Better fighter: Johnny Tapia or Joe Calzaghe?

****ing ******ed post you dont know **** about Johnny Tapias career and i doubt youve seen him fight much.

Pfp Romero hit harder than anyone Calzaghe fought and never came close to hurting Johnny. Nana Kanadu ,ElicierJulio, Marco Barrera,Cesar Soto,John Michael Johnson were other big punchers and former or current champs when Johnny fought them and he was never put on his ass or hurt the way Calzaghe was.

 

I'm not even going to respond to Assassin's post, Anarci.

Nobody can tell me that Calzaghe had a better chin than Johnny Tapia, and I laugh at anyone who claims he had a bigger heart. Unbelievable statements considering this guy claims to have seen all of Johnny Tapia's fights.

 

There stll is no substance to your point. Why the change of heart? Cause Popkins said soatsch **** that watch the fight you,Popkins and War cause ive already seen it!!!

 

Anarci. I'm really trying to like you dude.

I have had a change of heart because YOU, yes - YOU, have watched the fight in question and have confirmed that Willy was winning on the cards.

As I say, I'll shut up until I've seen the footage for myself, but stop being so ****ing presumptuous in the mean time.

 

I said Willie was winning the fight on My scorecard not officially. I said i was surprised they had Danny ahead.

 

I rarely call people liars on this site as i give them the benefit of the doubt, but its obvious this guys bullshitting about having all his fights on DVD. If by some chance he does have them he hasnt bothered to watch them:nono

 

Tapia.

Go ahead and take away all the UK nuthugger votes and you will see that the majority have selected Tapia as well.


Calzaghe is a loser

 

I'll start from the beginning.

I brought up the Willy Salazar fight because there was a comparison being made between Mikkel Kessler and Danny Romero. In my opinion, Kessler would never allow himself to be beaten by a fighter of the caliber of a Willy Salazar. I hadn't seen the Romero fight, but I do own some footage of Salazar, and I can confirm that he really wasn't up to all that much. He even used to campaign at Light Flyweight.

Someone later confirmed that Romero lost to Salazar only as a result of a cut, and wasn't actually being out-boxed or bettered. Boxrec confirms that Danny was up on all three scorecards, so I thought it was a little unfair on my part to even bring the fight up. Sometimes fighters lose to inferior opponents because of freak occurrences, such as a cut, as in this case. It was starting to sound like that Romero was winning the fight easily, but lost due to unfortunate circumstances so therefore I decided to discount the result.

However, you have seen Romero/Salazar, and now claim that Romero looked like **** and that you had Willy ahead in that fight. This is to say that Romero was either being out-boxed or being given a very hard fight against an opponent who was thoroughly outclassed by a Light Flyweight in Myung Woo Yuh. As I said earlier, I don't think Kessler would lose to a fighter of this caliber, he's only been defeated by the best in his division. Scoring fights is subjective, but if you had Romero up then that all but confirms that the fight was competitive.

In hindsight, it's really not a compelling or decent argument that I come up with. I should simply watch more of Danny Romero before I condemn him as being an average fighter and that's what I shall do.

 

tapia by a wide margin defense far superior 4time multiple divison champ. take nothing away from joe who has unblemished record many defenses of sm title but johnny tapia is on another level in terms of boxing ability anyone who knows boxing can appreciate the way johhny whould exchange furious combinations in the pocket an be hit with next to nothing a thing of beauty to watch .

 

omg did someone actually said Calzaghe had a better chin than Tapia?

 

It boggles the mind, Boom Boom. :nut

 

I totally agree with Pimp C on this one. Well Said.

 

Elaborate, Boppa.

Why isn't Johnny Tapia an ATG?

 

Tapia best wins
Danny Romero
Hugo Soto
Jorge Julio
Manuel Medina
Giovanni Andrade

Now is biggest fights

against
Marco A Barrera
Paulie Ayala

He Lost plus he lost to Frank Archuleta

Now As far as i know Calzaghe resume looks like this
Wins Against

Chris Eubank
Jeff Lacy
Mikkel Kessler
Bernard Hopkins
Roy Jones Jr
Robin Reid

Oh and for his Losses he hasnt any.

Its not even close.

 

You didn't seriously just list Roy Jones among Calzaghe's best wins? Eubank and Hopkins were past their prime, whereas Jeff Lacy hadn't fought anyone of note prior to losing to Calzaghe, and has been found wanting at world level ever since. I'm a little hard on the Welshman because I find his fighting style to be less appealing than **** on a stick, but I am aware that he was a truly great fighter.

Johnny Tapia does not have a great resume either, admittedly, but I felt he probably won both of his battles with Paulie Ayala which would have changed the scope of his resume quite considerably. I only ask out of curiosity, but have you sat down and watched these fights yourself or have you just referenced them from sources like Boxrec? Losing to Marco Antonio Barrera during his peak at 126lbs is no shame, especially not for someone who was most effective three divisions south.

How about factors outside of resume and level of competition? We must surely factor in the ability of the two combatants as well accomplishments and longevity. I do know that Tapia spanned more divisions than Calzaghe, and has won more titles in more weight divisions. Ability-wise there isn't a great deal in it either, and I'm sure some posters here could make a case for Tapia being a more complete operator. Discussions like this almost depends entirely on the individual and their criteria.

Me? I tend to agree that maybe Joe Calzaghe was greater considering his superior resume and consistency at world level, but was he actually a better fighter? I'm not convinced. Sometimes the two go hand in hand but Tapia was operating at weight classes that were not filled full of talent, and some of his losses are highly questionable. Especially the Ayala fights.

I haven't sat down and watched Joe Calzaghe's fight with Robin Reid but I've heard a few posters claiming that the decision was highly disputable. Imagine if Joe had been half as unlucky as Tapia, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about the undefeated record, we'd be talking about his one sole loss to a fighter who wasn't even world class. I don't like to put to much emphasis on defeats, especially not hotly deputed ones.