Is Calzaghe one of the most physically gifted fighters ever 168+ north?

Calzaghe is head and shoulders above them all.

 

Im a Calzaghe fan but I would say Roy Jones was more freakish than anyone, except maybe Ali. Calz was superfit with great reflexes but his power wasnt all that. I think his brain was his greatest asset he seemed like a natural fighter despite the lack of bigtime power he just seemed to have a superb instinct.

Jones was fast but powerful with it, a lot of Calzaghes stuff is shoeshine and distraction it seems like but he throws way more punches than anyone so its no wonder

Anyway Id say Ali was way ahead of anyone in his weight class for physical gifts, Jones was freaky too but his chin wasnt topnotch and he didnt throw the leather Ali and Clazaghe did, not sure why I keep mentioning Calzaghe really, must be others better than him for athleticism

In terms of heavyweights, maybe the Klit brothers, Wlad has everything except a chin and Vitali has pretty much everything although he looks kind of awkward, I think Vitali is more physically gifted actually despite not looking like Mr Atlas because he has a rock chin and we know his stamina is superb going on the Lewis fight.

FOr lighter weights Id say Pacman for sure and any other guys that go up and down weight classes but retain awesomeness

 

Physically gifted? Nah, definitely not for my money.

 

His brittle hands and lack of power don't really tell the story of someone who was "one of the most physically gifted super middles" - But he sure as hell made use of the tools he had.

Certainly one of the best conditioned.

Roy Jones was an athletic freak.

 

Nor mine. But everyone is different. Maybe if one's got really slow hands Joe seems like lightning to them (not directed at you TS - just saying).

 

Physically gifted in terms of conditioning? Absolutely. His destruction of Lacy showed how well in shape he was, even in Round 12.

As far as power and speed? He had fast hands, but in terms of raw power Jones at 168 was incredible.

 

As far as pure physical talent goes, Roy Jones > Joe Calzaghe and maybe any other fighter in history.

 

Jones was an athletic freak, but Calzaghe had some assets that couldn't be taught and that Jones himself didn't possess: the stamina to fight in your face for 12 rounds and the speed in which he could recover. Roy was so good at not getting hit we never knew about the latter until the end of his career, but he was always the type who'd pick his shots and toy with his opposition like a cat playing with a mouse. Calzaghe almost never took that approach and spent much more time in front of his opposition trading- which makes it all the more remarkable Calzaghe never had his nose broken in a fight.

For my money, nobody had the explosiveness of Roy, but Calzaghe got more than his fair share of gifts from the boxing gods as well. You can't accomplish what he did with brittle hands unless you've got an arsenal of tools to fall back on. A big part of what made both men successful is that they knew what their strengths and weaknesses were, and fought accordingly. It sounds simple, but not doing that's been the downfall of many a talented fighter.

 

um no.

 

yes he was , so was, RJJ,

 

He is one of the best managed fighters in history that's for damn sure, frank warren deserves an academy award for his management of joe calzaghe...

 

roy jones jr all day long,he punched from more crazy angles with more powerfull and crisper shots,eubank even admitted that jones was a freak and that he would never have fought him!

 

Depends on what your criteria for physically gifted is...its more then just handspeed and stamina IMO.

Cant see how Joes is anymore naturally gifted then guys like Micheal Spinks, John Conteh or Evander Holyfield etc.

 

I can't speak for Spinks or Conteh, but I know Holyfield's gifts were all natural since BALCO said so on the packages.