Just how good was Joe Calzaghe?

money may talks bout calzaghe's fight with lacy.

FLOYD_MAYWEATHER: It was a beautiful performance by Calzaghe, who I think has some serious skills. Not to take anything away from Lacy, but Calzaghe ain't nothing but the truth.

I was impressed"

people think calzaghe cant fight, he is unorthodox etc. As a fighter he is very skilled, both offensively and defensively. his defensive style is similar to the great southpaw lew tendler, with the blocking, parrying and upperbody movement.

H2H calzaghe is easily one of the ATG. i see him beating hagler by UD and leonard.

i think he would have also beaten roy jones and hopkins in their primes.

when in the ring, the guy is a lion and can back it up with true skill.
but getting him inside the ring can be a mission. i dont think he is as true a fighter as someone like James Toney who just likes to fight, and fight the best. Calzaghe has admitted that he once had a convo with frank warren that he wanted to have some easy defenses to the '21' mark. this shows what sort of heart he has outside of the ring.

But ALL in all he is a great fighter who would have given any middle, super middle and light heavyweights trouble.

 

I think what we can discern form the above quotes that...A) Mayweather has been hit more than we know OR,.....B) Mayweather needs to check himself in drug rehab because he is now getting delusional.

 

Actually I agree with everything May said. Was it not a brilliant performance? Does he not have serious skills(as I said in my opinion of him)? Forget the resume the guy is an excellent fighter you only have to watch him and UNDERSTAND his style to figure that out.

 

Joe is a great boxer...what he did to RJJ was unbelievable i just wish he would have fought Hopkins and Jones Jr when they were in there primes then we would know how GREAT Joe really is

 

Top 75 to 80 ATG

 

He may have good/great fighter (in the modern day sense, but not all time), but never really proved it against great fighters in their prime. Calzaghe's prime came towards the end of his career really. Earlier on his performances weren't convincing against not great fighters, and should've had a loss against a prime Robin Reid (who's about the same age as Calzaghe) but was gifted a SD win.

Calzaghe's best, and most credible win came against Kessler. In the first half of the fight Kessler caused Calzaghe problems, but then Calzaghe changed his tactics and went on to convincingly defeat a good champion who was in his prime - the first and last time he did that in his career in my opinion. I think people read too much into the Lacy fight, Lacy was completely overhyped and overrated. It was definitely a great performance from Calzaghe, but was it against a great fighter? I don't think so.

I had Hopkins beating Calzaghe, but I can also understand people scoring it the other way - either way it was a close decision. I think B-Hop in his prime wins convincingly against Calzaghe though. I don't know what beating up an old man in Roy Jones proved for Calzaghe... I half expected him to call out Ali after the fight so he could call himself "The Greatest". Before the Jones fight Calzaghe had a hungry, young undefeated Brit in Carl Froch calling him out - but Calzaghe would rather have had a large paycheck against a big name fighter who was no longer a shadow of himself than risk his 0 for a lesser paycheck in a fight which would've proved something.

Calzaghe had the skills (despite not being able to punch properly...), the knowledge and the workrate (his best asset) to be a great fighter, but he was a Frank Warren fighter for most of his career so was always going to be over-protected and just padding out a record.

 

I thought he was a top-tier, P4P fighter in the later part of his career.

I would describe him as a 'Very Good' fighter. Which is behind 'Great' and 'Elite'. But obviously better than just 'Good'.

 

Joe calzaghe is the biggest overrated overhyped fraud in the history of boxing!! He waz in his prime and got beaten by a past primed 43 year old fighter,he hasnt beaten any great fighters in their prime!! Kessler is a nobody,lacy is also a nobody!! Joe calzaghe is not great and will neva be a great!!!

 

i was there at msg and it was unbelievable how far jones had fallen. and how weak joe's punches really are

 

There should be an option in between your 2nd & 3rd options, surely you dont have to be top 20 to be classed as an ATG ?

 

I am not the biggest Calzaghe fan, but to over look his achievements would be vacuous. I think he is a very good fighter(B+), but not elite.

 

it would have been a good barometer. when jones owned him we'd have more evidence he's at the very, very bottom of the top 100 all time

 

Top 100 ATG

 

Calzaghe is hard for me to rate. I can't stand the guy because he has constipation of the brain and diarhea of the mouth, and that is not a winning combination.

His undefeated record doen't mean much. If you look at a lot of the guys who are universally considered all time greats, many of them have several losses. Hearns, SRL, Arguello, Robinson, Spinks, et. They all have losses because they dared to be great. They stepped up and fought the best of the best; the cream of the crop. Calzaghe simply never did that.

On the other hand, if you look strictly at the SMW division, and fighters who spent the majority of their careers at 168, Joe C may very well be the best of the bunch.

 

fair analysis:good people shouldn't have to work so hard to explain why joe c never fought anyone or so hard to justify and build up the people he DID fight. Great fighters have both the skills and the resumes against elites to back it up. He looked great against good opposition but that's not enough for me.