Give over. He didn’t destroy Eubank. Their first fight was extremely close. He then roughhoused him in the rematch. Benn was done. And they only rematched due to Benn hurting his ankle in the first fight. He didn’t destroy anyone.
If he wouldn’t accept huge money to fight Roy at 168, he wasn’t going to fight Joe there either. Joe should have targeted fighters at LHW instead.
the fight didn't get made because calzaghe was a high risk - low reward fighter. casual fans in the US didn't know who he was. how did calzaghe get the hopkins fight in the end? he left warren and went to the US. stop blaming the higher profile fighter who was fighting on the biggest stage of all for not making a fight with a lesser-known fighter who was not, because there was a growing trend around that time in particular of european fighters who got a belt/made a name for themselves in europe, but never fought in the US and therefore never fought the best fighters of their era when it mattered. eubank, michaelewski, sturm, ottke, abraham (at MW), calzaghe, collins (from 1993). calzaghe stayed with warren and didn't fight the best fighters of his era when it mattered. khan and hatton left warren, went to the US, and collectively fought prime canelo, pacman and floyd. that isn't a coincidence.
and yet collins stopped fighting in the US and fought exclusively in europe from 1993, which is when he called out jones. once again, a fighter not fighting in the US. you're doing the same thing as 'britinvasion', blaming the higher profile fighter fighting on the biggest stage of all for not fighting a lesser-known fighter fighting exclusively in europe.
Calzaghe absolutely schooled and embarrassed Glass Jaw Roy Jones. I had forgotten what a one sided fight that was.
and danny green KO'd roy in one. what's your point? in the context of when those fights happened, they meant exactly nothing.
Personally I don't put much stock in to the 0. Mayweather has a bogus undefeated record, even if it looks good on paper. Joe showed enough in his career to be rated very highly.
I wasn't a JC fan but he could fight. Lacy was suppose to be this monster that was going to KO JC and JC crushed him. Beat Hopkins and AFTER JC defeat Hopkins beat Kelly a couple of months latter AND Pascal. So he had something left in the tank. Beat Eubank who wasn't at his best but DROPPED Eubank which not too many fighters can say they did. Kesseler was in his prime and a force to reckon with and JC beat him easily. And lets not forget JC was in his mid to late thirties when he did these things suffering from severe hand injuries. Its not like he was a fresh twenty something facing old boxer- he had alot of mileage too. I liked the documentary because both JC and his farther were brutally honest- he admitted he was weary of taking the Lacy fight and had doubts. That's so refreshing and different from the normal BS that he feared nobody and he was confident etc. And I never knew his hands were that bad. To accomplish what he did was remarkable and further for ONCE a boxer retired at the top and STAYED retired.
Not sure? Joe had issues with lower level guys even when he was in his prime. He had a poor defence, where he was easy to hit with right hands, no matter what level of opponent he was fighting. He’s publicly doubted whether or not he could have beaten Roy when Roy was prime. He spent 90% of his career fighting low level opposition after stating that he wasn’t chasing Roy, as he didn’t want tough fights. Roy was faster, more powerful and much harder to hit, also possessing supreme confidence. He barely lost rounds in most of his fights. What more do you need? Roy would have been a HUGE favourite.
i agree calzaghe was an excellent fighter, my main gripe with him is that he was too good to have his career hamstrung by his promoter like that of the ottke's and sturm's of this world. floyd, however, was on another level. you only have to compare their resumes to see the difference between a very good fighter with a padded record, and a genuinely great fighter with an ATG resume. apart from fighting paul williams at WW and fighting pacman 3-4 years earlier, there really is little i can fault in his resume.
but don't you think this is a term that fits floyd more than joe? retiring "at the top" on the back of two calculated fights against two former P4P kings once they had been dethroned, past prime and losing as many as they were winning is at the heart of why calzaghe polarizes people so much. for a fighter of calzaghe's calibre to retire 'undefeated' while fighting almost his entire career in europe is not "remarkable", it's a testament to frank warren's habit of getting his fighters 'a belt' and then milking it against predominantly subpar opposition for $$$ at the expense of any sort of meaningful progression to the fighter's career.