He has beaten some well known and respected fighters at the tail end of their careers, beaten a few very overrated fighters who were never that great to begin with, and has heavily padded his record against bums in the comfort of his homeland....oh and he has a lot of British fans who will insist that because he is undefeated and British, he is truly great no matter what the actual facts of the matter are. He is a very good fighter, but never was and never will be the great fighter that many people have fooled themselves into believing simply because of nationalistic pride.
This is the very definition of irony bearing in mind that the Yanks do it routinely and half the time don't even realise that they are doing so! Linear champ at two weights, unified 168, ten world champs, numerous contenders that will do for me. Nobody's saying it's an ATG resume, but it's pretty handy and he;s a future hall of famer nonetheless.
not an ATG but solid HOF material. can box, brawl. superb hand and foot speed, solid beard. one of the best conditioned fighters on the planet. crazy stamina. great wins over kessler and hops. good wins over eubank and lacy. the lacy fight being one of the biggest pwns in the sport in recent years over a man expected by his fans and media back in the states to walk through calzaghe (the eurobum) with little bother only to be on the end of a spectacular arse kicking. decent wins over former belt holders like brewer, reid, mitchell, woodhall. as well as ok filler like bika and sheika. too many garbage defences. missed out on ottke and should have pushed harder for RJJ. hopkins ran with his tail between his legs in 2002. solid but not spectacular career, two weight world champ, unified all the belts at 168 and beat the man at 175. great fighter who falls short of achieving genuine ATG status. could still rematch bernie or fight dawson, will probably retire. makes the haters vaginas bleed.
What have you done to assume you have any kind of base knowledge to post on a boxing forum and then critizise any boxer that entered the ring??? I should imagine you're another person who heard of Joe Calzaghe from 2006 onwards and that strongly favours American based fighters over any that dare to be born outside of the USA
What did RJJ do to be considered an ATG ? AN ugly boring victory over a green Hopkins Beat Toney I'll give him that but was Toney at his best or drained hmm ? Beat some Bum in an arranged heavyweight title fight Beat Mike McCallum when he was way past it Other than that he fought mostly cans himself ?
He sits somewhere around 80-120 on most all-time lists (as done on a poll here in the GF not long back); does that make him an ATG? ****ed if I know.
He gets a lot of criticism on here from guys who actually favoured RJJ over Calzaghe then slate him for beating a shell of a fighter.........these guys have no idea how to vent their jealousy without coming across as dumb, biased and bitter
U must love him?:thinkI dont care where a fighter is from..i want Haye to win a title.Is he from the U.S?
I suppose its pretty hard not to come across as dumb, biased and bitter, when you actually are dumb, biased and bitter. To be fair some of the Calzaghe lovers are just as bad; I would hope that I steer a middle-course on the issue: I see his faults and criticise him for it (early comp, extended WBO reign and fighting technique), but I also give him praise for his plus points (the late career wins over Kessler and Hopkins, two-weight world champion, his domination of Lacy - Joe was the betting underdog for that fight, I don't care how much Lacy has gone to **** since then, it was still a hell of a performance).
champion for of ten years,beat the best at smw, and beat the best at lhw, all while being undefeated. if that is not great ,then tell me maestro, what is?
He beat fighters in their prime unlike Manny Pacquiao, old fighters, and won titles in two divisions:hi:.