Calzaghe the best fighter of his generation ...

Beating probably the two best fighters of your generation when they are clearly past their primes doesn't make you the best of the generation. He's an excellent fighter, but there are several of the past 10 years or so who should be rated higher.

 

no chance for calzaghe, i rank these fighters and many more above him.

floyd mayweather
roy jones jr
bernard hopkins
jermain taylor
oscar delahoya
shane mosley
zab judah
manny pacquiao
juan manuel marquez
marco antonio barrera
erik morales
prince naseem...

 

Jones doesn't do much for Calzaghe's legacy.

If he beats Pavlik and/or Dawson and they never fight again then it will add nicely to Calzaghe's legacy as he beat two young, undefeated world champion's. As to the best fighter of his generation, well for that to happen Calzaghe would have to beat Pavlik and Dawson and then Pavlik and Dawson would have to go on to do great things in their respective career's.

Pavlik and Dawson are just the flavour of the moment (Dawson not as much after the Johnson fight). Yes they have a lot of potential but they need to build on that potential before a win over them is career defining.

If Joe beat's Pavlik then it will be impressive and a nice young, hot, world champion to have on your resume (like Lacy). But if after defeat to Joe, Pavlik get's beaten again by, say Abraham (which is quite conceivable) then the Pavlik win does not look so legendary for Joe. A good win all the same but not best of a generation win.

 

I definetly don't agree with Taylor or Judah.

You could even make an argument for Calzaghe being better than Hopkins and maybe even DLH.

 

Taylor, JMM, Hamed?:rofl

 

Judah, Naseem, Taylor, JMM......... No chance.
Bhop IMO Not above Calzaghe.

The rest I would have above Calzaghe.

 

hopkins will go down in history as one of the greatest middleweights of all time, the man went on a ten year undefeated run against dangerous fighters, you can say all you want about trinidad, but back then he was one of the most feared fighters in boxing, he was 40-0.

jermain taylor was the man to end hopkins undefeated run, he is a top class middleweight, he got a draw against winky wright when me and many other people thought he won, he should have had a 2nd round KO victory over pavlik because clearly the fight should have been stopped, but credit to pavlik in the end.

zab judah was undisputed welterweight champion, he caused more problems for floyd mayweather than any other fighter, he at his best was a great welterweight champion.

Prince naseem was just an incredible fighter, he beat kevin kelley in his back yard, he was a true entertainer, he lost to barrera because he won't big enough for the featherweight division, at bantamweight he was unbeatable.

 

you said "even according to him" implying that you believed pavlik wasn't a great figther and you also touted mayweather's "early resume", so i think the implication was that pavlik wouldn't equal some of the 'greats' mayweather beat 'early on.' I think genaro hernandez and hatton (esp at welter) for sure aren't 'greater' than pavlik, it could be a toss up with the other two (depending upon form).

But yes I agree, fmj at this point has beat more solid fighters and even if calzaghe beats jones and pavlik (makling his best wins being older jones, hopkins, eubank, and kessler and pavlik, plus add in a couple of good fighters like reid,etc), fmj might have the edge in accomplisments but it won't be that wide a margin and i don't think anyone of fmjr's wins would be much greater than a win over pavlik.

 

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If you take out the marquee names then Hopkins and Calzaghe's resume's are very similar. I would give the slight nod to Hopkins though but it's not miles better. Put in the marquee name's and i would say Joe's is better. Hopkins key victorys have been against smaller men and a weight drained Tarver. The only elite people Hopkins fought who were naturally his weight were Taylor and Jones and he lost to them. Calzaghe beat Eubank, Lacy and Kessler who were all naturally his weight.

Saying Taylor should rate higher because he should have got the decision over Wright and should have beat Pavlik because the ref should have stopped it is not a good arguement. Just as many people thought Wright won and i have seen people in worse states than Pavlik was and the ref has let them carry on. It was a world championship fight and the ref was right to let it continue. Taylor rightfully got a draw and a defeat out of those two fight's.

Judah has lost many times and often to fighter's he shouldn't have. Joe hasn't therefore should rate higher. So what if he "caused more problems to Floyd Mayweather" than any other fighter (which isn't true by the way. JLC caused more problems). He still got beat.

Basically you are using Taylor's and Judahs defeat's to justify ranking them higher than an undefeated fighter. That seem's a bit absurd to me.

 

Perhaps it was badly worded. Regardless, Pavlik has not proven himself to be a great fighter in a historical sense, since he has only defended has held his title all of 2 fights. Beating Taylor is a start, but surely doesn't grant him that status. He is one of those fighters that if Calzaghe beat him, it may look greater later on after Pavlik has been around a bit, much like Jones' win over Hopkins became greater as Hopkins became greater. Amsterdam however, doesn't feel Pavlik has that potential at all, so we have a difference of opinion.

As for the comparison of Hatton and Pavlik, Hatton wins currently. Hatton was further along in his career at the time and better established than Pavlik is right now. Pavlik has made exactly one title defense. And yes, Hatton was not as good at WW as he was at 140. But Calzaghe wouldn't be fighting Pavlik at 160 either...but most likely at 175, maybe 168. So I have not factored that into it because it's an unknown variable.

Genaro Hernandez was a long reigning champion at 130. His anonymity doesn't make him a lesser fighter than Pavlik. Pavlik is a star because he is a great fighter, but also in part because he resides in a bigger weight class. It doesn't mean he is better than Hernandez. Let us not forget that Mayweather also beat Corrales and Castillo. Jones and Pavlik are not enough to move Calzaghe past Mayweather.

Beating Corrales at the time he defeated him (Corrales was top 5 P4P and unbeaten) is just as big as beating Pavlik, if not bigger. You could argue either way. Again, so is beating Hatton, who is only being rated lower now because of the ease in which Mayweather beat him. If Pavlik were to lose, he would suffer the same drop in perception among fans.

 

what is the point being undefeated if you've got a **** resume.

has calzaghe fought anyone as dangerous as felix trinidad, no he hasn't. if hopkins lost to delahoya the excuse that would be used is that he was weight drained, that fight happened at 155, it was more comfertable for delahoya to fight at that weight than it was for hopkins. hopkins took more risk in that fight than delahoya.

judah has had the balls to step up and fight the best that are around his weight class, calzaghe never fought anyone dangerous, judah had the confidence in his abilities which clearly calzaghe didn't. judah had the balls to step up to micky ward in his 15th fight.