Calzaghe v Canelo

You're a bit too slow budeh..

 

Yeah.

Billy should always have stayed at MW.

What a waste of talent.

There’s now rumours of him rematching John Ryder at the end of the year.

I’d have to fancy Ryder at this stage.

 

I think Billy was like Fury where training was optional only on the odd occasion. I think if he was more focused and dedicated could have done far more. I think GGG would be the only one who might cause an issue but I'd fancy his chances against anyone else at Middle on skill and instinct alone. The last time I saw a picture of him he'd clearly put a decent amount of weight on. so not sure what he can do at this point but I think it would be a decent fight.

 

So why do people bring up if Roy was in his prime if they weren’t even in the same division? Because it makes them feel better about the loss.

 

See above.

 

Lol, not literally now …
I mean after talking about it.
Alas maybe on the upcoming ESBC video game coming out.

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You aren’t aware of how things played out back in the day.

You need to understand that Joe had the opportunity to pursue Roy by moving up to LHW and fighting in the U.S. in the early 00’s.

The LHW division possessed better fighters than the SMW division, where they also had recognisable names.

The SMW division was also quite weak then, and Joe struggled like hell to make weight, where he came down from around 200 pounds.

He also kept whining to the media, constantly telling them that he wanted a career defining fight.

Yet he never moved up, despite Showtime wanting him to.

Why?

Because he was simply content to defend a lightly regarded WBO belt against mostly low level fighters.

A belt that wasn’t respected nor considered a legitimate world title.


Let me tell you what it was like from someone who used to be a fan of his, who lived through the era:

If Joe had just been honest like Eubank was before him, where he admitted that he was just content to defend his WBO belt, then he would have gotten huge respect. But Joe wouldn’t and couldn’t admit that because of his huge ego. So what happened was, he did absolutely nothing in order to change his circumstances, yet in every media interview, either on the radio, in a studio or in a post fight interview, he portrayed himself as a victim of circumstances, who was desperate for the big fights, but who was unable to obtain them, as he was constantly being ducked. This went on for a number of years.

I wisened up to his act pretty quickly, but it took others a little while longer. In the end, it just got tiresome. He was giving post-fight interviews claiming that guys like Roy were running from him, whilst fighting guys like Mario Veit. And 3-4 years later, he was still fighting guys like Mario Veit. He actually rematched Veit 4 years after he’d knocked him out in a single round. So on the one hand, he claimed that he was being serially ducked, whilst on the other hand, he was more than happy to fight whoever Frank Warren and the WBO lined up for him. And this was after he’d claimed that he wasn’t chasing Roy, as he didn’t want tough fights.

His record tells the truth of what happened. Fighting only 12/13 world class guys out of 45 wasn’t unlucky, it was planned. Frank Warren is on record stating that Joe was happy to fight these low level guys, and Joe himself has bragged of his number of WBO defences on numerous occasions.


The fight with Roy was a complete sham. Before they split, Frank Warren had already lined up a fight with Kelly Pavlik instead. And all of the parties wanted it. Gary Shaw, Kelly Pavlik and HBO, were all more than happy with the proposed deal. But Joe backtracked and told the media that Kelly didn’t excite him, and that he’d done nothing to warrant a fight with him.

That was a strange comment for 2 reasons:

1. Joe had actually tried to fight Kelly 2 years earlier in 2006, straight after his fight with Jeff Lacy.

2. In 2006, Kelly was an unknown, NABF MW champ.


Joe then fought Roy instead, after repeatedly telling everyone that the fight was pointless, as Roy was a shot fighter. He actually wrote that in his 2007 autobiography.

He also said a similar thing live in the Setanta Sports studio, just prior to fighting Hopkins in early 2008.

See the video below: (go to 6 mins, 30 secs)

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He took the easy option, to massage his ego and to top up his pension fund. He even gave Roy a 50/50 deal.


Everything that I’ve noted is factual.

This is not me hating on him.

It’s simply what happened.


Joe was a great fighter.

He was a warrior, as all fighters are.

However, he played it safe for the majority of his career, which means that the criticism of him is more than justified.

He didn’t do enough to be considered a true ATG.

You can’t get praise for showboating against a shot legend who you wouldn’t go near when he was in his prime.


Regarding the actual thread topic, I’m absolutely certain that Joe would have beaten Canelo by U/D.

 

Joe head and shoulder above Canelo.

 

Joe. every round...Joe.

 

You weren't even around here....

 

Horrible matchup for Clen

 

Calzaghe`s combos were better, he would have landed more on Canelo than Bivol did.

 

Roy missed out on a lot of fights in the 90`s, he wasn`t interested in the top guys at that time.

 

Who did he miss out on? Were they all RJJ's fault?