Calzaghe May Go His Whole Career Without Fighting Anyone Who Really Mattered

In all fairness, that title belongs to Mayweather.

 

So who died and made you Don Ackerman mate?

 

You American haters have only caught the tail end of his career. Sure you may not have heard of a lot of his pre-lacy competition, but he beat them all and put on many good performances.

Everyone is so keen to heap praise on Bhop (fair enough too!) but you have nothing but negative things to say about his conqueror...well if Joe Calzaghe is so **** why did Hopkins have such a hard time with him? And remember joe is ready to have his last fight, hes not in his prime like many insinuate.

Fact is he is undefeated and because RJJ or Bhop never faced him in his prime (or theirs) the debates will continue...

If you can't see he has amazing ability from his fights (most of them anyway) then you're not worth arguing with.

 

I disagree.

Kessler mattered because he was a very good champion at 168, and it was a big unification fight. And now we see that Hopkins mattered as he wasn't as far past-prime as first thought (even though I had Hopkins winning 114-113, Calzaghe deserves great credit for making it so close with a fighter of the immense quality of B-Hop).

Other than those 2 though, it really is slim pickings...

Lacy was a stunning performance against a limited opponent. Eubank was in semi-retirement when they fought. Byron Mitchell looks good on Joe's resume, but for Hopkins or Jones he'd just be another routine win, not a milestone of quality.

And after that it's just plain weak.

:good

 

If you think that Sakio Bika is one of Joe Calzaghe's four biggest wins, then you appear to have missed quite a lot of things. Not all of them likely to be redeemable, unfortunately.

 

Jones is about to be 40

 

Finally, something new to talk about. Great thread.

 

That depends how much sillier you want to make yourself look. Your call.

 

Everyone has this backwards. If joe is so poor and has never fought anybody why does everyone keep calling him out? and why do you insist on talking about him?
Why doHopkins, Dawson, Tarver, Johnson, Pavlik, Jones Jr always have the same name on their minds when discussing future opponents??

 

You're not wrong. Nothing that a bit of self-education couldn't fix, however.

 

What the hell does that mean? :huh

And is he not European anymore?

 

:rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl

 

Alone the Kessler win justifies him as an ATG - just wait, how Kessler (and maybe Abraham) will dominate the division in the years to come

 

Well, Kessler was a fellow belt-holder, younger and stronger, and was expected by many to beat Calzaghe. Kessler was the biggest challenge for Calzaghe at the time, and Calzaghe gave an extremely gutsy performance to beat him. Kessler was also undefeated.

Hopkins just won one of the biggest fights of his career, in extremely impressive fashion. Calzaghe made him look past it. Although it was a very close fight.

Lacy (also undefeated, and favoured by many to KO Calzaghe) was 'exposed' by who? Calzaghe. Calzaghe comprehensively outboxed a fighter who was being criticized by few before the fight, and absolutely everybody afterwards.

Let's be realistic about Jones. Calzaghe is doing this for the money. And why not? He's toiled away in obscurity in his own country for years, with a notoriously over-protective manager, and has beaten everyone that's been put in front of him.

He is the greatest super-middleweight ever. He defended his title 20+ times against some durable opponents (Beyer,Woodhall, Reid, Bika, Lacy) a couple of great ones (Eubank, Kessler). There weren't a great deal of world class super-middleweights post 1997, and Joe has fought some bums too, too many IMO, but this is a business - and Calzaghe is a clever man.

We would have all loved to see him fight sterner opposition, but Calzaghe is rich, an assured HOF-er, a legend in his own country, will ALWAYS be respected by boxing critics (nobody's opinion on the internet counts, including mine, sorry).

Now I'm done sucking his balls...I don't even like Calzaghe' style that much (slapboxing) - but the lack of respect for his acheivements is astounding. If he was American, he'd be touted as the greatest thing ever - but this is what you get for being born on the wrong side of the Atlantic.