After Watching Kessler.....

if we are going to give calzaghe a pass for hand injuries, emotional breakdowns etc. then we must also give kessler a pass for his injury in the mundine training camp.

kessler was impressive verses mundine, despite the fact he was not that fit due to his back injury. yes i am aware mundine is a timid fighter, and not a pure warrior in the calzaghe mold, but nevertheless mundine is younger than calzaghe and trained hard for the kessler fight.

as much as i hate mundine both inside and outside of the ring, he has proven me wrong on a few occassions and also has shown very good handspeed etc.

kessler might have been bothered for a moment or two, but he wasn't that fit in that fight otherwise his punch output would have been much higher. he knew he had to pace himself or risk punching himself out.

pretty impressive for a guy to dominate and virtually shutout a fast handed, slick mover in mundine despite missing a lot of training camp.

calzaghe is far superior to mundine in ALL facets. but age has got to catch eventually.

i think this will be a passing of the torch fight myself. sad day as a calzaghe fan, but i realise kessler is the future and we prefer to have a linear champion who is young enough to fight for years to come. if calzaghe wins i will be happy for his personal success (and to stick it up b-hop), but will be annoyed that the defeated kessler will rule a division after a much older fighter (tho great) beat him.

joe had his day, and his best performances are behind him. kessler will take over im sure of this.

 

Especially is Calzaghe somehow dominates Kessler...

The Calzaghe fanbase is just going to go berserk, I may stay away for a few days in fear of how crazy they are going to get.

CHJ will have a field day.:yep

 

I agree that neither Beyer or Ottke can be blamed on Calzaghe, atleast we both know that both of them were very hard to move out of the country.
But Beyer only held the WBC title in the last 10 years for something like 3 years, Mitchell he did fight but not when he was champion. For all the talk Calzaghe have made about legacy, he hasnt done enough himself to get it to happen, which is a shame because his talent definately deserves more than only a WBO belt for the last 10 years. If you want to be an ATG you have to go on the compromise with your earnings and percentages in winning a fight to maximise opposition. Maybe what he really should have done is that he should have gone to the states like Hatton did.

 

Hatton had HBO interested in doing large showcase promotions after his win from Tszyu however, Calzaghe only had HBO interested after Lacy. Showtime aired both Calzaghe and Hatton prior to HBO picking both up for their fights, but the Showtime airings were not on the level that HBO puts out.

Here is another factor regarding that - Hatton was essentially the biggest fighter that the UK was hyping up as a whole, Calzaghe even got underrated domestically and never really promoted big, it was all just idiocy and hurt his ability to even GET an American fight going.

Nobody is going to fight for free.

 

Im 100% sure on this one; Calzaghe wont dominate Kessler. The most likely result in this one is a close, close decision to Calzaghe. But Kessler almost has a 50% chance of winning a SD, UD or by TKO.

I just rewatched the Bika fight and he totally breaks up Calzaghes game plan by fighting the same way Joe does in most of the fight. Bika is holding, hitting and doing every bit of the dirty stuff/brawling that Joe also does at times. It actually works for Bika.

I dont agree that the ref did a terrible job - I think he was very fair and had good judgement even when Joe was complaining. Bika should have been given another warning, but other than that I regard the fight as fair.

Calzaghe HAS to put up a Lacy type perfomance to win a UD against Kessler. But Kessler will not come forward as Lacy did.

52/48 in favour of Joe or something. Its going to be close.

 

Wont happen buddy.

Kessler could fight in a straight jacket while balancing a unicycle on his head and still would probably only drop a round or two.

 

In this fight will find out on what level Kessler really is. Calzaghe hasn't helped himself stay sharp by fighting Bika and Manfredo either.

 

Yes, and he could do all this while only being 65.7639% fit.

Edit: Come to think of it I'd like to change that to 65.7637%

 

WTF????

 

Don't be fooled.

Kessler makes it look simple, and that doesn't mean he is easy to beat.

Yes, he is quite methodical and sometimes minimalistic the ring. But that doesn't mean he cannot open up.

He opens up when it's neccessary. Both with hooks and uppercuts.

But he has got a helleva good jab. Why not use it and wear down the opponent first?

I'm sure he will prevail against the aging Calzaghe (35).

 

Necromancy 4tw. And yes, you should have, but it was an impossible match to nail 100%. Just the fact that the roles were reversed was a surprise... Kessler better on the inside, and JC on the outside.

 

You might be right, allthough I prefer a Kessler win. What annoys me is Calzaghe categorically saying no to a rematch. At the same time he says the Kessler fight was his toughest.:huh

 

"You might be right"????

This post you are answering is ancient and he WAS RIGHT. Calzaghe won.

He is not talking about a rematch. I actually think Joe was quite fair in that regards. He said that he is getting older and Kessler is getting better - therefore there will be no rematch. That gives a lot of credit to Kessler and I think he will have to live with that. End of story.