Calzaghe + Pavlik - The skinny, weedy underdogs (who always win)

People don't really like Joe Calzaghe. By people, I mean Americans.

As for Pavlik, well, two watershed victories for him and he's now being over-rated as the top dog in my view by most people, I don't think he's as neccessarily good as people want him to be.

I want him to be, because it gives us a hell of a likeable champ who overcomes odds with a style we can all relate too, blue collar hard working.

 

I think Joe was labeled the underdog against Lacy simply cause many of the people who predicted his slaying made assumptions about the caliber of fighter that Lacy was dealing with, hell I think Lacy didn't have a clue about who he was fighting. I would say Joe was labeled an underdog simply cause people thought "Well if he was good, we probably would have heard of him" and then they failed to study him as a fighter/underestimated him. I think we can say though that when Joe fought Lacy the cat was out of the bag.

I'm not sure about Kelly, I mean there were a lot of people picking him to beat Taylor prior to their fight. If you did consider him an underdog then it was probably due to his appearance, he just looks like a lanky scrawny dude with a receding hairline and its probably easy to say "Hey who the **** is this guy"? I am pretty sure Jermaine didn't underestimate him but I know Miranda might have, he found out who the **** Pavlik is.

 

more like miseducation i think.

it's true people in the US didn't know calzaghe before the lacy fight. the boxing public are largely fickle.

 

To be honest I don't think Pavlik looks weedy at all; he's a big mother ****er in the ring. He can look gangly at times, but in my opinion he dwarfed Taylor and Miranda.

I think with Joe its more the perception of his punching-style, not his physique. People talk about cuffing and slapping, but Joe throws hurtful punches, and he throws them at a tremendous rate.

I would love to see this fight come off at SMW some time soon, but I would not like to predict the outcome.

 

No I wouldnt blame him, I think he listened to what he was told and his crew trained him for a differentf fight. I dont pick up on any arrogance from Lacy at all, I think he was misinformed about Calzaghe. When he got all the way to Wales to fight at what was it in EST (3:00AM ?) out of his element against a guy who he probably thought was just holding his title for him he found out how deadly it can be to underestimate another man. To his credit though Lacy took his ass whooping like a man and probably doesnt underestimate anyone now.

 

I think Fat Joe simply misspelled "whitey" there.

 

Geez, thanks for that acknowledgment......

 

It's obvious Lacy didn't have clue. I've rarely seena guy get so outclassed like that. Lacy had a helpless, dumbfounded look on his face like 'what am I supposed to do with this guy?" He was treated like a sparring partner and made to look like an absolute amateur. I just saw that fight for the first time a couple of weeks ago on tv, and I was surprised at how EASY it was for Calzaghe. He toyed with the guy and did damned near anything he wanted to with him. It reminded me in a way of the Ali-Terrell fight, in that if he wanted to hit him in the body, he'd punish him there, go to the head, same thing. He made Lacy look so inept, like a punching bag with legs, that you felt sorry for him. It was an unusually onesided fight, more so than I expected. And remember, most of the so called "experts", the big time writers were picking Lacy to just wipe him out. Calzaghe then outfought and dealt with Kessler before beating Hopkins. Calzaghe is, IMO, much better than he looked against Hopkins, and would beat the ol' racist by a much bigger margin if they fought again, even in Hopkin's own backyard. As for Pavlik, don't think for a minute that Pavlik would win, or even look good in defeat. Joe Calzaghe is pretty damned good for a 'white boy' in my estimation.

 

It's a real blessing for Jeff Lacy that Calzaghe DOSEN'T hit any hadrer thatn he does, or else he might either been killed or suffered career ending brain damage if he did.

 

Can I just point out though.

We're talking Pavlik and Calzaghe in the same breath. I think it unfair to Calzaghe.

Calzaghe has been a champion for over a decade, has had something stupid like 22-23 championship fights in his career and he's been the underdog on a number of those ocassions yet always won.

22-23 championship fights? And we're mentioning him in the same breath as a guy who has only just started at the top level? This is the chronic underestimation of Joe Calzaghe.

 

good point people here put way too much on the way a fighter looks rather than skill. Also, Miranda is one of the most overrated fighters on here Pavlik raped him and took his manhood that fight was not even close. Miranda talked a bunch of trash and then got knocked out like a joke.