I recently watched the documentary on Calzaghe and he seriously looked like he had good power in his early fights. He really put his weight behind the shots a lot more and some looked really hurtful, spiteful shots. It really must have been his bad hands which caused the more slapping style of the second half of his career. I read his book about 10 years ago and can’t really remember what his take is on it. He hit hard enough though, look at Lacy’s face.
Yeah, Joe's autobiography "No Ordinary Joe" talks about his hands being **** from quite a young age. However he doesn't directly say "I slap because my hands are brittle" because if I remember rightly he was still active when he wrote it (think it was before the Hopkins & Jones bouts) so he still talks quite confident like a fighter. He says he really wanted to pull out of the Lacy fight because one of his hands was that bad but his Dad talked him out of it.
Yeah it was something like he didn't like people wrapping his hand so he trained in his dads knackered old gym on knackered old kit... It wasn't untill the later stages he let someone (could be wrong with this bit) like Dean Powell do it cause he just didn't trust people to do it. Sounds like he always had issues with his hands even as younger fighter. I think he actually had a few confidence issues as well reading between the lines but great boxer even despite his sometimes weak opposition.
The fact he had brittle hands and had to change his style is very impressive considering what he went on to achieve.
Essentially he never went into a World Title fight 100% in the second half of his career, and when I say not 100% I'm not saying a broken toe or a tough sparring in camp, we're talking hands so screwed that he couldn't spar for risk of damaging them. Great Story, Great Boxer, One Of The Best.
Yeah old Enzo told him you only need one hand to beat him Joe, for everyone punch he throws you will throw three or four. How correct he was.
