Calzaghe fans, throw down your top 10 wins.

outstanding post 46, deluded americans well and truely pwned :deal

 

1996: Mark Delaney 21-0(16)--Calzaghe was 17-0(16), defending his British Super-middleweight title for the first time. Good domestic matchup between prospects. Not often that you see guys taking on other undefeated prospects before they get a title.

1997: Chris Eubank 45-2-2(23)--Calzaghe 22-0(21) picks up the vacant WBO title against a tough, legendary veteran.

1999: Robin Reid 26-1-1(18)--Calzaghe 25-0(23) defends with a broken hand against former champ Reid.

2000: Omar Sheika 20-1(13)--Calzaghe 28-0(23) defends his title against game American challenger Sheika, who had beaten Glen Johnson in his previous fight.

2000: Richie Woodhall 26-2(16)--Calzaghe 29-0(24) defends his title against a former champion.

2003: Byron Mitchell 25-2-1(18)--Calzaghe 35-0(28) gets off the canvas after his first career knockdown and blasts the former champion out in the same round. That's what great fighters are supposed to do when they get knocked down. Mitchell was a two-time former champ who had just lost a controversial SD to Ottke in a unification bout. In other words, Calzaghe should probably have picked up 2 more titles with this win.

2006: Jeff Lacy 21-0(17)--Calzaghe unifies the IBF and WBO titles by thoroughly beating the heart and soul out of undefeated champion Lacy in a fight Calzaghe was favored to lose. Lacy didn't win a round.

2006: Sakio Bika 20-1-2(14)--Calzaghe 42-0(31) scores a dominant UD against title contender Bika (BEFORE he was on The Contender).

2007: Mikkel Kessler 39-0(29)--Calzaghe 43-0(32) becomes undisputed SMW champ, unifying 3 of the major titles (having vacated the 4th) against an undefeated champion.

2008: Bernard Hopkins 48-4-1(32)--Calzaghe 45-0(32) moves up a division and scraps out a hard-fought decision, getting off the floor to beat the P4P#4 fighter for the RING LHW title.

There's my 10. Now give me Bernard Hopkins' 10 best wins, with explanations.

(I'll give you Harris, Mercado, Johnson, Holmes, Trinidad, De La Hoya, Eastman, Wright, Tarver, and Pavlik. And I'd be more than happy to include my explanations along with the reasons I think Joe's resume is better.)

The point, of course, is that precious few fighters can be expected to have 10 marquee wins. Especially without losing once.

Edit: ****ing smilies... 8)

 

I'm convinced.

Joe is a an all time top 1000 fighter. He's somewhere between Duk Koo Kim and Lance Whitaker.

 

Hmm i expected to see a few Hopkins top 10 by now

 

Not a Calzaghe expert here... here's my top 5

1) Kessler - very good win against a prime, underrated champ
2) Jeff Lacy - far from a great fighter, but hot at the time, and got totally dominated
3) Eubanks - who was past his best, but it can be argued that Calzaghe was somewhat green.
4) Roy Jones - who was shot but still managed to knock Calzaghe down..
5) Bernard Hopkins - very old but still a top fighter, tho the fight could've gone either way. Hopkins was ahead by 1 point in my book. Calzaghe got knocked down again...

 

You would have to start most sentences with 'Blown-up', e.g. 'Blown-up Welterweight Tito Trinidad', 'Blown-up Welterweight Oscar De La Hoya'. :rofl:rofl:dead:dead

 

Hmm 10 wins?

Sorry .. I would be hard pressed to rate more than these 3 wins in his entire career.

1. Chris Eubank

2. Mikkel Kessler

3. Jeff Lacy

I'll skip the remarks I might make to put the Eubank "win" in its proper perspective.

The limitations of one dimensional Mikkel Kessler and 5'9" muscle bound Jeff Lacy are obvious - but for Joe these were huge huge wins.

Still, there are so few meaningful wins in his career that these three stand out above all others.


The rest are either meaningless, inconsequential, or tainted by the age of the opponent, their lack of talent, or Joe being unable to separate himself from that opponent's undeniably modest level.


The general forum gets the really stupid American posters who apparently only discovered Calzaghe in the last five years and have a transpicuous hard-on to find a capable "white" boxer to support (hype) and the really young or moronic UK posters that no one on the British Forum would ever listen to as knowledgeable about Joe's career (or anything else for that matter one might bet).

Rather than repeat my own comments to the bleating sound and fury of ESB's juvenile fan boys it might be better to just start pulling posts from the British Forum and let some of their own words communicate the correct take on a good but carefully orchestrated career of a good but far from extraordinary fighter/talent. There are many more than a few sound takes available from those that have also watched his career - as it happened - from start to finish such as this accurate and honest one (posted in late '09 after the first two matches of the Super Six but before Kessler's first fight against Andre Ward):

If you were too young to watch his entire career as it happened or hadn't yet found who you now consider your "like kind" hero to worship I suggest you obtain all of Joe's fights and sit down and watch them all yourself from start to finish. Perhaps then you can better judge what he actually did in the ring, when he did it, and against whom.

The number of mediocre performances, quick ref stoppages, and out and out bums he faced in his long career is stunning - at least relative to the absurd level or lofty height the ESB truly smitten wish to elevate his career, talent, and accomplishment.

 

I purposely left them out because you said he had a better resume than Bute at the time of the Calzaghe fight.

 

here is bernard hopkins best 6 wins broken down, take away the smoke and mirrors, the hbo and ring magzaine brainwashing and this is what your left with :deal


trinidad
prime weight = welterweight (147)
fought hopkins at middleweight (159)
trinidads record at middleweight or above from hopkins onwards = 2 wins / 3 defeats

winky wright
prime weight - middleweight (159)
fought hopkins at - 170 lbs
in 57 fights, the hopkins fight was the only fight that wright had weighed over 160 lbs (a full 10lbs difference) :rofl

de la hoya
prime weight - welterweight (147lbs)
fought hopkins at - middleweight (160lbs)
de la hoya only fought twice in his career at middleweight out of 45 fights -1 win / 1 loss - the win was a very debatable decision over eurobum felix sturm

pavlik
prime weight - middleweight (160 lbs)
fought hopkins at - 170 lbs
in 34 fights pavlik had only fought 2 minnions at the beginning of his career at 169. all pavliks fights since hopkins have been at the 160 limit.

tarver
prime weight 175
great 2 weight jump from hopkins and his best win despite tarver being a b-level fighter and going 3 wins / 3 losses from hopkins onwards.

johnson
prime weight -super mid / light heavy (162 to 175)
fought hopkins at - middleweight (160)
johnsons record at 160 + from hopkins onwards - 18 wins / 13 defeats / 2 draws
the defeats have come against people of the level of ottke, woods, shieka, gonzales, harmon, branco, vanderpool, Kiwanuka, sosa :rofl

 

Good post.
Hopkins was P4P #3 and Joe #4 when they fought. They swapped places after Joe beat him

 

do you think fighters should be judged by rankings or who they fought and when?

 

Well researched and outstanding, educated post :good

 

You see Robert you cant put forward a counter argument, youve been pwned again

 

Jones not as shot as people "want you to believe"? , are you serious or being an idiot on purpose?. One fight later and he's KO'd from a single punch against Danny Green. Jones has been shot since the first Tarver fight. He was BEYOND shot fighting Calzaghe with no stamina. Calzaghe could have easily ended that fight from round 6 onwards but carried him out of respect.