Joe Calzaghe's WBO Defences

All the rankings from January 2000 onwards are on the WBO website.

 

I'm one of Joe's biggest fans. I think he was a special fighter, but from Eubank to Lacy was a massive waste. What a shame he didn't have more confidence in himself and his braintrust didn't have more confidence in him.

 

Had a quick look, Stairie was at no.10, Shieka at 2, Woodhall at 2, Veit at 10 the first time round, I think its pretty safe to say he was mostly fighting people in the WBO's top ten, with the odd dodgy one like Tocker Pudwill.

 

other then ottke and reid who else was around at 168 at 2000 glenn johnson? a guy deemed as a journeyman/gatekeeper. There was no challenges for him. The only real guy between those years was sven ottke and he was a fraudulent ******* who wouldn't get out of germany a trend which is sadly repeated to this day. Both 168 and 160 were wastelands. with joe and bernard being the only dominant forces campaigning at there respective weight class.

 

That confidence i'm talking about his perhaps moving up or taking a little of the short end for long term gain. This is not a huge criticism, it's not something a fighter has to do and i actually respect fighters more who dominate and clean up their divisions, but it's the only thing that people have on Joe. His CV.

Apart from Ottke (he should've gone over and stood him on his head, Ottke was awful it would've been guarenteed one in the bank). Johnson who he was unfortunate to get an injury as the fight was gonna happen. Jones was in another division for the most part, but it could've happened. There was Liles for a short time, Toney wasn't viable and Hopkins for most of that was a middleweight and priced himself out the first time. He would've tooled the likes of Beyer anyway.

I guess i'm just frustrated that a seal wasn't put on Joe's career. He unfortunately came around at the wrong time. Those years were a waste for me because he was out of the public consciousness more than anything.

 

He should have moved up.7lbs north you had Tarver,Jones and Dariusz M or gone to Germany to face Ottke.I mean he went there to face the shitty Veit.

 

He went to Germany for Veit 2 because Veit was mandatory and he was told that he had to defend against him or he would be stripped. The Germans won the purse bids and paid Joe a then career high fee.

Lets not forget that Joe was due to face Brian Magee in Belfast but had to pull out as the WBO would not sanction it because they were enforcing the Veit rematch.

 

but from Eubank to Lacy was a massive waste

i agree with this

 

I think this is a Fwank Wawwen financial tactic. We're seeing this with Ricky Burns now.

He spends a lot of money on his prospects bringing in ranked opponents on shows that often struggle to break even. This is seen as an investment in building a future world champion. Bringing in a world champion to fight in the UK can be very expensive in particular.

So once a world title is won, Wawwen then counts on these champions to make some of that money back. This tends to happen against low-risk, lower profile fighters to ensure the title is retained on a profitable show which brings the lost revenue back in.

For example - Burns. His first world title defense was against an unheralded Scandinavian who'd won less fights than some British Title contenders. The second defense was an unknown African guy with a crazy blonde mohawk who'd won less than 20 fights and was soundly beaten. Then came the Cook fiasco which lasted less than a round. That's 3 low risk, cheap to make shows that will have helped to fill the coffers and help pay towards the likes of DeGale and co.

The same happened with Calzaghe. The same looks to be happening with Nathan Cleverly, who has beaten an un-heard of Pole and a contender with 16 or 17 fights to his name. Yes the Bellew fight was a good one and garnered interest, but it is fairly rare that a fighter with as little experience as Bellew would get a world title shot at such an early stage.

You get my point.

 

Brewer, Mitchell and Ried all got robbed & jobbed agaisnt Ottke before or soon after they faced Calzaghe. Omar Sheika was coming of a win over Glen Johnson.

People will blame Fwank, but Joe and his dad are also to blame. Joe never did any promo work, and i seem to remember he turned down the chief support spot on the De La Hoya vs Sturm card. He could have faced Pavlik instead of Roy Jones at the time when Pavlik was in everyones P4P and seen as a beast but Enzo wanted nothing to do with that fight.

 

Agree Jonsey, it shouldve been Calzaghe, not Hopkins, that exposed Pavlik.

 

Protect that 0 Joe protect that 0....

Simple as that.

/Thread.

 

Iv'e got to be honest Im not a big fan of Calzaghe, He was a good fighter no doubt but I didn't care to much for his style, I also didn't like the fact that he would fight lesser opponents to protect his unbeaten record, I would rather see him fight the best out there and end up with a few losses, who knows he may still have ended up unbeaten, his style as much as I didn't like it, made him a hard nights work for anyone IMO.