Why did HOPHINS duck Calzaghe?

The answer is, people are fools.

the fight came off eventually so neither should be accused of ducking

 

So your argument is that Hopkins was number one and American, so was free to fight as many cab drivers as he wanted without being questioned. Of course, in your worldview, there was no way for Calzaghe to possibly 'earn the fight' by 'beating his ranking contenders' as Calzaghe could never have made middleweight. So then what?

 

You're not making sense. You made the claim that if the Lacy fight had happened 'in the US' rather than in Manchester, it would have had a bigger impact on Calzaghe's post-Lacy career.

I'm asking why.

The vast majority of people who saw the fight saw it on TV and the location of the fight had zero impact on the TV coverage. In fact post-Lacy Calzaghe moved to HBO, who covered fights with Bika, Manfredo and Kessler before he fought Hopkins, hence backing up my assertion that the location of the fights is not relevant.

 

he didn't have to make MW. he never fought jones or hopkins at MW.
all he had to be was the man they needed to fight because, let's face it, hopkins and jones were as starved of quality opposition in their divisions as much as joe was in his.

that's all he had to do. networks back the fight, money talks and suddenly joe calzaghe isn't the gifted fighter from wales - he's a serious ego dent in the bragging rights of roy jones and bernard hopkins.

no legitimate world champion who fought on the world stage has ever retired without jumping weights or having another world champion jump weights to challenege him.

the ONLY reason that didn't happen to joe is the basis of my whole argument. it was never becasue he wasn't a challenge.

 

So he should have beaten the best opposition at his weight? Which he did. Who should he have fought at SMW?

A network was backing the fight, as I keep pointing out. Money didn't talk, Hopkins priced himself out and the fought the same or lesser fighters for less money.

It did happen.

 

if the location of fights isn't relevant why is it only fighters who have a fanbase outside the states and shy away from fights there who aren't getting offered big fights?

it's impossible not to gain notoriety and respect when you're fighting in the US and winning fights consistently because you do it on the world stage (as wrong as that is).

it's like being wayne gretsky and playing in australia your whole life....

even chavez junior and duddy command some weight in the states, and they are probably as close as you can come to two fighters who are milking their way through their career..and joe was twive the fighter of both of them.
come on....

 

you're not readin all my posts, either that or you're picking and choosing.

yuo know, as the whole basis of this discussion, that this isn't about joe beating anyone at SMW. like i keep saying, he needed to beat the contenders of his rivals.

network backing is hollow when the high risk, low reward thing is in play. it was.

come on...joe fought great fighters after they started losing. the whole essence of the calzaghe 'argument' is that he didn't fight them when he needed too. this will fall on it's arse if you can't acknowledge that much.

 

So explain how the Lacy fight led to Calzaghe being offered a contract with HBO, leading up to a fight with Hopkins who was P4P top three at the time. You're telling us that these things can't happen, when they already have!

Your Wayne Gretsky analogy is not complete. Gretsky playing in Australia would be in a completely different competition, staged out of peak american time, not televised in the US. Calzaghe against Lacy in Manchester was no different in terms of US exposure from Calzaghe against Lacy in the US. Same fight, same time, same tv coverage.

 

Who should he have beaten?

 

no, i mean he established himself as a legitimate champion. unfortunately, that usually includes being an established name in the states. like i said before, that isn't fair but that's the way it works.

 

pick a LHW contender..anyone.

 

ottke is a different creature entirely to jones and hopkins.

bottom line - get the the states, get the fights you need to get the attention of networks, the fighter and his promoter so it's WORTH TAKING - and that's it...

like i said before, ricky hatton did it and he doesn't have the skills calzaghe had.

i respect cazaghe's skills, but i respect hatton a lot more as someone who broke out of that mold that a lot of brits (especially to be honest) fall into where they expect defining fights to come to them. its prevalent throughout europe and the promoters are as guilty as sin.

 

thats not the answer...