Another nail in Sloppy Joe's "legacy".

He took ten years before he even bothered to try to unify and never once tried to either drop down or go up to light heavy in search of belts or names. His resume is even more lacking than his ambition. The archetypal Frank Warren fighter.

 

The only reason you think that is because you probably didn't even realise the 168 division existed until Calzaghe beat Lacy.

Since he beat Eubank, he tried hard to get Ottke and Beyer in the ring against him, neither of those guys were interested in him because they knew they wouldn't beat him.

He then made a career of fighting people who got robbed by either fighter, quite often fighting someone like Reid or Mitchell the very fight after they were robbed against Ottke and decisively beating them.

He even made headlines in the UK for offering to fight Ottke in Germany for 1 euro + expenses, Ottke turned him down.

Talking about how long it took him to unify is pointless, because once the guy had too much financial muscle behind him for fighters to say no, he got all four belts in quick succession and become one of the very few in the last 15 years to hold all four titles, plus the ring belt without ever losing them.

He fought the best the 168 division had to offer. The best in 160 didn't want to fight him, in 2001, Calzaghe had agreed to a deal and put pen to paper, a verbal agreement had been made by Hopkins and his team - Hopkins renegged that deal.

The best at 175 wasn't fighting anyone without getting paid big if they were a risk, the money wasn't there for that fight as Calzaghe was not a name.

For all the talk about Lacy being over-hyped and over-rated - yeah, maybe he was, but he is the only reason you got to see Calzaghe vs Hopkins, Kessler and Jones Jr.

Prior to that, Calzaghe's biggest payday was 650k euro and that was only because Germany put all their money into the Mario Veit challenge to get Calzaghe interested.

Once he could guarantee million dollar paydays, he fought pretty solid competition in my view and proved himself at the very end of his career.

The middle of his career? Beating guys like Woodhall, Mitchell, Brewer, Mkertchian, Reid, Veit, Sheika and such may not mean a lot to you - but they were the best around at the time and all Top 10 168 in the Ring magazine at the time Calzaghe beat them.

 

You see what happens when legends fight out of their country...Danny Green.

 

Funny that, considering Calzaghe fought far more times out of the UK than the majority of American fighters have fought out of their home towns.

 

Three fights? Wow...

Not much of an argument there...

 

Twice in USA
Once in Germany
Once in Denmark

How many times Floyd/Hopkins fought outside of our country?

 

I was never of the opinion that Calzaghe was anything less than an elite fighter. He is also however one of the most managed fighters in recent memory, perhaps even vying with Ottke and Hatton for top spot. Jones was also guilty of this sin but at least he has some halycon days to look back upon.

He adhered strictly to the Warren template, this fact is beyond debate irregardless of your myriad of excuses for his lack of ambition. His diligence rewarded him with a good career. It is the tenacity of his fans in their pursuit to elevate him beyond his ability or resume that attracts the criticism.

 

I do think Calzaghe does take too much **** on ESB for cherrypicking, etc. But the facts are the facts, regardless of whose fault they are. I would take your point a step further and say that the Hopkins fight wasn't even a super fight. It drew money, but Hopkins was well past it. I wish that fight had taken place back in '01 or '02.

 

Not bad.

 

You would have to be naive to hundreds of years of boxing history to question why american fighters don't need to fight outside of America to validate their careers. It is a prerequisite for respect and validation for any boxer born outside the country to fight in America, vice versa not so much. As a counterpoint, I don't hear of many fighters dreaming about one day fighting in Wales.

 

Uh Oh....now you went and did it.

 

Holy ****, that's awesome! Ottke #1 G.O.A.T.!!

 

To say that Collins was not a great fighter simply because he did not conform to your criteria is narrow minded. Eubanks might have lost interest but he was definitely not washed up. Plus Calzaghe wanted to fight him earlier but Eubanks said : "Calzaghe couldnt fill a Church pew". Collins backed out against Calzaghe as well as did Jones and several others

Calzaghe makes a lot of guys retire because his speed and reflexes often makes them feel that they got old over night. I do think Calzaghe retired to soon but most of his haters are jealous, wimpy White guys and racist Black guys with a White guys cant jump philosophy. Plus, all the crap that you are flinging can also be said about the other fighters listed above.

 

I guess the truth about Calzaghe lies somewhere in between. He is certainly not the bum some would have you believe, and maybe not as much of a cherrypicker, but nor are his opponents great or elite.

 

For the sake of argument, why don't you haters go ahead and name some wins that fighters had who you would call 'great'? The opponents aren't allowed to be past their prime or moving up in weight, however.

Sure, you'll be able to come up with a few, but now take those same fighters and look at who they lost to. If anyone's still looking good after this, please, by all means post them and their resume. Can you get 20 fighters better that Calzaghe resume-wise? And if so, do you think they could handle him p4p?