When Calzaghe defeats Kessler, his legacy...

Yes, oh yes....

 

His legacy is already superior.

 

Yes, I believe so. SO much longevity, and despite being a little porous, KTs reign as undisputed champ was porous as well b/c of inactivity

 

I disagree.

They both dominated one division. Calzaghe has dominated his longer.

They both have wins over an ATG, but Calzaghe's was no where near as faded (though not as big of an ATG).

Calzaghe has more title defenses and he hasn't lost. That is his biggest edge.

They both beat up and coming champions in Judah and Lacy.

And Calzaghe has never quit.

 

If Calzaghe beats Kessler, then yes, I think his legacy is greater than Tszyu's - but not by much

 

If Calzaghe gets past Kessler...he will definitely be an ATG at 168lbs....I'd love to see Calzaghe vs Pavlik/Taylor after that one as well.

 

Yes. His streak of title defenses at 168 is clearly superior to what Zoo did at 140.

 

Great post. I think that Calzaghe still needs to do some things to reach ATG status, but I also feel that Tszyu is very overrated in the same regard.

 

Don't you mean IF Calzaghe defeats Kessler.

 

Although they both would have defeated the top challengers in their respective divisions, with Calzaghe remaining undefeated, KT would receive extra points from me for going into hostile territory (a different continent) to do it. Defeating an undefeated Judah and a very good Mitchell twice on U.S. soil holds a lot of weight with me. Even taking the fight against Hatton in Great Britain even although he was the champ. If Calzaghe wins, I would have then rate their legacy as equal.

 

They are not even to me. KT has losses which negate any edge he might have in wins, and edge that I am not sure is there to begin with. And one of those losses was pretty bad. He also never tried to avenge his losses.

And while Judah went on to beat Spinks and Lacy has done less, Calzaghe IMO destroyed Lacy in a fashion that may have caused that. Lacy isn't the same fighter and that's due to Calzaghe. And while you mention Mitchell, I would point out that Robin Reid is just as accomplished IMO.

Those losses weight heavily (especially the first one) and Calzaghe having more defenses also gives him an edge to me. Otherwise, resume is even IMO since I don't think KT did much in the way of stepping up any more than Calzahge has.