"Calzaghe is very,very specisl"- Manny Stewart

Ok I will admit he's not a fraud but his fan's drive me up the wall sometimes so they need to be told, he is a massively overrated fighter though, I hated him and his **** flappy style.

 

thank you, actually i can agree with you about his fans, they are partly to blame why i cooled on Calzaghe a lot. That and the fact his legacy seems to be full of what ifs and what he could have potentialy done. Its fairly annoying when the big "0" is bounded about as some kind of reason why he is great. It would appear that you either love him or hate him, he's either great or a fraud. Im one of the few it seems who can settle quite happily somewhere in the middle.

 

Well that told me

 

A lot of his "fans" are just people who jumped on the bandwagon after the Lacy fight.

 

I really dont get how people can say he should of achieved more? What was he supposed to do ?go to germany and risk getting robbed against ottke? Why should of he travvelled to the states for jones and toney?? Why couldnt they come here. Jones doesnt get hardly any **** for shamelessly ducking DM. The only gripe i have is that he should of been the one to school pavlick for his last fight.

 

That fight was the reason i began following the sport, even if i dont particulaly like Calzaghe now i owe him that much.:good

 

You have to be having one of these

 

Dont worry Toffee i shall inform Team Elite and they will give Bill a serious shallacking!!

 

The best fighter I have seen in my lifetime, although if Mr. Mayweather has 2 or 3 more fights, wins them all, and 1 being against Pacquiao, he will go down as one of the greatest of all time, he already kinda is, but if there is a few more left for him to clean up. He will solidify his status if he does. I would like to see him fight Guerrero, Pacquiao, Martinez.

Ricky Hatton "the best Britain has ever seen"......what a load of f*cking crap.

Joe Calzaghe was on another level. ELITE.

 

For me Joe was a fine champion, a champion with great attributes and a very solid and impressive record when you cut out the crap and there's plenty of it in there sadly.

Joe for me underwhelmed us all with his displays in defending the title early on. He was put in domestic clashes with guys like Reid and Starie and didn't perform with some feeling Reid won that night.

It was for me when he fought Shieka that i think Joe finally sparked to life and maybe got rid of the hands fear inside the ring and also finally settled down as champion. From there he would take out Woodhall in fine fashion although we must temper that win with the fact Richie was coming to the end and was cutting weight a fair bit a while before that.

Sadly Joe sparked to life but his promoter would only now and then give him the tests he needed against Mitchell and Brewer. Those were the fights Joe needed to thrive on against U.S opposition and ex world champions. It also was like a mini competition between him and Ottke to see who performed better against this guys but they were solid and legit tests IMO. Problem was it would be a year between tests while Joe would drop back down two levels to face guys with padded records..

I can't complain about him rematching Veit it was a Mandatory defence IIRC but again we got more passing time fights this is what didn't help Joe he needed more signifigant fights and it was annoying when he kept pulling out of the Johnson fight i do feel they saw him as more of a threat then Lacy personally i think Enzo knew it. Anyways finally Lacy came along and it gave Joe's career a real highlight moment. He needed it, he got it and he did the job in sublime fashion.

But then again we got more passing time fights it was like ''Yes he's there, he's finally made it now build on it'' and we got Sakio Bika and Manfredo. Then we got the big one against Kessler and that's when we saw the best of Calzaghe IMO. His ability to adapt was second to none and i think it was from the 7th he took it up a gear and showed he was a elite champion compared to a good champion like Kessler.

The Hopkins fight well it was a horrible fight to score, close and not a great contest to watch but Joe got the nod. I think the reaction to Hopkins vs Pavlik summed it up many thought Hopkins was a old man and done. B-Hop's success has made that win a lot better now then it was at the time IMHO.

The Jones fight was no more then a glorified exibition. I doesn't hold much weight for me and was a bit of a cringeworthy one for me.

All in all i think Joe missed out on enhancing his legacy his own fault in some regard and his promoters plus the time he came at missing out on the great domestic rivalries although he did get a past prime Eubank.

If i was to grade his career i'd say A. He just didn't do enough to get that +. I think some of his more solid wins get overlooked a tad as well. Very good career..

 

Because I respect you and value your opinion SPB and considering we are talking about my favorite fighter so far, I will read your post in its entirety tomorrow, I'm tired at the mo, but I will come back and read that from start to finish pal and then reply. :good

 

No worries Craney, Thanks Bro :good.