A lot of those reasons are tenuous. B-Hop had a lot of cupcake title defences at MW; doesn't make him a bad fighter or a ducker. JC stepped up to the plate when he could. I dislike Calslappy because he has an annoyingly smug aura about him; and scraping past B-Hop and beating a past-it RJJ (past-it by JC's own admission) seems to have given him legendary status.
After each mandiory with the Mger Mcerchians and Evan Ashira's I become more and more frustrated. The real killer for me was the rematch with Mario Veit. Rematching man you ko'd in 1 round should tell you something, either A. get a new promotor or B. The belt you have is a joke. He could have rid the world of that joke Sven Otke, instead he did an imitation of Otke. Okay I went to far. Otke makes JC look like SRR.
True, I wasn't particularly found of B-Hops MW title reign but taking on the young, hungry Taylor at 40yrs old showed alot balls. Not to mention moving up two divisions to take on Tarver.
Agree about Veit and the new promoter! Not sure about second one. Ottke wasn't willing to come to the UK and itd be very risky to fight him in Germany IMO (not for his talent - more the corruption!)
Calzaghe schooled and embarrassed Glass Jaw Roy Jones. He lost 2 rounds at most. Calzaghe did to Jones what Jones used to do to the Otis Grant's, Rick Frazier's, Glen Kelly's etc. Let's also remember how reluctant Roy was to make big fights from 1998-2003.
The Hopkins 'win' was a split decision. Hatton stopped Tzyu so I do think Hattons was more impressive. Calzaghe was made to look amaturish against Bhop. Some of the slaps in thin air were comical to say the least.
Thats actually something i will never understand .... after the Hopkins fight which i personally think Joe lost (but can understand a argument either way) he says he does not do rematches. Yet he gave Mario Veit a rematch ... a guy who he easily KO'd ... but Hopkins a guy who he narrowly eeked out a SD to does not warrent a rematch?
Most of Calzaghe fans are welsh anyway. I was having an argument with a friend (welshman) only about 3 months ago. He kept saying Calzaghe is a Legend and I said there many p4p boxers out there better than Calzaghe. I mentioned Mayweather Jnr and Pacquiao, and he said he didn't know who they were. Calzaghe will always be a legend but only in Wales to his welsh fans. I also feel sorry for the welsh fans who keeps heralding Calzhage as this great welshman when he's really an Italian. Only a few weeks ago on a british chat show called Jonathan Ross, Calzhage mentioned that his father's ultimate dream was for his son to grow up and become a footballer, playing for the italian national team. Enzo eventually discovered Calzhage was useless as a footballer and trained him into a boxer. It's strange why they chose to represent for wales instead of italy. Having said that Calzhage does fight with the italian stripes on his shorts. I wonder why Enzo wanted Calzhage to play for Italy instead of Wales had he became a footballer. Not very patriotic is it?
You defend against whoever you gotta defend against to keep your belt. But not necessarily his fault, he was controlled by Warren, he trusted Warren to get him big fights and he failed. See Point #1. His division was a poor division. He really lacked competition. He fought the best of a poor bunch of contenders. Sven Ottke was his only real threat and he wasn't prepared to leave Germany. It's not really his decision, it's Warren's money after all. His team and Hopkins had an agreement of £6 million back in 2002, Hopkins come back the next day and wanted double. It's Warren's decision, if he doesn't want to spend an extra £6 million then no fight. RJJ talks were apparently when he moved up to heavy. Everybody knew eventually he would come back down, however Jones wanted Tyson and couldn't compete with that in terms of name and publicity. Talks broke down and then RJJ had to fight Tarver to keep his 175 belts. All boxers want to remain undefeated. Yes it doesn't matter at times if you lose fights, but to be able to say nobody has ever beat you, 46 fights and you've never lost any, won all 46, is still an achievement. He was guilty of falling in love with his WBO belt a bit. He didn't want to drop it even after he stepped up to 175 but he had to. The Veit rematch was pointless, but he wanted to keep the belt and this was the fight he had to take to do so. Regardless it was still a good win. Yes Lacy was over-hyped, yes he didn't look like the Jeff Lacy of old on fight night, but Calzaghe was still an underdog and picked to lose by all the experts and he pulled it round. It was a solid win. Do you think Sven Ottke would of taken a fight with Calzaghe? Regardless we Ottke was a very good defensive fighter and tough to look good against, and it would of gone the distance. And we know what happens when Ottke goes the distance. Calzaghe obviously didn't want to go to Germany and risk getting robbed and losing his '0' and starting again. And Ottke sure as hell wouldn't of gone to Wales or England. There's a lot of stories regarding this. I don't think he ducked him twice, apparently he had a lot of hand trouble which I can believe and pulled out. A fight was agreed between the two, if he was to duck Johnson he wouldn't of agreed in the first place. I know one of the discussions was in 2002, which may of been the hand injury incident, or maybe he was trying to get Hopkins instead? Stop bringing up Hopkins age. Calzaghe at 36/37 was no spring chicken himself. And Hopkins has proven himself even after the fight to be a P4P elitist, and is my P4P #3 currently. Before the fight he was top 10 certainly. He was still a dangerous fighter, and still is. And Calzaghe won. It was close but relatively easy to score, he started badly, adapted and came back to win. Jones dropped him with his forearm, which landed right on the bridge of Calzaghe's nose with big power, and he got up quickly. Yes he admitted it made no sense before, but RJJ was his hero and he wanted to fight him. He also knew he was on his way out and wanted to go out with a big payday, which is what RJJ brought to the table. Yes he should of, but it's not secret that JC now lacks power with his hand problems, and Jones showed a lot of heart to stay in the fight. Fair enough. Probably shouldn't of said that. Maybe he want around his weight class, he really didn't have anybody to fight besides maybe Dawson. Boxing fans knew who he was. Yes there are casual fans he didn't have a clue who he was even after the Lacy fight, until maybe when the Hopkins fight was signed. But boxing fans knew long before the Lacy fight who he was.
By your own admission he embarrassed a 'Glass Jaw' Roy Jones. Well Glen Johnson Knocked a 5yr younger RJJ out cold for ten mintues. I think thats a little more embarrasing. Not to mention it was the same Glen Johnson JC didn't want any part of.
Because your fathers nationality is the only thing that counts no matter where the other side of your family are from/where you are born/where you grow up?
Hopkins was favourite for that fight and Hopkins has been an exception to the rule and hasn't declined with age, you could even say he's improved. I don't see the point of disliking him. He's was a good fighter who didn't fight the best and wont get the credit he could have.
Had Calzaghe stepped on the gas the last 3 rounds instead of clowning and embarrassing and taunting Jones he would have KOed him too. Jones looked like a mess after the fight.