Problem is, many dont know the era and who he beat and class him on todays resume with wins over Kessler and Bika, because thats all they know, but it is far greater and makes todays era look weak. Many wouldnt realise Mkertchyan has a better SMW win than many of the current top 10 today. Out of the 24 title fights Calzaghe had, 17 were against fighters who were or became top 10 rated. thats not including any that had been and had not long departed. If you look at some of wins like Sheika consider - Froch beat old faded, boiled down G Johnson in a close fight, yet Sheika beat prime SMW Johnson to get a shot at Calzaghe, which shows how the era is today. There are further examples. Having wins over SMW champs - Eubank, Woodhall, Reid, Veit, Brewer, Mitchell, Lacy, Kessler, Bika as well as the other top SMW he beat and winner of 22 SMW title fights as well as winning all of the titles, he is the most accomplished SMW ever with best SMW resume ever. As for a mark out of 10, well at the moment he is who makes the full 10 marks at SMW
He's got a very underrated resume. Since winning the belt from Eubank, many of his opponents would be top 10 ranked today.
His career fizzled out with a whimper against mediocre and/or shot fighters and the list of names is far from impressive. We will never know how good he really was and cannot see many outside Wales reminiscing about a legend or many great fights. Evans Ashira and Roy Jones Jnr 10 years after his sell by date in his final fight will always be ammunition for the knockers. The sad thing is that the younger people will remember him as a cokehead.
Problem is, if you tear apart Calzaghes resume to say he was overrated then you are destroying Ward as Wards best wins are Kessler and Froch. Kessler who was already beaten long before by Calzaghe and Froch who many daily state was nothing compared to Calzaghe.
its almost always a " last minute replacement" with joe calzaghe. joe promises someone good, then fights someone ****. 10 years of it. boxrec didn't help you notice that either.
many say he would beat him too. its what transpires that counts, and what transpired is calzaghoo turned down froch when he was getting good. whats froch got to do with calzaghe, apart from calzaghe avoiding his mandatory against froch?
My biggest problem is more to do with the weak defences he made over a long period. There is no dispute that he was top class, and as a big froch fan, I have the fight 60-40 in Joes favour, but if you go through Joes record there are several big names but quite a few cans which IMO dilute his resume