Calzaghe says he offered Pavlik a fight after Lacy

If he loses to Jones now. It would prove beyond a certainty how much of a comfort zone fighter Joe truly is/was. We all know for a FACT (including Joe) that Joe would NEVER beat a prime Jones let alone be mentioned alongside him. The same can be said of Hopkins and a prime Eubank. Joes record is littered with journeymen as well as some decent B level fighters but throughout his tenure at 68 all the fights that mattered simply never happened and there was always an excuse. Fighting Jones and Hopkins at this stage does nothing for Joe other than to fatten his wallet and kid the fans that have always supported him.

 

Agree

People seem to think these offers are concrete from the moment they are made

Much more likely feelers are put out to a bunch of people and then the list of possibles is refined

Joe claiming Pavlik wanted none of it is a bit disingenuous though, I doubt it was ever a serious go-er

 

This is very true. But wasnt Froch Joes mandatory for the WBC that he gave up at 168? If so Froch deserved his shot. As an all British matchup it would have been great PR for our boxing much like Witter Hatton -that didnt take place..

 

Well Calzaghe wanted to fight old man Hopkins. It's all about the money with Joe, that and his unbeaten record.

 

Me thinks Joe C is talking the brown stuff here.

 

that'll be Calzaghe talking out his ringpiece yet again.
isn't anyone even interested in this fight against a shot Jones?

 

I'll be watching it, but I'd much rather it was against Pavlik. Like it said in an eastside article the other day, it should be the other way round with Jones-Hopkins and Calzaghe-Pavlik.

 

Cant really be interested in a guy fighing a commentator..........

 

I remember after Pavlik Taylor I...Calzaghe was mentioned but Pavlik clearly stated he wanted to stay at middleweight and make some defences first.

Something along the lines of "Iv worked this hard to win the title now i want to defend it"

People forget the past and just say "Joe ducked him" makes me laugh.

 

i've long given up on calzaghe. He might have a sports network manufactured record but history books will point to the fact its arguable he lost to robin reid and hopkins. . . He's shy'd away from his one proven live challenger. Lacy will be a no mark unfortunately, kessler will have a euro bum career ala sven ottke and dariuz micelzewski. Hopkins deserved the win, so did reid, eubank was past it and took the fight short notice. . . Not a great legacy on close inspection.

 

That is bull**** and you know it.
It should be enough to argue that Calzaghe is just in it for the money and that he is attempting to con his fans into thinking that this is a meaningful fight.
We all know that it isn't a meaningful fight and that he is lining his pockets before he hangs up his gloves. But he DID beat Reid(only just) AND Hopkins(who hardly laid a glove on JC all night) - no two ways about it.

To pretend otherwise is an attempt to bolster your bad opinion of him.

 

The Lacy fight was meaningless. The kid was a prospect and had no business in any ring with Joe. But the US audienced hyped the kid tremedously and he was in for a beating. I just didnt expect it to be that bad of a beating. He gets props for beating Kessler who had a nice shiny record but unfortunately no one knew who he was. Il be honest i still havent got a clue who he is. As for Eubanks and Hops give me a break. If those are the fights that Joe thinks his career is hinged on the mans an idiot. He could have achieved so much more but it was easy money on home turf.

 

Scoring a fight is entirely subjective. I had Hopkins as the winner. I dont score points for aggresion or punches that simply dont land. It was a very tough fight to score but the facts remain Joe couldnt even put it on a 44 year old man. Thats POOR. As for the Reid bout thats ALWAYS been seen as spurious decision. Yours is just an opinion much like everybodies.

 

Yeah but you can also argue he beat Reid and Hopkins (whose faking of the low blows was a disgarace) Kessler is a damn fine fighter(though I don't understand why he avoided the very ordinairy but big named Miranda) and Eubank wasn't as past it as is asumed.(Also Calzaghe was a novice in the pro game at the time)



I do agree with others when they say he's an oportunist however.
Bunce was having a go at american heavys recently, he may wish to look closer to home. Boxing seems incredibly cynical at the moment.

 

I started a thread a while back were I stated that Calzaghe's legacy may well depend on what Kessler does in the rest of his career. If the Dane turns out to be a solid P-4-P top 20 fighter and wins a few big fights then it will reflect well on Joe that he beat him.

I stick by that.

You can pick holes in the wins over Lacy (hyped up nobody) and Hopkins (over the hill). Like Jeff I believe that Reid beat Joe back in the day, but that is my own opinion (the result still stands as a win for Joe)

Unfortunately Kessler seems to have done **** all since his loss to Joe. But he is still young enough to get a head of steam up and go for the big fights. At the moment I'm just not sure how good Kessler is.