Calzaghe vs The Nigel Benn who beat Gerald McClellan

Nah, age is irrelevant. What was Wilfred Benitez doing at 32? Or is Calzaghe greater then the greatest counter puncher of the modern era? Benn would have gone 46-0 against Calzaghe opposition. H2H he is a better fighter.

 

Benn was somewhat horrendously bad post-McClellan. Just look at his balance in the Nardiello fight and how many punches were out of range that night. If Nardiello wasn't plain petrified and could punch, he would have got Nigel out of there in a few rounds - as would have a 23-year-old Calzaghe with no stage fright!

That beating he never recovered from physically. Mentally he was still intent to swing bombs about, but physically in a technical sense he was gone. His balance became **** (literally, ****).

Compare the Wharton and Giminez fights to the Nardiello and Perez fights and it's night and day.

 

As for opposition between Benn and Calzaghe, that's night and day!

Benn fought guys like Robbie Sims and Sanderline Williams in non-title fights, and they were better than 99+% of Calzaghe's world title challengers.

 

Everytime a debate like this comes to the fold people like you slate Calzaghe off for his resume, granted it is a very weak resume but the guy was very special, just unfortunate to be too young for a Benn-Eubank-Collins era and too old for a Super 6 tournament.

No matter which Benn turns up, Calzaghe beats him as he would Froch. He stand there on the outside, peppering jabs as fast as a sewing machine. They dont hurt when thrown in singles but accumaltively they will take effect. Give the guy props and stop the resentment...

 

Why would anyone resent him? It the stupidist argument that people bring up. Why resent Calzaghe and not Benn? Why not resent Lewis? Or Naseem? Its the only argument Calzaghe fanboys have as they consider our arguments too logical for contention. :good

 

Jeff, don't you think that Calzaghe would have a counter punching field day on Benn similar to what Watson did in their fight? Coming from a totally unbiased view here because I was a big fan of Benn I can just see Joe outboxing Benn quite easily in the end providing he didn't go toe to toe early.

 

Calzaghe would be faced with an aggresive opponent capable of testing his chin, and with the power to keep him hurt. I would pick Benn to stop him. Who else did Calzaghe face capable of stopping him?

 

Kessler and Lacy had the power to do it I would say but Calzaghe was too good for them, like he would be too good for Benn. Calzaghe was always at his best when the opponent took the fight to him.

The same could be asked of Benn. Benn's power at 168 wasn't exactly spectacular like it was at 160. I could see Calzaghe taking any of Benn's shots that he landed in the early rounds and stopping Benn late more often than not.

 

Lacy stood there like a rabbit in the headlights. He was worse then Tyson against Douglas. Kessler is hardly a seek and destroy warrior is he? More a half decent super middle.... the equivilent of Fredric Sellier in Benns era.

Benn was a brutally efficient counter puncher and punched far harder then Jones, Hopkins, Salem or Mitchell who all had JC on the floor. His rapid punching would have troubled Benn no doubt but I think Benn would have timed him and once he hurt him it would have been over.

 

Fair enough mate it's your opinion. I don't agree but that's what a forum is about.

 

calzaghe's defence was not that great his hands were to low and benn was far benn hits him and he stays hit

 

So you admit Benn would need to land a lucky shot? What about Benns suspect chin? He was dropped in many fights and stopped 4 times. Calzaghe only started getting dropped into his 30s but always recovered fast.

 

Robbie Sims and Dan Sherry had success against greats/future greats by moving and Benn scored great knockouts on them, despite them moving a lot. He didn't beat a great mover, but had success against those guys and success against a great mover in Eubank twice, catching Eubank a lot more from the outside than any other fighter could, esp lead power shots.

And hey Joe moved beautifully around Lacy but recall he wasn't expected to - he usually stayed in front of opponents.


These non-title fights of Benn's are highly impressive. Lenzie Morgan was a guy who was always available to be brought in late to face top prospects and always ran them close, but he had a specific camp for Benn. While Benn always had a specific high-profile camp for his fights from Watson on but didn't really have a camp at all for the Malinga fight in '92. Morgan and Malinga both had very long left jabs, but Benn came through. Very underrated/understated, those two fights to come through. And Morgan and Malinga were much better than their records suggested at the times of those fights.

 

Malinga I believe was a much better boxer in the early 90s than when he beat Benn for the title.

 

Fair enough mate, you've explained well. Didn't mean resentment personally towards you or anyone just the forum in general. I am with toffeejack on this, Calzaghe was simply a class above that is all. People say Calzaghe ran from fighters but why did Benn never fight Hopkins/Jones/Toney.

I reckon Benn would of gassed late on and Calzaghe would have took him late on due to sheer tiredness on Benns part, ref would have stopped the fight no doubt...

Anyway Happy New Year