Calzaghe tried to fight Roy Jones in the early 2000's

but come on Clinton Woods? on your resume or Dariuz Michalczewski, you pick, i guess you would of preffered b hop to fight roy jones instead of dawson because that was clearly a decision based on buisness, but its wrong for boxing why should the number 1 (hopkins) and 2 (dawson) not get to fight instead he fights a rjj who just got ktfo by danny green come on! buisness is whats ruining boxing

dont get me wrong i belive roy would of beaten alot of the fighters ive mentioned, but looking at roys resume it just misses out loads of great fighters

 

sad but true. and we all lost because of this.

 

In his dreams..........he was a ducker all the way.

 

That's a fair opinion, in my opinion...that business is ruining boxing. But there's not much we can do about it. Could Jones have fought more Europeans? Sure, but the money wasn't in Europe at the time and the best fighters were all in America. That is why I've been saying. It was Calzaghe's job to make that fight happen, as dozens of foreign fighters have done for decades from Igmar Johansen to Roberto Duran. They knew they had to chase the best in the division and that nothing would be handed to them. It seems to me that Joe just expected a shot at a legend to fall into his lap.

 

ok i agree, no body cared about the fight its more easier to look now at roy jones and slate him for not taking the fight, but to be honest calzaghe was world champion for 12 years, defended for 22 times i belive, and still didnt intrest roy jones, but come on stating that eubank, collins, benn calzaghe didnt deserve a fight is ridculous considering the fighters already on his record.

come on he could of fought hopkins at the right time but didnt even B HOP deserved a rematch at the right time, which after he fought tito. roy jones is understandably one of the greatest fighters ever , but he could of been the greatest

 

Just curiously but who in the SMW division (the division Calzaghe was fighting in) did Calzaghe duck that was willing to fight him? And who besides Jones, who was in the weight division above, and not his own division was there that standed a chance of beating him? We know the story of Hopkins changing his price etc. But in Calzaghes own division at SMW he beat Americas best in Brewer, Mitchell, Sheika and Lacy. Who were these top American fighters he avoided in his division?

 

I agree 100% joe did totally expect to get the title shot, but that is not to say he didnt deserve one. just when we mention past great world champions like duran and even american fighters like ALI fought around the world. but i agree with you the most money was in america and european boxing was slim on the amount of money generated but the talent of great fighters was european not just american

 

Okay. Maybe you're right. Maybe those guys did deserve a crack at Jones. But it's the King's rules, my friend. As in, whoever has the gold/belt make the rules. Jones like to fight in Pensicola and in the states. It was up to those other guys to go and get him. No of them did. So, it's hard to fault Jones. Could he have been a better representative of the sport? Of course...After all, he was a world champion and it would have been nice to see him fight in other countries. But that's not what he wanted.

Again, this is a reccuring theme for Calzaghe fans. Every few weeks they come on here and say "Look! I've got the smoking gun! Joe really did try to make a deal with Jones. You see, he wanted to challenge the best." And in the end it just make me said. Bottom line: this isn't a court room. It's the court of public opinion. And in most people's minds, Joe didn't do enough to chase these guys down in their prime. That's why his legacey is often in question. He never beat a great fighter in his prime.

 

True i agree, I followed calzaghe from his early days against a young impressive robin reid, i followed calzaghe when i was a younger and in all fairness the calzaghe factor never really impressed the british public never mind american, he was usually booed for being a welsh fight here in england he was very much on the back of hamed and hatton, but i followed him, and many different factors contribute to this of the "avoiding"which we havent talked about such as frank warren, who has guarded calzaghe for his entire career. taking calzaghes eyes of the best fighters to earn pay checks fighting mario veit and fighters like that.but he did want to fight them and In all fairness the decade of late 90's on wards have been forever ran by the buisness side of boxing and not the heart of the fighter.

 

Why is the hopkins fight always so easily brushed aside. Never see any real response to it . Bottom line is HOPKINS backed out and ducked Calzaghe so why is it ignored. Calzaghe was willing to fight in Hopkins backyard so that shows he was willing to move. Have any of the haters ever stopped to consider the fact maybe calzaghe really was ducked?.
Ok various conflicting sources on RJJ but a lot seem to suggest RJJ and his gang did not see Calzaghe as worth the risk financially and + RJJ moved up a weight
Hopkins DUCKED calzaghe
So who else did calzaghe supposedly duck realisticly?, remeber to take into account he was the champion so dont go throwing around names of people without belts ect.

 

no replys?

 

No legit ones anyway. I'm a Calzaghe fan and I REALLY wish he'd have moved out of SMW sooner, once it became apparent nobody would fight him. He spent YEARS chasing Ottke and the other belt-holders. Imagine if he had gotten those unifications...oh freaking well, Calzaghe exposed an overprotected fighter who never deserved the title in the first place. He really, and I mean really, should have moved to light-heavy and chased Jones, etc.

Part of me thinks that Calzaghe was naive, always thinking the big fights and fame were just one more win around the corner. But part of me (now that he's said as much since retiring) thinks that he was content to stick around waiting: If the big fights came, fine, Joe wasn't going to run away. But if they didn't, he was fine with sitting around defending his title until something bigger came around. He wasn't willing to risk it all to go get that career-defining fight. If he was to lose, there goes his record, and with his lack of name-status, he probably wasn't going to get a second shot. So if he vacates at SMW and goes after Jones at 175 and loses...he's got nothing.

Not to say I'm blaming Calzaghe...the blame rests with Hopkins for ducking him in 2002. That was a fight Calzaghe would have won, and it would have set him up for a weight class switch by giving him some name recognition.

 

Good post. Add in that there were a couple of years in there where Calzaghe was in a fairly messy divorce along with his well documented hand problems and the fact that he has just never seemed that much of a naturally positive person. He did pretty much stagnate for a couple of years pre-Lacy.

 

Roy Jones was the P4P king, and the bigger name...

His demands were simple, he would stay in the states under pretty much any circumstance.

If you wanted a crack at him, you had to submit to his demands, this is actually quite common in boxing.

Roy's ego may have gotten in the way to possibly make those fights happen, by giving in a little bit.

But to say he "ducked" those fighters is completely foolish.

 

^^THIS^^

Who cares about all this crap anyway? Joe is the most overrated fighter ever by his own fans. If joe wanted to prove he was more than a slap happy smack talker he would have crossed the pond where all the big fights were/are and took short money until he built up a name for himself.

In the end he beats a SUPER shot RJJ and Ancient Bhop (who school a much smaller and one denominational Pavlik but has ducked anyone good since) and now he is a God . . . give me an eff'n break. To top it all off he ducked Froch in the end . . . lol . . . Froch! this guy was good but to say he his as good as some here say is a joke!