enjoyed your posts mate and good to see other people appreciate the British Boxing Legend Joe Calzaghe.

 

Thank you , Joes career hit the skids a few times with Divorce , Multiple hand breaks , struggling to make weight etc all effecting him at one time or another and yes he did take the easy pay day option occasionally ( as in any profession why wouldn't anyone ) ? But he beat everyone that was put in front of him and won every title he ever fought for during a 46 fight pro career , to hear some people on these forums that continually decry his career is not only insulting to him but to every fighter he ever fought and the only reasons i can deduct why they do it is either out of jealousy or just pure hatred of the man himself.

 

Yes a remarkable career and one of our greatest ever.

Went to watch him against Kessler at The Principality Stadium and Evans Ashira at the Cardiff International Arena. Absolutely loved both events and very good weekends in Cardiff. Still kicking myself for missing out on the Lacy fight.

We had a cheeky trip to the gym in Newbridge before the Ashira fight and it is simply sensational to think Enzo Calzaghe made 3 World Champions from that gym.

Great memories.

 

Yes the MEN was rocking that night i was there , the atmosphere was electric as for Enzo he did absolutely fantastic with the lads he trained .

 

I respect all fighters of any level. Anyone who puts the gloves on, literally puts their health/life on the line.

So I have huge respect for him in that sense.

I have a huge amount of respect for Joe, and every single one of his opponents.

They’re all warriors.

And compared to the average fighter, he of course had a great career. As even being an area champion is something to be respected.

So, yes, I absolutely respect him in that sense.

However, as much as I respect him for being a fighter, he is massively overrated, and shouldn’t be mentioned alongside the true ATG’s of the sport.

Why? Because he spent 75% of his career fighting non world level fighters, where many other fighters strived to fight the best possible opposition.

There is no agenda.

Lennox tried to fight Bowe.

He tried to fight Tyson earlier.

He pushed to fight the best there was of his time.

Whereas Joe literally fought 3 non world level fighters in a row, before then rematching a guy who he’d already beaten in a single round.

It has nothing to do with an agenda.

It’s just that Joe wasted a lot of his time and talent, fighting guys who simply weren’t world level fighters.

So again, I respect him generally, as I do with any boxer. But he shouldn’t be classed as some ATG, as he simply didn’t do enough.

I hope that this clears everything up.

 

It clears nowt up you've spent the last 10 + years on this board slagging a Top British proffesional boxer out and 75% of his opponents , you say all the right things about respecting all boxers but you're full of it , you're basically calling Calzaghe average and 75 of his opponents bums .

 

All of my criticism is justified.

If you don’t like it, that’s on you.

If you want to label criticism as me slagging him off, that’s on you.

I would never call his opponents bums.

That’s your term.

I’ve never once referred to any fighter as being a bum.

However, it is factual that he spent 75% of his career fighting non world level opposition.

So what’s impressive about that, when people are calling him one of the all time greats?

 

Implication , you're clearly implying he's average and only fought bums but you've not got the nads to just come out and say it , weak as pish .

 

He wasn’t average.

But he’s massively overrated by many.

Again, bums is YOUR term.

But it’s factual that he was more than content to fight mostly non world level fighters.

 

Are you lumping the 22 Pro fighters he beat in the 4 years before the age of 21 into the 75 % non world class fighter standard that you're spouting ? OR is it 75% of the fighters he fought over his next 24 fights that are in your opinion not world class ?

 

Loudon you make so many good points in these posts. I was there throughout Joe's career and he certainly didn't sack up until he knew Jones and those types were done. The man lost to Robin Reid. Quality fighter but not the elite level. From Pavlik to Winky Joe avoided so many. Even ducked Jermaine Taylor. The problem was that Joe admired himself a little too much and thought he was this mega star, when he was just an awkward kid from Wales who couldn't knock the fluff off of a cappuccino. Clinton Woods would have been a handful for Joe nevermind a prime young Roy Jones.

When it comes to seeking out the world's best then Joe lacks what Ricky and Lennox had in abundance. They were proper competitors whereas Joe wasn't. If Joe's dad was a touch softer on him then this thread wouldn't be here. Joe was a bottle job.

 

Copium.

 

And he's still there. Regardless of if he was a fighter he is still in there.

 

To my knowledge, he fought 46 fights from 45 opponents.

Only around 11 of those 45 opponents were world level fighters.

That makes it around 75%.

So we have many people calling Joe an ATG, and even THE GOAT, yet he only fought less than a dozen world level fighters in his entire 15 year career.

 

I can’t say that he ducked Taylor or Winky, but the Pavlik fight was there to be made instead of Jones.