Calzaghe The Greatest Fighter Of The Last 25 Years!

To prove to the fans world wide that he could win away from home in front of 50,000. He wasn`t up to it. Simple.

 

I CANNOT ****ING BELIEVE this "debate" has gone on for TWENTY-SEVEN pages- what the hell is there to debate?!?!??! OF COURSE anyone who has even a passing interest in boxing, KNOWS the blatant and obvious fact that Joe Calzaghe is absolutely nowhere near the top 10 fighters of the past 25 years.

Look at the best names on his resume:

One win over a decent supermiddleweight champion, Lacy. What else has Lacy done in his career to justify being called top top quality opposition? If you are going to reply to this post, please answer that question.

One win over a good supermiddleweight champion, Kessler. Again, what else had Kessler done in his career to justify being called top top quality opposition? If you are going to reply to this post, please answer that question. And, if you are a big Calzaghe fan, you should bear in mind that Joe himself says in his autobiography 'No Ordinary Joe' (written in 2007) that Kessler was unproven and untested at the top level.

One split decision win (in which it must be admitted, Joe was ineffective and pretty poor by his standards, and won on workrate alone v a 43-year-old man) over Bernard Hopkins.

I honestly cannot believe these 3 fights, and a 9-year championship career at SMW from 97-06 making routine defences against a mixture of poor and adequate opposition, is sufficient to anyone to say he is THE BEST of the past 25 years. How can anyone think that??

1983-2008
1.Pernell Whitaker
2/3.Roy Jones Jr/Julio Cesar Chavez
4.Thomas Hearns
5.Evander Holyfield

* Not enough of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello and Marvin Hagler's careers were after 1983 to really be considered in this time period IMO, but they would be light years ahead of Calzaghe if it was from the last 30 years.

IMO, Calzaghe is 1 of the 15 best fighters of his generation, on a par with guys like Winky Wright, James Toney, Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad, Juan Manuel Marquez, Kostya Tszyu and Johnny Tapia, but not up there with guys like Jones Jr, Mayweather, Hopkins, Lewis, Pacquiao, De La Hoya, Barrera and Morales.

Quality fighter yes, but the fact this thread is still being debated is just embarrassing for the ESB.

 

Get Pacquiao off that list and I tend to agree.

I know you are a ******* and all, but he doesn't belong in that company. If we are allowed to downgrade Calzaghe's wins over Eubank and Hopkins - fine but thats Pacquiao's 2 best wins down the toilet with them

Then we're pretty much relying on a fight he lost and got a gift.

 

Hopkins AGREED to $3.5 then demanded double thus sabotaging the fight. In other words he bottled it.

 

OK, we'll ignore the fact that Pacquiao has only been a prominent world champion in the West since 2003 (5 years), has in that time fought fights against fellow HOFers SEVEN times and emerged with a great record of 5 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw, and has ascended to #1 p4p with The Ring, and has world titles at 4 weights,

while Calzaghe has been a prominent world champion since 1997 (11 years- more than double), has in all that time only fought 1 HOFer and the guy in question was 43 and clearly no longer had the stamina/energy/workrate to compete for 12 rounds, and is still ranked below Pac despite having over double the time to prove himself.

But anyway, I'm not on to debate Pac v Cal for pages and pages, because the thread is on Calzaghe as best of last 25 years, and everyone knows he most definitely is NOT.

 

Hopkins has NEVER denied it.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/more-sport/boxing/2007/11/07/calzaghe-backs-hatton-89520-20072666/

http://www.***********.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92359

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2817112.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/7078050.stm

http://betting.betfair.com/betting/...ting-a-belter-lies-in-store-as-ca-210208.html

:happy