Calzaghe the best ever- you're having a giraffe

If you want to go down that road.... didn't Taylor officially beat Hopkins twice, before Pavlik beat Taylor twice, the same Pavlik who got beat by Hopkins - it's the old styles make fights argument. The Hopkins win is a good one no doubt, but it is indisputable that Hopkins had real bad stamina issues in that fight; ultimately brought about by his old age - and exploited by Joe who had the style and skills to do that.

 

I agree, it doesn't take a boxing expert to see what Taylor and Calzaghe have in common, why they beat Hopkins and why Pavlik couldn't. The only thing the Hopkins-Pavlik fight shows is that Hopkins wasn't shot as some people were saying.

 

I see a lot of myself in that author.

 

Truth be told, this is an opinion piece rather than a strict feature. It's supposd to create discussion with a strong point of view and it's certainly done that on here. The Indy/Sindy do cover boxing better, with greater coverage, than the other qualities. I like Alan Hubbard's stuff.

 

IMO if it sparks debate (as it clearly has) then the author of the article has done us a service. But comparing greats both past and present is never going to be an exact science. Upon analysis, the whole boxing package then and now is totally different e.g. in the past fighters fought on a more regular basis over longer durations, but can we be convinced that they would stand up to the pro's of today? Today's fighters are arguably fitter and stronger and possibly pack punches that are potentially more dangerous. So is it fair to compare the past against the present?

For what it's worth, of course Calzaghe deserves his place in history. His record speaks for itself - even if you shave off the fights that you consider to be non-events. An amazing number of so-called "experts" (names withheld to save their blushes) were predicting a RJJ win last weekend. But in truth, Joe C did a number on him and at times it was painful to watch... perhaps just as well that doesn't pack the kind of punch that could spoil an opponent's retirement.

One of the best threads on this DG in a while. IMO of course!

 

The problem with the piece IMHO is whats he's used McGuigans spur of the moment hyperbole as a foundation for the piece when there was no need.

 

James Lawton is a tremendous writer on a number of sports but some of the stuff he says about Calzaghe is over the top. A number of his peers in Fleet Street boxing circles are just a little bemused about his Calzaghe crusade. On the day of the fight he wrote a piece giving his best British boxers since the war and put Calzaghe at no.5 which caused a bit of a stir amongst the british press out in New York. Opinions vary, but as for his writing on McGuigan he states,

“if someone like Barry McGuigan, with all his achievements and available perspective, is not fastidious about the truths of his most demanding sport, from whom can we expect proper care?"

This comes from a man who’s never stepped into a ring, to look down from such a lofty height and state that a genuine fighting man doesn’t understand better than himself the realities of the sport he actually competed in. Whatever you think of McGuigan, Lawton’s pomposity is staggering. If Mr Lawton is going to try and dissect secondary aspects of a fighter's resume he needs to be factually accurate as he wrongly states, "It gets worse from the point of view of Joe's deification. Three years ago Tarver outpointed Jones. Six months later he blasted him away in two rounds." He couldn't have been watching too closely at the time as people who were indeed observing would remember those events happening the other way around with Jones coming back to lose a decision after the previous KO.

There's a lot of stuff flying around about Calzaghe that lacks proper perspective. However, Cliff Rold wrote a properly balanced article backed up with the knowledge of someone who is a true boxing scribe, and which Mr Lawton would do well to look up at boxing scene . com / ?m=show&id=16920

 

Cheers HOF, I've been groping around all day for a word to sum up that piece of writing and "pompous" nails it.

 

Barry would love to insert himself into Calzaghe's bottom.

Unfortunately for Baz, is that Richie Woodhall has beat him to it.