would calzaghe be as underrated if he was american...

He would be 45-1, would have lost to jones, beat toney and prime hopkins already fled and ducked a chance to fight calzaghe on american soil. His resume would still be packed with b class fighters like jones and hopkins but the diff would be the jones and toney fights and fact people would maybe stop defending hopkins choice to duck him.

 

He would still be 46-0 except he would have brutal KO wins against that snaggle-toothed acting disgrace, Borenard Popkins, and a resounding first round KO victory over Glass Jaw fraud Roy Jones Jr.

Calzaghe could punch in his day and would have disposed of these hype-jobs with ease. These guys knew it, so ducked him endlessly.

It's irrefutable.

 

I honestly think he wouldnt have fought a lot of the names on his resume had he been an american. He still woulda fought his fair share of bums, but a better class of bums ha! The thing about Calzaghe is that he is an enigma, so with the better sparring sessions and the like, people would have had a better idea of his capabilities. We'll never know but he could have ended up being as good,if not better, a fighter as some think, or as over-rated a fighter as most think

 

That is a great point:good

 

If he was American he would've been a superster from very early on (I think most would've seen him as overrated). I don't know if he would've lost his zero, his style is tough to beat, but for sure Roy and Hopkins wouldn't have ducked him with the American networks behind him and all the money that would bring.

 

Hopkins was offered millions to fight him on american soil but he ducked and went onto fight for much much elss money in his next fight.

 

No he wouldnt you want to know why? Cause he would have been forced to take on tough competition throughout his super middle reign, and not beat up on Eurobums and fringe contenders!!

 

I wont pretend that there weren't some crap names on Calzaghe's early resume, because there were, but this is a perfect example of how Calzaghe is stupidly discounted by a lot of fans.

Eurobums? By this do you mean Robin Reid and Chris Eubank, because i can assure you they weren't bums.

Fringe contenders? By this you must mean his comfortable win over Sakio Bika, and his destruction of Byron Mitchell? Fair enough.

But you fail to mention prime, undefeated Kessler and Lacy. No matter how poor they have been since those defeats, there is a reason they were so hyped and highly rated going into the bouts with Calzaghe.
They were both Calzaghe's main contenders at the time, and he beat them both fairly easily.
The Lacy win especially was a show of how underrated Calzaghe was/is, because most of the US were hyping him up, Calzaghe was even the underdog! But we saw what happened there, and typical response, Lacy was a bum, Calzaghe's total embarrasment of him is only an average win.

The Hopkins win was a fantastic win given Joe's own age, though i will not bring Jones into the discussion.

Calzaghe is not underrated, he is ignored. The fans that discount Calzaghe do so i believe because they saw him dismantle their prospect (Lacy) till he was never the same again. Then he beat the annoying Hopkins.
The real salt-rubber was when he started showboating in his fight with Jones Jr. This riled a lot of Jones fans, to the point where they started saying, prime Jones would have killed Calzaghe! Once again totally ignoring the fact that the Calzaghe that beat Jones was not prime Calzaghe.

So my answer is yes, if Calzaghe was American, he would be much more appreciated in the US, because instead of having an issue with Uk's best beating Americas best on 2 occasions (Lacy at SM, Hopkins at LH) they would accept it as he himself was American.

 

He's not under rated.

His record is a fallacy; the definition of padded.

A good fighter with a great career, but nothing more than that.

 

Chris Eubank was at the very end of his career. He took the fight on short notice and had to kill himself to make weight, a couple of months later he was campaigning two weight divisions north of 168. Reid and Mitchell were ok wins, against former belt holders, but hardly anything to write home about. Bika wasn't even ranked in the Top Ten SMW's at the time, and hasn't won a title, so I don't really see that as a great win either.

Kessler was a good win against a very good champion, not denying that. Lacy was the epitome of "hype job", he was a paper champion who'd gone life and death with Omar Sheika. For you to describe him as "one of America's best" is laughable!

As for Hopkins fight, hardly a great win. Hopkins was 43 years old and arguably won the fight. Yeah, Calzaghe got the split decision and looked terrible in the process (as did B-Hop to be fair), its a good name to have on your record, but its hardly the stuff of legend.

 

He's not under rated, he just ain't that good.

Name me another ATG who had as many world title fights against guys you never heard of in your ****in life. Name me another ATG who clearly hid behind an organisation that fed him **** for almost ten years. Name me another ATG who's defining nights were against soon to be exposed opposition that never lived up to their hype (Lacy and Kessler). Name me another ATG who beats a great old fighter (Jones) and boasts like the guy was in his ****in prime.

Hopkins is Calzaghe's key win and it was one of the worst BIG TIME fights in recent memory and he was lucky to get the decision. He fought like a ranked amateur - flurries of pitty pat bull**** that land with the inside of the glove. COMPLETE HORSE****!!!!!!

He has to go down as a very good fighter based on a couple of decent wins, an unbeaten record and the fact he was a two division champion. However, start comparing him to a prime Jones, Toney, Hopkins or McClellan and you are full of ****.

Sorry that's my MO.

 

:roflatsch Calzaghe was streets ahead than any of those guys you mentioned. Get your head out of Ring Magazine and start making some sense.

Jones = Glass Jawed fraud and trinket collector. Calzaghe absolutely clowned him

Toney = Tubby blob, overrated. Lost to China-Chinned Montell Griffin.

Hopkins = Disgraceful actor. Best wins are against blown-up Welterweights. Has losses to Glass Jaw Jones and Jermain Taylor, not once, but twice.

McClellan: Lost to a shot Nigel Benn in tragic circumstances.

My above points are entirely irrefutable.

 

So Calzaghe would have knocked out Hopkins years ago? He would have sparked Jones in one when Roy was in his prime?

Hopkins and Jones are hype jobs?

It's irrefutable that you are out of your ****in mind!

 

2/3 of Calslappy's opponents were bums. Line me up agaisnt below average talent and I could go 40-0.

 

Notice i said "there was a reason" as to why Lacy was ranked where he was at the time. Now i never said i knew why did i? Because all i saw of him was being outclassed by Calzaghe. I agree Lacy looked garbage but it wasent me that was hyping him up saying he was going to knock out Calzaghe was it?

And don't twist my words, i didn't say Lacy was "one of Americas best". I said he was Americas best at super middle at the time he fought Calzaghe, go and check the ratings and rankings because im pretty sure they will back me up.

The Hopkins win, like you say, is a good name on the record. But i believe he was Ring light heavy champion when Calzaghe, at 37, went up in weight, went to Hopkins soil and beat him, so i consider it a pretty good win in the circumstances.

If everyone's going to start making excuses for Calzaghes best wins, im going to start bringing up his hand issues, because it only seems fair. Want to know why Calzaghes mid career record looks so awful? Or why later in his career some of his punches looked so ridiculous, go check his injury record.

Don't get me wrong, Calzaghe in my book is no all time great, but there are people on here that simply refuse to give him credit for his wins, or any credit for anything at all! And im just trying to set the record straight, because even though i don't really like the guy, it seems annoying to me that other fellow undefeated and untested boxers (people like Edwin Valero) seem to have more accredation on here than Joe.