No sane person can dismiss my claim that Joe Calzaghe is the best boxer of all time..

I agree joe has heart and skills,but not the heart and skills that leonard diplayed (and thats just one boxer i will name.) And even if you want to base it purely on skills then still ray takes it by miles,can you imagine joe having one fight in five years then moving up to face the undisputed long reigning cruiser champ (say maybe holyfield to be on a par with hagler.) and winning with pure skill? No a cats chance in hell.....He couldnt even beat the current cruiser champs,and definately not haye...
Skill is much easier to display when you havent got tommy hearns and roberto duran trying to knock your head of at 147.......
You put too much emphasis on calzaghe looking the part against very weak opposition......
You want to see how great ray looked against lesser opposition? Watch him against dave boy green.....

 

Gotta love those thread starters who offer no alternative other than being ignorant, delusional or, in this case, insane to posters who beg to differ.

Debate 101 appears not to be a prerequisite to start discussions on this forum.

 

Head to head he would be beaten by jones at his own weight and maybe some middleweight champs like monzon...
P4p,man many guys whip him incuding all of the fab four.....

 

All beating kessler will do is prove he is elite and the best SMW of HIS time. All of time at SMW is arguable but not even close to best of all time, in any weight class. George Foreman beat a Prime Moorer at 45, 10 years older than Calzaghe and its arguable that even Moorer was at the time more established than Kessler is now .

 

Dude i'm a big Calzaghe fan but this **** is ridiculous!

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3089347

This guy would disagree...

"Calzaghe still has a lot to prove in underachieving career"

 

Yeah mate which user are you? (I cant send PM I have less than 50 posts)

 

Being the best is largely linked with being the greatest as often the greatest fighters were "the best" of their time. I can Lacy my 15yr old cousin and look damn good doing it but thats hardly comparable to Duran eeking out a decision against Barkley. You only prove your the best by beating the best, SRR has done that multiple times. Joe may do it once but multiple times obviously is a much bigger evidence than once. Vince Phillips beat a great fighter in Kostya, doesnt make him great or anywhere near close to being the best. Prove your the best by beating the best over and over again...then you will be the greatest which goes hand in hand with being the best.

 

Then surely it's just an assumption? You don't have any ground for ranking Calzaghe #1, if you are basing it on talent, because he hasn't fought any greats.

Who has he ever beaten? Not one ATG. Therefore, he could be the greatest talent ever, but the term "greatest" has got to have absolute proof behind it. You can't rank the greatest on "He would have...." because in Calzaghe's case, he didn't.

Calzaghe may have beaten every other fighter i history, all the way up to heavyweight, but that isn't a reason to rank him as the greatest.

The number one needs to be proven by what he did in the ring. hypothetically, if a fighter turned pro tommorow at lightweight, beat every Z-class from lightweight to heavyweight and retired with a record of 300-0 (300), he still wouldn't be ranked anywhere. It's not about how many wins you have, or potential ability. Calzaghe has not got the names on his resume, which is essential.

Calzaghe, if he wins against Kessler, may be ranked in the top 150 of all-time, for the fact that he beat everyone who would fight him. Top 100 is possibly, top 50 is possible, depending on your criteria, but top 10 is insane, never mind first.

 

I am afraid there would be a lots of counter-arguments against it. The judges would be the first. If Joe nails a SD (Warrens man John Stewart and Marisimo from Italy)- everybody outside UK would say FOUL bigtime and Joe's legacy as hometown boy would be compared to Sven Ottkes and nothing more.