Atg With Thinnest Resume Ever? Joe C

How anyone cannot see Calzaghe's brilliance is beyond me - the man is a genius in the ring and a superb athlete.

 

i would not call what calzaghe does brilliance.

he does have flaws and a lot of times does not punch correctly.

but take calzaghe as a total package

handspeed/footspeed/inside fighter/outside fighter/chin/heart/defense/offense/prdigous conditioning and workrate/abilty to see what is front of him and adapt/angles/head movement/unorthodox punches and huge repotoire

and then his resume and his performance levels in his big fights in which he always always brings his A game over a 10 year period.

like him or loathe him in equal measure but do not dismiss him as a run of the mill world champ.

 

Calzaghe is a whole level better than Tarver, he'd give a much, much tougher fight than Tarver could even dream of mustering.
Before you call me a nuthugger I dont believe Calzaghe is an atg, his resume is too weak at the moment. Anyway I hate the term, I'd much rather appreciate a fighter for what he is and how he fights rather than what his legacy is.

 

Dont mean to sound like a creep but thats a perfect summary of Calzaghe. Does everything extremely well (Except one punch ko power) but nothing brilliantly.

 

Good lord. Same old ****, different day.

Calzaghe is ****ing awesome. Even Floyd will tell you that.

 

This is not a sensible thread

I will let you off, since it's Xmas

 

What has fighting at home got to do with anything? Joe has never got gift decisions like Sven ****ing Ottke, so don't even go there

All the American fighters fight at home as well. We don't deride them for doing so

Resume is one thing, talking about fighting at home is a red herring

 

By saying "fighting at home" you really mean "ah well, he's no good, coz he's never fought in America", true?

 

but its not about reputation is it.

its about what you recognise with your own eyes and experience watching boxing and fighters over a long period of time that should tell you what fighters are inflated and what fighters are the real deal.

calzaghe like say hagler at 160 has been a career 168 fighter and simply put there was not a single hopkins opponent or rival champ or fighter that went through the middleweight division and then stepped up to 168 in the last 10 years of the 168 division who did **** all

only hopkins a career middleweight brought anything to the table moneywise from 160 in the last 10 years who might have stepped up a weightclass and he did not.

none of the light middles like trinidad/odlh were big enough to ever compete at 168 and hence they retired or went back down to 154 even 147.

 

The funny thing is, if De La Hoya and/or Trinidad had got their asses up to 168 and taken the inevitable beating, Joe would get far more respect. It wouldn't actually mean anything due to size difference, but because they are 'names' the Americans would actually take notice

Joe tried to fight Hopkins years ago, he ducked like a girl

RJJ was already at LHW, and showed no interest in a fight. A lot of risk, no reward

Who the **** else is there? Toney? I wouldn't call that a massive fight personally

Too much talk of names, not enough boxing knowledge and judgment of a fighters skills in these parts

 

Yes but who out here is currently "great"? BHOP is a name at this stage, that's all. Woods is'nt great and Dawson is only a prospect.

 

Kessler is a very good fighter, everything he does from here will show you how good Joe was. Mundine is the best fighter Kessler has beaten by the way, beyer wouldn't win a round against him.

 

it's a catch 22...Joe shouldn't have to cross the pond. Proven or not, he is the undisputed man at 168. Anyone wanting that title should do it on his terms. On top of being the man, he is the legitimate draw at the weight. There is no reason whatsoever for him to have to go elsewhere.

That being said, the fact that his contemporaries (Hopkins, Tarver, Jones, etc..) have not exactly been eager to fight in the UK makes it hard to say that Calzaghe is actually on their level. Perhaps it's not his fault the fights have not come off, but until they do it's hard to put him on that level. Regardless of where the blame lies, the fights have not happened and until they do it's impossible to factually say he deserves mention amongst them.

Also, you can't keep looking past the fact that he negotiated/"injured' himself out of 2 fights with Glen Johnson...Glen Johnson may not be an ATG, but he can definitely be used as gauge...