Interestingly Reid ducked Calzaghe while he held a title, although Reid definitely wanted a rematch -fullstop-
Johnson doesn't deal with movers the best, he also doesn't have the type of power needed to do anything to Joe. Joe would get him a clean 9-3,8-4,9-3 type of score with both at their very best. Watch Glen's recent fight with a totally shot Montell Griffin, Griffin managed a few rounds on movement, and Glen is actually still quite solid these days with his tallied up experience.
Facts: 1. JC´s resume is not all that impressive, taking in to account the years he has been champion. 2. Staying at 168 all of his career without unifying, doesn´t help his resume eighter. 3. Has the reputation of being a protected homebased champion. Myths: 1. Calzaghe fought the best available competition? 2. Calzaghe was ducked by all of the other great fighters of his time he didn´t get in the ring with? (RJJ, Ottke, Wright, Taylor, Hopkins, etc.)? No Calzaghe has NOT fought the best available competetion by far! And the reason is NOT that all of the "top guns" ducked Calzaghe. Frank Warran is notorious for not landing the big fights for Calzaghe, and everytime the excuse is that the other part don´t want to fight. This is utterly BS. Boxing is all about buisness these days, and if the money is right you can make fights happen. Frank Warren has kept Calzaghe as his cashcow after the Eubank fight. Seeking minimal risk and maximum profits.
Who cares about your opinion Blocky, your biased ignorance is so amazing that even your fellow calzaghe fans disrespect you. It took 9 years for Calzaghe to unify 2 titles. So you think that Lacy and Kessler that has ever had the balls to face Calzaghe. Meanwhile plenty of boxers ranked 15 - 25 has had no problems and several put up a competitive fight agains JC.
Not that he neccessarily ducked anyone, but Joe's resume certainly could be better. For an undefeated world champ with 20 defences, his resume is no stand-out.
The most shameless duck job in recent times was the way that Joe ducked Echols. It was funny that joe was interviewed before the fight and said that he had a deal to fight the winner, Echols knocks out Brewer then joe fights Brewer and says that its because he really won the fight????:huh
easy to say, since the fight never happened. Im not going to say that Joe is a ducker, but i will say this....There were alot of fights out there that could have been made, and alot of offers thrown his way.
Yeah, as hard as it is to think now, Antwun Echols was hyped nearly the same as Lacy for a stage. Outside the two so-called protected Euro champs Calzaghe and Ottke, Echols was the number 1 man. And being American, and a power puncher, he was the guy that would have knocked their block off and brought the title's "home"... And he was even no. 1 contendor (or no. 2) in all 4 organisations... Then he accpeted a fight with Mundine cause he offered a lot of money, lost, and became a journeyman. Calzaghe's resume should have a number of names on his resume, and a lot of the names he does should have been on his resume at different times (not after they lost or were considered declining). Lacy, Kessler and a big fight in Vegas against a p4p star like Hopkins will change a lot of that... provided he wins them.
At least it is clear that Calzaghe did not pursue legacy defining fights for most of his reign. Many fight probably has never been called or negotiated and that is not the same as ducking, but still from Calzaghe's side it has been so consequently avoided that, nomatter if you are a JC fan or not, we ought to expect more. If he would he might have faced some of Winky, RJJ, Toney, Taylor or Hopkins. Even if he had lost a few and won some it should be better for his legacy.
I recently read Calzaghe's biography and it's clear to me that in the ducked/avoided argument its clear to me that some fighters (ie Hopkins and Ottke) wanted nothing to do with JC, but also that Warren isn't in the business of giving his fighters big-risk fights if he doesn't have to. In Hatton's biography he admits Warren spoon fed him for a long time and he only got a big fight (Zoo) because he threatened to walk.
It's not too hard to move up the WBO rankings, anyone who wanted to fight him could and should have taken the WBO route like Veit.
Let's go over this again. RJJ - 175, Calzaghe brought no money in 2000-2004 for RJJ, much less than Tarver. Wright - Wright was not even at MW until 2005, and there is no way in hell Wright would have taken on JC for any amount because it's not a winnable fight stylistically, he jumped to 170 to fight Hopkins because of the money and because Hopkins is an older fighter and beatable. Toney - Toney has been at Cruiser since the late 90's. Hopkins - Wants no part of JC, JC could not drop down to MW when Hopkins was at his best and even if he could, it brought no money or interest in the states. Taylor - Multiple offers and negotiating were sent to DiBella and Taylor and it became clear that Taylor and DiBella wanted no part of Calzaghe even in Las Vegas. This was a duck. It's only been post-Lacy that Calzaghe is even really marketable as a big name for any of the other big names.
Spot on,ur Taylors hopkins winkys etc,doged calazaghe not the other way round,yes like all fighters he may be guilty of not picking the 'right fight' everytime but you cant deny him the true champion he is end of.
Johson is the only semi-legitimate claim being made -fullstop- Calzaghe actually fought over half the guys you are having to list! And the rest are no better than Mario Veit -fullstop- It is somewhat shocking people have to list fighters he actually fought and outclassed -fullstop-