Again bashing one of our greatest ever exports. Of course Calzaghe had a number of meaningless title defences, as is the same with ALL long reigning champions (he was at the top for 10 years ffs, anyone else who is at the top for that time always has the same.) I always think you need to look at what a boxer is doing before and then does after a fight to rate them accurately when looking at someone’s record. We all know what fights did before, but let’s look at a few of what Joe’s “overrated” wins did after; - Sakio Bika would remain a fringe contender at the top level and pick up a WBC world title - Kessler would stay at the top until retirement, win another title and be ranked at the top of SMW division until retirement. - Hopkins would beat undefeated and undisputed middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik in his next fight, before winning 3 more Light Heavyweight titles and staying at the top of the rankings until finally retiring 8 years later. He wasn’t perfect but let’s be honest he is a deserved hall of famer and a top top tier talent.
He was WBO champion for years in a weak division. It was a meaningless belt back then, no different to something like the IBO now. No one really cared about it. If multiple WBO defences over several years during that era are a measure of greatness and put you at the top, then Johnny Nelson and Artur Grigorian must also be right up there. It's not bashing Calzghe to point any of this out, it's just the truth. Yes, was was a great fighter but his career could have been so much better. But it's a mute point really as Calzaghe himself admitted that he didn't fancy his chances against someone like Roy Jones and would need the crown jewels to take that fight, so was happy to stay in comfort zone making alphabet defences at home against middling opposition.
Calzaghe lacked confidence, he constantly doubted himself and what he was capable of so if he didn't fancy himself against Jones back then it's understandable because he didn't fancy himself against Lacy and had to be pretty much forced into the ring, look what happened though. I'm surprised the classic "Froch would walk through him" hasn't come up yet in this thread, all of the foundations have been laid perfectly for The Cobra to enter the fray.
The Pride of Wales is one of our greatest ever with 46 fights and still undefeated. As one of his opponents once said 'boxthing is a brutal bithness'
And bhop was still ranked number one at lightheavy...which people also like to gloss over...and was competitive there for another decade
The odds weren’t that wide at all. It was 1/2 Calzaghe and 2/1 Hopkins with most bookmakers. Hopkins at the time was coming off decent form - he’d lost to Taylor in close fights. Taylor would then draw with Winky Wright who would lose to Hopkins in a sort of round robin. Inbetween the Taylor / Wright fights, Hopkins beat Tarver for the Ring LHW title (Hopkins was a 3/1 underdog), making him number 1 at the weight at the time. Hopkins would win 3 more world titles and stay at the top for another 6 years or so after that fight too.
As the saying goes, the fighter makes the belt rather than vice versa. The relative status of the different belts was also not a fixed position, and took into account not just the fighter but the lineage and quality of opposition for that particular belt in that particular weight class at that particular time. The WBO was the newest and generally the least regarded of the four major belts, but that was a fluid situation and really depended on the circumstances. At no point was the WBO ever akin to the IBO belt though; that's not a valid comparison. At 168, the WBO belt had been established by Eubank by virtue of a long, high-profile reign, which included wins over former and future champions for the IBF and WBC. The rematch with Benn was considered a unification fight, rather than Eubank looking to upgrade to a "real" title, and after the draw Eubank went back to defending the WBO belt with his credibility intact. From Eubank it passed to Collins, who was considered the #2 guy in the division to Jones, and after Collins retired Calzaghe beat Eubank for the vacant belt. It was a reasonably strong lineage in comparison to a lot of 168 titles, particularly when you look at the guys holding the WBA and WBC belts during that period. Ottke and Calzaghe were the consensus top 2 for most of the early 21st century, and the Catleys, Thobelas, Girards and Siacas of this world obviously did not have any more credibility than Calzaghe just because they held supposedly more prestigious titles. There are plenty of valid criticisms that can be leveled at Calzaghe, but the WBO title being meaningless at that time is a false narrative. It was pretty much the same as any other alphabet title.
As if there is a whole thread on Calzaghe blocking Robin ****ing Reid on twitter Who cares.........................
Calzaghes elite ability, undefeated record, HOF hugely successful career really brings him a lot of haters doesn't it. So many people are hateful and jealous of Calzaghes success. Losers hate winners And many of them hate him because they are racist, I noticed a large % of his haters are asian or black.
The best British Super Middleweight ever and I'll say it again, trained in a shed, ran up a mountain and was trained by his musician dad, didn't spar for the latter part of his career either. It reads so ridiculous that it deserves a film....
If prime Kessler was B list what does that make Froch who lost to a faded injury plagued Kessler in his own prime Have to sense a bit of an agenda from somebody who claims Reid lost 'fair and square' to Ottke, you jokin mate? His output dropped in the second half of the fight because he was having points taken away and warnings for punching Ottke in the face ffs!! "For Reid to win this fight they might have to turn off the lights and give him a submachine gun" such was the level of disgraceful officiating
Hopkins ended undefeated Pavliks career in his next fight with a ferocious beating and went on a nice run beating Pascal etc, one of frochs supposed best wins, the same Pavlik everyone was saying Joe ducked because Pavlik would have KO'd him Having said all of this, I think Joe is a bit of a stuffy ***** for sure
Joe ducked, and blatantly ducked too many fighters. I mean, he puled out of a Glen Johnson fight THREE times. Just way too many missed fights, a resume full of Tucker Pudwill type fighters and 2 over-the-hill aging gampa's. Carl Froch was a fight he should have taken and not made so many excuses not to take. This was in many ways MUCH worse than Khan and Brook not fighting each other because at least Khan and Kell Brook did fight many other top prime P4P fighters. What did Joe do? Fight nobodies and nobodies, duck here dodge there and 2 OAP's.
Agreed. It's as if this place is filled with fans who discovered Boxing in 2010. Just read Joe's book. His old man had more fighting spirit than him.
