Is Glen Johnson the only fighter Calzaghe has ducked?

nappy dermititis

 

let me rephrase that....I dont think JOE has ducked anyone...hes got a good HEART...but his PROMOTER has manouvered him away from any threat around the 168,,,,,do you think Warren would have let JOE fight a prime B HOP or RJ /TArVEr in the states??

 

That is an example of the master/servant relationship promoters generally have with their fighters in the UK.

Hence why Hatton left Sports Network.

This is where we are miles behind the Americans, in ensuring that fighters ready for title shots are actually given them, as opposed to making the endless, meaningless padding of records against fighters with losing records, putting plenty of miles on the clock in the process.

For instance, Hatton and Calzaghe have been the biggest names in British boxing since the turn of the century, with the exception of Naz for a brief spell, whilst Lennox was hardly a big name over here really - yet they have only been on the world stage and recoginsed as big names for the past three or four years, which for me is a travesty!

 

Going back to the original point, I fail to see how any convincing case can be made for Calzaghe ducking Johnson. #1 I don't see how you can "duck" a fighter in a higher weight class. #2 Calzaghe signed for the fight twice and broke his hand twice. Why on earth would a fighter sign for a fight he didn't want, particularly when he could easily have declined the fight citing the fact that he wanted to stay at 168 as a perfectly reasonable justification. #3 Calzaghe has fought and beaten a number of better fighters than Johnson.

Not to say Calzaghe is completely blameless in any of this, despite beating a reasonable level of opposition I feel he treaded water for a long period of time in the late 90s-early 00s and didn't make the real effort to get the massive fights his talent deserved until he was approaching his mid 30s. But not going out of your way to fight a particular opponent (for example a Jones or Ottke) is not the same as ducking. For it to be a duck in my book, there has to be a reasonable offer on the table to fight an opponent who brings something to bargain with.

 

Uh....

Maybe you should have read the thread? :huh

 

To put the record straight, there was only one period of time when Calzaghe and Johnson were scheduled to clash. Calzaghe's camp came up with the excuse of an injury for Joe pulling out but this wasn't the case. The brother of one of his best mates was working with me at the time and told me Joe was on the verge of going seriously off the rails. The press release said that he'd sustained a back injury or something like that if I remember rightly, but the truth was he was on the **** a bit and not training like he usually does and so they pulled him out. This was the time when he was having issues with his wife and ended up causing a scene outside her house as he was upset at paying her maintenance to keep her and her new bloke in the good life. This could've been the cross roads but luckily he scraped through some **** fights afterwards and found a new bird! Can understand how Johnson was pissed off at the time though as the fight had been discussed for ages

 

edit

 

From what I heard at the time he quite enjoyed the selection process as it involved minimal hunting, i.e. just standing at the bar!! Jammy fecker

 

Look at Calzaghe's resume pre-Lacy (cause everyone is still SOO high on that victory, and obviously Lacy too) - then I'd say no. The Johnson fight is a certainty.

But on the other hand, whether or not he officially "ducked" anyone, then's no doubt he took the path of least resistance for the MAJORITY of his whole career. Holding a WBO nothing title (which it was when he won it), and defending it in the UK for 10 years against the likes of Ferrya, Thornberry, Pudwill and Jiminez is simply PROOF of this.

Oh yeah - Reid, Sheika, Woodhall and Brewer are GREAT or even GOOD names? Get the **** outta here. How anyone can speak down on Floyd for his recent competition but STILL somehow be a fan of Joe is simply amazing to me. But again, I say it all the time, but truer words have never been spoken - To each his own, its the beauty of this world.

 

The man just had his first fight at lt heavy give him some time

 

:shock: :shock: Damn!! Everybody's wondered where have you been. Good to see you posting on here bro!

 

Thanks man good to be back, somehow I was banned dont know why but its all cleared up I guess it was a mistake:hey

 

a name not mentioned, most probably because sparky is no longer posting at ESB.

syd vanderpool for a year or so was trying to make a name on the back of calzaghe calling calzaghe out in public letter form virtually every month or so.

he then got a shot for a vacant title v lacy and then got ko`d by berrio in his next fight and dissapeared into retirement.

calzaghe ducked johnson for reasons HOF put correctly.

i cannot remember who put that calzaghe ducked beyer, was .

beyer was offered £900k to fight calzaghe

ottke never mentioned calzaghe`s name in any interview .

calzaghe should have fought
catley/lucas/echols/beyer/ottke/

the reasons he never are because warren liked to get the cheapest option as opponents instead of the best option .

these fights easily could have and should have been made, just needed finance to get the fights made, which was not forthcoming.

i did not include johnson , because as a 168 fighter johnson whether he was hard done by or not had a appalling record losing nearly every 168 fight he ever had.

 

Everytime Glencoffee was to get a shot at Cal. . . Cal had "hurt hands".

 

Who cares, ducked or not ducked, he should have made and chased big name prime fights, he simply didnt.