Joe Calzaghe vs Prime Roy Jones jr, James Toney, Andre Ward

I trust very few people here. No one here has any real insider knowledge. Especially from a fight 25 years ago.

You are right, Joe C isn't a proven cheat. Just a guy who settled on low WBO level competition for most of his career.

 

How was the fight vs Hopkins a split? Adelaide Byrd is how.

 

The elephant in the room will never go away, and fantasy fights involving American PED cheat boxers can't even be discussed seriously - especially with their wilfully ignorant delusional fanboys flocking to the subject. It would be only marginally more productive than debating fantasy WWE matchups.

...I closed the case for good on the Ripped Fuel nonsense about 9 years ago, yet still we get innocent fools like good ol' Lance sleepwalking into a thread & mindlessly blurting out the Ripped Fuel excuse. It's beyond tedious.

 

Calzaghe was not a spring chicken either don' forget that lol.

 

This is INCORRECT

RING magazine Annual Ratings

2006
[url]Bernard Hopkins[/url], Champion

1. [url]Antonio Tarver[/url]
2. [url]Zsolt Erdei[/url]*
3. [url]Clinton Woods[/url]
4. [url]Glen Johnson[/url]
5. [url]Tomasz Adamek[/url]
6. [url]Paul Briggs[/url]
7. [url]Roy Jones Jr.[/url]

2008
[url]Joe Calzaghe[/url], Champion

1. [url]Bernard Hopkins[/url]
2. [url]Chad Dawson[/url]
3. [url]Glen Johnson[/url]
4. [url]Antonio Tarver[/url]
5. [url]Zsolt Erdei[/url]*
6. [url]Roy Jones Jr.[/url]

 

Did he beat any top 10 Light Heavyweights after his losses to Tarver and Johnson ?

I wouldn't of thought he got rated in the top 10 for beating Anthony Hanshaw and a Felix Trinidad who was coming off a 3 year lay off fighting 4 weightclases above his best weight.

I guess the name value of Tito was enough despite being RJJ being 3-3 in his last 6 fights with 0 wins against top 10 rated fighters.

The point is RJJ wasn't competing at the elite level anymore he didn't beat a single top 10 rated fighter after 2003.

And even Calzaghe in his own biography stated that RJJ was washed up and this was quite a few years before he fought him.

I'd give Calzaghe more credit for beating Hopkins rather than RJJ. Because despite his age Hopkins was still very much competing at world level and beat some good fighters before and after his loss to Calzaghe.

 

Calzaghe proved to be much better than advertised. Shame he had such brittle hands. Calzaghe was a consistent fighter who always came into a fight in shape and prepared which is more than you can say for James Toney for example. Roy Jones had a China Chin Glass Jaw and no plan b in a fight. I figure Ward would be the toughest fight for Calzaghe. The idea that Calzaghe loses to all of them is laughable.

 

I didn't quote that or claim he did.. he never faced any either.

I quoted you claiming he was never in the top 10 after the Tarver loss. Which clearly you got very wrong!

He certainly wasn't as passed it or irrelevant as you Jones' superfans claim. You exaggerate it.

It's also funny how you never mention that Calzaghe went up from his optimal weightclass to Jones' weightclass to school him.

And the fact they were similar ages both in their late 30's. It was Calzaghes last fight for crying out loud!

 

Why on earth would it be laughable?


The best guy he ever fought was a 43 year old Hopkins.

It was an awful, ugly fight.

Ward had stylistic similarities.

Joe also struggled with Reid and had issues with Bika.

To me, it would have been a 50/50 fight with Ward.

But it can’t be laughable that he’d have lost to all 3.


He wasn’t beating Roy. He didn’t have the confidence that he’d have beaten Roy, hence his actions and his comments.


Toney? Toney could have underestimated him.

But a fit, motivated Toney, fighting to his full capabilities?

Joe never fought anybody that skilled.


Joe was also untested against prime, great fighters.


Losing to all 3 would have been likely and realistic.

Not in any way laughable.


I’ve no idea what you’ve seen in order to suggest such a thing.

 

And Jones was defending his titles against the murderers row of David Telesco, Antoine Byrd, Tony Thornton, Bryant Brannon, Richard Frazier, Glen Kelly!

 

It's quite hilarious how Jones fanboys are talking about weak opposition. When Jones cherry picked 80% of his opponents, and avoided the toughest fights out there like Michalczewski.

Calzaghe vs Kessler. Both undefeated in their prime, both unified champions in their optimal weight class.. rolling the dice in a 50/50 fight is what true champions are all about. It's a shame Jones didn't have the courage to do that by facing Michalczewski.

(Edit: I forgot Calzaghe was 35 at ths time and considered 'old', he actually wasn't prime but it's easy to forget because he was still so good at this age)

 

Loudon you fat **** I didn’t say Calzaghe beats them all. Jones was exposed as a China Chinned Glass Jawed Fraud who had ZERO plan B in a fight. None. Toney was a sloppy lazy often unprepared fighter. Ward absolutely would be the toughest test of the three. Say what you want about Calzaghe but he wasn’t:
Glass Jawed
Out of shape
Lazy
Unprepared
One dimensional

he could go 1-2 or 2-1 vs that group but the idea he goes 0-3 is very unrealistic knowing what we know.