It's a persistent theme on here that Calzaghe hasn't fought anyone , that his record is padded. So I was wondering who he could have fought during his career that would have made this more impressive? Calzaghe won the WBO Super Middlewight title in October 1997 from a good former Champion, Chris Eubank. He was setup to fight Steve Collins, but he retired rather than risk a fight with Calzaghe. The big names of the late 80s/early 90s had retired, or moved to other weight divisions, but there was another batch of decent British supper-middles coming through -most of whom Calzaghe beat. So I had a look to see who were the super-middle big names over the last ten years. These were the champions between 1998-2007. (W) signifies that Clazaghe beat them: WBA - Liles, Mitchell (W), Girard, Ottke, Siaca, Kessler (W) WBC - Malinga, Woodhall (W), Beyer, Catley, Thobela, Lucas, Sanavia, Kessler (W) IBF - Ottke, Lacy (W), Bute And these were the other prominent fighters in that weight class: Reid (W), Brewer (W), Sheika(W), Vanderpool, Glen Johnson, Green, Mundine Now, of that list the only fighters that I would think could improve Calzaghe's record are Ottke and Glen Johnson - however Johnson's sucesss was at light-heavyweight, leaving only Ottke as a significant omission. And what of current fighters - Bute, Froch, Inkin? Would any of these give Joe a problem? So who could Calzaghe have reasonably fought that would have made you impressed with his record? Would the likes of Mundine or Beyer have impressed you anymore than Woodhall or Reid?
I don't think you'll get any intelligent replies with your question. The criticisms leveled at Calzaghe are usually pretty vague, and rarely backed up with any substantial examples. It's easier just to say "Stay at home Joe is overrated and hasn't fought anyone" and leave it at that.
