Calzaghe the Legend

Michael Johnson looked like he had shat his pants when he ran,he had his own style of running, but he is still one of the greatest athletes of all time. You don't have to follow the rule book. If it works for you within the rules, then it works. Given the choice i'd rather watch someone with a unique style than someone that does everything textbook. That's just boring, Hopkins and Mayweather are prime example of how textbook boxers can be boring to watch

 

I like Joe but i cant for a second claim that he looked good against Hopkins. I still gave him a very close win but some of his slaps just looked terrible. Thankfully that is the only Joe fight that I've found so hard to watch. I beleive that if the fight happened again that Joe would win clearer. Hopkins would try to be busier and therefor leave more opening for Joe to land flurries. I'd like to think that the flurries would be a little more textbook.

 

Joe's so good it defies logic.

 

China hand Joe consistently underrates Joe !

 

Because Joe can be best described as the guy who walks in another man's footsteps in the rain.

Just look at his "title fights". Up until he was 34, literally every opponent was AFTER someone else had already beaten, KOd, showed the way, or exposed that fighter. Then Joe fought and defeated them. Whether intentionally (select here) or accidentally, Joe was hardly a risk taker. You have to wonder why? He didn't seek greatness and didn't fight a SINGLE elite fighter while they were still PRIME. He actually went backwards after Eubank fighting lessor fighters for about eight years. At the end of his career he had no choice but to finally take some risk as he couldn't very well keep marching along setting records for consecutive defenses and avoid the other belt holders (or he would have had to accept the Sven Ottke label he basically deserves) without being a laughingstock.

So, he fought JL and Kessler (didn't look very good against Bika, actually took a fight with Manfredo as well), looked non-elite versus Hop, and handled a completely shot RJJ (getting dropped in the 1st and hurt at the end of the sixth). He gets **** because there is a preponderance of Brit/Euro/"pale" posters (lol) on ESB who need a hero so he gets overrated and it bothers reasonable boxing fans to hear that bs. If he was viewed more honestly as a really good fighter perhaps even at the very back of the line of really great fighters he wouldn't be such an object of derision around here. The same people that extoll his virtues then make the cardinal sin of attempting to degrade the records of the great fighters when anyone with eyes can see from the tape the difference between those fighters in their prime and Joe.

 

Calzaghe is a terrific fighter, the ones that dont like him dont admit how good he is but they know themselves how good he is & I know they know.

 

Anyone that boxes as an elite top 10 fighter is tough or they wouldnt be there.

The fact that he is 46-0 at 36 yrs of age means he was obviously tough enough so far in his career.

You dont like him... we get that... but dont try say he aint tough, thats just silly.

 

If you had been on here longer, you might see that some of the over-the-top tongue-in-cheek praise of Calzaghe from some of his more extreme fans was in reaction to the constant put downs of the man ( 2005 and on) and the characterization of him as another 'Euro-bum' when clearly he was a lot better than that.

Same things used to be said of Lennox.

Same stuff was being said this time last year of Arthur Abraham.

Post after post on what Miranda was going to do to him, before he stopped the panther in 4.

It's true some may over-rate Calzaghe, but of all the posts ever made on here on the subject, I'd bet far, far more underrated him.

 

I think Joe's a great fighter and i think the reason some people hate him on here so much has a lot to do with making something of yourself.:rasta

 

The most perfectly put post I've ever read on Calzaghes career.

Round of applause for that man.

 

Calzaghe is such a slapping puss that no one can beat him:rofl:rofl

put that in your crack pipe and smoke it! :deal