FANTASY FIGHT: Harry Greb vs Joe Calzaghe (15 Rounds/Poll)

Joe was 36 and closing out his career. He was no longer at his best either. Roy had enough in the tank, it was a good but not great win. Maybe if Roy was still taking steroids he could have done better.

 

The same would have to be said for Crawford, Spence, Haney, Tank, Mikey Garcia, Pazienza, Teo, Toney and countless other champs who drained 25 - 45 pounds to make weight. Roy was a drug cheat.

 

Joe went into the fight coming off of the best wins of his career.


Roy had enough in the tank?

Well clearly not, considering that he couldn't beat Glen Johnson 4 years earlier, and he lost to Danny Green in a single round, just 12 months later.


No amount of PEDS could have changed the fact that he was almost 40, where he'd damaged his body from the drop back to LHW 5 years earlier.


Again, how can you not account for the fact that Joe wouldn't fight him in his prime, and when he did, it was only after saying that he was shot??


Why on earth should he deserve more credit??

He should be heavily criticised for such behaviour.

 

You've completely missed his point.

Of course other fighters have cut huge amounts of weight.

That's not the point is it.


The point is:

Joe cut huge amounts of weight to fight mostly non world level guys in a weak division, when he could have fought at a more comfortable weight that contained a better group of fighters, including the best fighter in the world at the time.

 

Hi Buddy.
Regards this most intriguing matchup which I cannot remember seeing before, I think from what I have read over the years about Greb he would have been both faster and have a higher workrate than Calzaghe, not most, but all of his contemporaries, especially the fighters he fought, laud how fast, quick, and mobile Greb was, moreover unlike Calzaghe, he was never in the same place for more than 2 seconds, there is slight misconception that Greb was a " swarmer " ala Armstrong, Pryor, Frazier, that is palpable not the case, he was not, unlike the others mentioned, a forward motion fighter, with no reverse, quite the contrary, his whole res on detra was rush in, throw as many punches and at any angle, at any part of the opponents anatomy, then swiftly glide back out of arms way, leaving the opponent confused, befuddled,and hitting air, this process would be repeated minute after minute,round after round, at a ceaseless pace, which astonishingly would increase as the fight wore on, the punches were not particularly hard, but they cut and stung, leaving bruises and welts, as far as I know, he is unique in this style, in the annals of boxing I don't think any fighter has replicated this way of fighting, so I dont think Calzaghe would have been faster, or have the same workrate, imo, as to the difference in weight, fighting a opponent who outweighed him by 10 or 15 pounds would be a walk in the park for Greb, he regularly took on the HWs of his day and gave them a real pasting, in fact he liked fighting men a lot heavier than him, so Calzaghe would hold no fears for Greb, far from it, for ever and a day Greb is my No1 middleweight, and either 1 or 2 P4P with Langford in the mix.
stay safe buddy, chat soon.
Mike.

 

I know, but they were honing them vs similarly skilled boxers from their era, and IMO the skill level back then was pretty poor.

I have read up on him, I just don't give much value to what is said.
We've had descriptions of other boxers from that era and the descriptions are a far cry from what the footage actually shows.

 

Ok you believe what you want .Take care

 

I've seen that same interview (it was 36lbs he said he lost for Kessler, btw) with Darren Barker.

In his autobiography, the 5ft 11.5ins Calzaghe claimed to walk-around at 192-196lbs between camps and at SMW typically entered the ring at 178-180lbs. That puts him around average size for SMW in the modern, day before weigh in, era, a little below average for a LHW and in absolutely no way anything like the size of typical CWs.

 

What you say is true and what I said is true. His weight entering the ring is one thing, reaching 168 at the weigh in is another. Froch has basically been at the same weights. He's in good shape now and I'm pretty sure weighs around 195 so he also drained down to 168.

Which brings up a point about Greb (and other old time boxers): he fought at his walk around weight. Fighting in consecutive months for 20 to 40 fights means his "walk around " weight was his "entering the ring" weight; there wasn't enough time between bouts to fatten up.

 

Hmmm.

If what you said was intended to communicate that Calzaghe, by just about every metric, was roughly an average sized SMW for the era in which he competed, was small at LHW and would have been tiny at CW, and that like almost all boxers below HW in this modern era, he drained to make weight, then I agree.

If what you posted was intended to say that Calzaghe was considerably bigger than the average SMW and/or drained weight to a greater degree than most boxers who competed in his era, then I disagree. In that case, you would be wrong.

Yes, Froch walked around between camps in the 180's. Hatton in the 190's, some 50lbs+ above the division he competed in. In terms of both body composition and discipline between camps, Calzaghe was somewhere between these two extremes. Again, pretty average for a modern day SMW.

 

Yes we agree. They all drain down. But don't bring up Hatton; he was in another weight dimension. He wasn't known as Ricky Fatton for no reason!

 

Joe Calzaghe is one of my favorite fighters, but I think peak Calzaghe would lose to peak Harry Greb.

 

Do you have any other purpose in life except for disparaging Calzaghe?

 

On Sundays he stands on a dustbin in a park wearing a black macintosh ...