Is Calzaghe one of the most physically gifted fighters ever 168+ north?

Here's a couple of things I find always end up skewing the argument when people talk about Calzaghe...

1. Because he was not marketed outside of the UK much until the last few years of his career, when he finally broke away from his promoter Warren and started making real fights, people mistake his Twilight for his Peak.

2. Calzaghe had plenty of power and his hands were not that brittle, but when you throw the volume he throws over the course of so many fights it does eventually start to take a toll. Yes he still continued to throw and land and hurt his opponents afterward - unlike a certain Melignaggi.

3. Calzaghe was a swarmer (high work rate, in your face, pressure fighter) - a style of fighting that, due to the physical strain on the body, typically results in an abbreviated career for the fighter. If anything Calzaghe is the Jerry Rice of swarmers.

Is his career impressive and an incredibly physically gifted athlete? YES! Stop focusing on the negatives!

 

you said he was a complete fighter to be compared to any other complete fighter in history.....

EDIT : any other known boxers in boxing history.....

 

you should be asking yourself why a legitimate weight champion gets so much negativity.

he was an exceptional athlete with exceptional skills, but his career wasn't impressive at all for a boxer of his talent, and thats what all the fuss is about.

 

If u can't appreciate the man for what he is inside the ring, then, u don't know what u are talking about.

 

thats what i thought you'd say.

but you wont find one post of mine on this forum that says i didnt appreciate his skills.....

dont make dismissive comments when you dont know what to say...and especially when you dont know my point of view.

its his career which was a joke..not his skills.

EDIT : joke is too harsh...but he was a money ***** and gave up a chance of greatness to maintain that cash flow.

 

Why would we ask ourselves that?

Go check how much negativity the likes of Floyd Mayweather Junior, Roy Jones Junior and Manny Pacquiao get.

Are/were they not legitimate either?

 

That's a legitimate reason for frustration, and it's one I had even though I'm a big Calzaghe fan. I think he still left some upside and possible accomplishments on the table, even though he still had a damn fine career by most standards.

 

yes they were. but because they fought on the biggest stage of all they all faced defining opponents.

they were notorious and joe was high risk, low reward.

thats why the fighters you mentioned got defining fights against HOF fighters in their prime and calzaghe didnt.

 

agreed.
in context calzaghe's career was to be envied.

what pisses people off is that he never pushed it as much as he could of.

i'll be very surprised if their isn't more spite between warren and calzaghe because any way calzaghe looks at it he must feel regrets for not fulfilling his talent.

 

My point on Dawson was not an insult as such, just pointing out the comparison. His main challenges should still be in front of him, he has fought who was available at this stage of his career, but he does need a fight against another young star to push him on to the next level.

The future will show us if he is willing to take that challeneg, whoever wins the 168 tournament could be a possibility.

Calzaghe did not make the most of his talent, specifically between 02-06, his likely prime as a fighter. That period was notable for fights that did not come off, poor quality replacements, injuries and only really Byron Mitchell was a quality win, with Veit 2 (decent-ish) and Brewer, (game but well past his best) the only other fights worhty of note IMO.

What made it very frustrating as a fan was that from 99-01 he fought Reid, Starie, Sheika, Woodhall and Veit 1. All good opponents, the type of run that should have pushed him on to the next rung. In Calzaghe's defence it was at the end of this period that Hopkins backed out of a fight with JC, so there was some evidence that he was trying to get the bigger fights. Did he do all that he could? Not at all.

02-06 will always be a blight on his resume, 06-Jones gave him Lacy, Bika, Kessler, Hopkins then I will ignore Manfredo because it was a complete waste of time, but the other 4 are all good fights, 3 up and coming threats and Hopkins, Jones maybe a soft end but it was a money fight, nothing more, a big name, and a comfortable win to end his career on. Calzaghe does deserve criticism for a large part of his career, but he also deserves recognition. A lot of people on this board did not expect him to take the fights with Lacy Or Kessler, there was constant abuse chucked in his direction during negotiation.

 

badintentions, I understand what the fuss is about, half of it is misplaced and the other half is outside of the scope of this conversation regarding his physical gifts. I also happen to think it's rather impressive that 3 of his most difficult fights, the fights that define his career, happened in the last 2 years of it.

 

i agree with some of that but the bottom line is that fighters like hatton and tszyu showed how easy it is - if you have the talent - to make your name in the states, win over the networks and get that defining fight.

when people talk about calzaghe its ALWAYS trying to justify what he did, and as a legitimate SMW champ that shouldn't even be an issue.

calzaghe is a better fghter for me than hatton or tszyu any day, the difference between the fighters is the respect by which they ran their careers.

i honestly cant believe that people defend calzaghe's career choices and try to make it sound like it was beyond his control.

it wasnt. hatton showed what to do if you want to find out how good you can be..and its thats simple.

 

but you're talking about fighting greats past their prime who had lost their aura and their titles and were about 83 years old combined when he finally fought them....

 

Calzag-she has physical gifts?

 

Hopkins had re-established himself as a top 5 pound for pound fighter, was the Ring champion at Light Heavyweight, and Calzaghe fought him in his own back yard moving up in weight, making him look so bad that Team Pavlik was more than happy to subsequently fight Bernard completely on Hopkins' terms. There's things that can be held against Joe, but the Hopkins fight isn't one of them. He was the best name and the best fighter in the weight range to be fought, period.

The Jones match wasn't the one I really wanted to see (I preferred a fight with Dawson), but it's balanced out by the fact Calzaghe was significantly older than his 2 biggest defenses in Lacy and Kessler in those fights.