BRITISH FORUM ANALYSES: Bob Fitzsimmons vs Joe Calzaghe@168lbs

To be honest I don't think there is any particular time when you can safely say that the modern era begins. The sport has slowly evolved. For example, although many decades seperate Jack Dempsey from Fitzsimmons, you can still see vestiges of Fitz's era watching any Dempsey fight. Similary, watching any Joe Louis fight you can still see vestiges of the Dempsey era.

However, the sport has evolved too far to make a fair comparrison between Calzaghe and Fitzsimmons. That's too big a window.

 

Was Calzaghe prime for that fight?

 

Not true. Punch power (as the cliche goes) is generally the last thing to go. Hand speed and timing are amongst the first.

 

Anyhoo. This is a Calzaghe-Fitz thread, lets not derail it.

 

Gotta call you on this one. You can't try and analyze a fight by saying puncher A hits very hard, therefore he will win by KO. That's the very definition of lazy analysis.

First, he actually has to catch the other guy with a clean, full-force punch. Often this doesn't happen in an entire fight, especially against someone with decent defence. Second, it has to put them down, which few clean punches do, even from very heavy hitters. How many punches did Tyson have to land on Thomas before he went down, how many did Douglas land on Tyson before he went down etc? How many did Hearns land before Duran got stopped? There are almost no punchers in boxing history who regularly get one-punch KOs, and especially not against fighters with solid chins. Third, it has to be too much for the chin to take. Hagler for example took lots of clean punches from heavy hitters in his career and was only down once from a slip.

Calzaghe had a very solid chin, never being stopped or seriously hurt in a fight. He had good defence, ducking and slipping punches regularly. And he had good foot and head movement. All this mean that it will be pretty hard to knock him out, even for a big puncher. With someone like Fitz, of course it is possible. But lesser men than Calzaghe beat Fitz, so to say it is an inevitability just because Bob can bang is silly IMO.

Fitz being able to potential stop Joe is an edge in his favour, I will give you that. But Calzaghe has many advantages of his own that are just as likely to give him the victory. Can Fitz cope with his movement and hand speed, his far higher punch output, or his insane stamina? Especially if we take prime Calzaghe before his hand injuries.

 

But if the fight took place, by definition either it's taking place today and Fitz has been training 10+ years with modern techniques, nutrition etc. Or it's taking place 100 years ago and Calzaghe has been using 100 year old techniques and diet. So that's a bogus argument.

 

Actually you can, because George Foreman fought for the world heavyweight title at age 45. So we can compare one fighter, at maybe 60% of his physical condition compared to in the 1970s, to fighters from the 1990s. As we see by the results, that shell of a 70s fighter did very competitively and won a title bout. So clearly prime Foreman would have done far better, probably cleaning out the division.

If a 70s fighter can not only compete in the 90s, but totally clear out the division, then it disproves the idea that each era is better than the last. At the very least, it lends no support at all to the notion that older champions would get stopped in 60 seconds.

 

Louis fought bigger men than Lewis and Vitali and he demolished them. Tyson was beaten by Holyfield who was smaller, slower, and lighter-hitting than Louis. Tyson couldn't put Mitch Green or Quick Tillis away, how is he going to stop a guy like Joe?

 

I take all your well made points, however I think that the rules of the game would negate a lot of what you have said--- other than the being able to catch him clean point. Fitz would be wearing gloves of the era (4oz IIRC) whilst Calzaghe would be using near pillows in comparison. If both landed I suspect that only one of them would be going down and it wouldn't be Fitzsimmons.....this based purely on equipment used.

 

Fair point on Foreman :good but 60% of his physical conditioning ? i think higher than that but deffo not in his prime ... but he fought Shannon Briggs who a few months later was KO'd severly by a prime Lewis ! ...

 

Joe lost his last fight to a certain Marciano who was only 5'10 .... so the arguments regarding bigger fighters dont stand up ! ... Prime in the zone Tyson was a match for anyone who ever laced the gloves in the division ... Louis , Marciano , Tyson , Lewis , Ali and Frazier ... how about that for a Heavy weight all time super six ... :bbb