DiBella: "Calzaghe Is One Of The Greatest Fighters Of All Time"

Every ethnic group has pride and every group is guilty of picking there own over the other it is funny when the camel laughs at the other camel because of his hump and he does not see his own hump.........Marciano,Lamotta,Graziano,Maxim,Basilio,Giardello,Ambers,Dundee,Calzage,Pastrano,Pep,Canzanari,Antufermo, quite a group to be proud of like the many black Champions,Jewish Champs,Mexicans,Irish,Germans,Polish,etc.....nothing wrong with ethnic pride......but lets not just say that one group has it and not the others

 

I dont believe that, I dont think Malanaggi has won that reconition but Marciano has and Calzage has done it but its wrong to say the Mexicans did not feel that way about Chavez and others and the blacks did not feel that way about Ali and the Jews about Benny Leonard....these were all great fighters....why is it ok for one group and not another to have ethnic pride when it is realistic

 

Never saw this epic war with prime Robin Reid. Wish I had. I watched the Joe/Roy battle again last night on the internet. Joe is one mean dude who is all about WINNING. I think Roy's weird athletic skills overwhelms Joe the first encounter. Joe is a brilliant tactician and manages to get the upset victory over Jones on the second encounter setting up a trilogy fight. Roy overwhelms the talented Welshman in the third fight because he has as Max Kellermann says "ungodly talent. " Joe gives Roy all he wants in all three fights. He is, like Roy, a special fighter. If you need convincing just watch the third round of Roy/Joe again. Joe looked like an actor out of the movie "The Matrix." Weird, once in a generation skills; kind of like prime Roy.

 

There's no way in the world a rematch is gonna happen.

 

I'm not sure what your point is with that statement. No rematch with Roy? or with Robin Reid? Both fighters were awesome in their respective primes but would be unceremoniously butchered by Joe if they fought rematches with him. Joe Calzaghe is in a whole other league right now and will humiliate all contenders who challenge him. His physical skills have diminished a bit but mentally he right NOW is a beast. If you have any doubts, rewatch the third round of Roy/Joe. His display of ringcraft, mastery of distance and non-stop offense against a still dangerous counterpuncher was a sight to behold. Prime for prime I give Roy the edge but Joe would give him the best fight of his life.

 

holy ****...you seriously CANNOT! use that fight as reference...that's CLEARLY not the same RJJ at ALL!

so no...seeing as the only round where we saw a SLIGHT flash of RJJ was in rd 1...not because of the KD either...he was confident and a bit fast...but after that...it went to ****

but im not gonna use RD 1 as a reference as how he's gonna win that fight, but just the plain logic of that Roy was WAAAAY too fast...NO ONE got close to really swarming him. Anyone that did got chin checked and tasted canvas.

 

Calm down dude!!!! I clearly said that if rematched NOW Joe wins again in even more impressive fashion. Prime for prime I give Roy the edge. Roy was also confident in the 2nd and 3rd rounds and was still very dangerous. He would have sparked almost any other fighter that night. Roy's hand and foot speed in his prime and his overall athletic ability were unreal and he proved in his latest fight with Joe that he has underated boxing ability. He set up traps for Joe and caught him and nearly K.O'ed Joe in the first round and walked Joe into a beautiful uppercut in the 5'th round. Most fighters would have folded but Calzaghe has some serious special talent and just took over. Like I said prime Roy wins. I just enjoyed seeing two awesome boxers duke it out and even though Roy is past it he gave Joe all he wanted for several rounds.

 

I missed this somehow, till this evening.

Here goes:

I didn't see the fight that way at all. I gave Bernard two of the first four rounds, and nothing after that. Upon rewatching it, I could see some case for giving him three or four of the first four rounds, but still nothing after that.

(Two of the three American judges scored it 9-3 and 8-4).

Each round was fairly close and Calzaghe did not look pretty,but Joe did enough to win in nearly all of them. After four, joe had made the adjustments and took away Bernard's gameplan, a reversal for how things usually go for Bernard.

He was knackered by the end of round six and the second half of the fight was an ugly clutch and grab affair, punctuated by attempts to buy resting time while faking low blows. Every time he tried to engage Joe, he was driven back and forced to cover up or grab and hold.

True, from time to time, he did land a decent shot here and there, but nowhere near enough to win any rounds.

The best round he had after four was ten. And he needed a break in that round to make it to the end.
He was competitive in the tenth, but only after a substantial fraudualent rest period.

No question in my mind as to who won the fight. It was the guy who came to win, agreeing to US location and US judges, because he knew with confidence how it would go down.

If there was a rematch, IMO, he would win again. If Bernard was prevented from holding as much, a stoppage is quite likely. Joe is now better suited to the 175 and Bernard did not come close to inflicting serious damage on him.

I'm not suggesting a power stoppage, but rather an inability to keep up with the workrate.


After the fight, I attributed part of the cause to Bernard's age.

Then, six months later, Bernard scored a 12-0 shutout over the next big thing, a man who had beaten Taylor twice and Miranda once. At no point in the fight did Bernard look tired.

That led me to the conclusion that Joe had been short-changed by the commentators (and , to a lesser degree, by me) when they attributed much of his Hopkins win to Hopkins' age.

It was clear that Calzaghe's style and pressure had been instrumental in preventing Bernard from fighting his fight and for wearing him out.

I believe I have just addressed these points in the first part of my response.

Saying he edged the decision on workrate alone belittles the significance of how he was beaten. You could say Tyson won most of his fights on power alone. Point is, it's a legitimate method of winning, and one that Joe has always employed.

Some folks (mostly theboxing ignorati) posted that if he'd just let his hands go more, like he did against Kelly, he would have won.

That's a bit like saying if your aunt had balls, she's be your uncle.

Joe prevented Bernard from letting his hands go. Whenever he tried to do just that, Joe made him pay and forced him back into an ugly grabbing defensive posture.

As I mentioned BEFORE the Pavlik fight, Kelly is no Joe.

And that's why I picked Bernard to beat him.

First of all, not to sound like a broken record on the subject, but Tito is a smaller guy and nowhere near as strong as Calzaghe. You can make a good case that he has a better legacy of greatness (one I wouldn't buy, but I could certainly understand the argument and respect it), but head to head, no version of Tito was ever in the same league with any version of Calzaghe. He' simply too small.

(I did predict that Bernard would defeat Tito too, and the only thing I found surprising was the number of knowledgeable fans who picked Tito)

Second, while Bernard was probably a bit better in the stamina department (and only a bit, as the man's ageing or lack of it is phenomenal), Joe had better legs then too.

I'm not saying Joe is as far past prime as Bernard, but the difference is not as great as might be imagined from just looking at their numerical ages.

And as I pointed out, Joe's style was a bigger factor than Bernard's age IMO, in the result of their fight.

And that would always have been the case. Bernard would never have been able to walk through Joe's punches.

No one of his opponents ever could. Not Eubank, not Lacy, not Kessler and not Roy.

They hurt a lot more than they look to the casual fan at ringside.

And some of his victims have said as much after fighting him (Lacy and Jones, among others).

Hopkins' conditioning has always been tip-top. He's known as a gym rat.

But Calzaghe's conditioning is second to none in the sport and fatigue was never a worry for him either.

IMO, Hopkins was not more skilled. He has a different style, but he isn't any more skilled.

As far as accuracy, defence and power, I tend to agree with you.

I believe I have explained why I feel that no version of Hopkins would be favoured over Calzaghe. I believe Calzaghe's style and volume would always pose a problem for Hopkins.

(Jones is a different story, as he was in a league of his own.)


Like you, I'm not posting to engage in an argument here. I believe we each have our own outlooks on this matter, and neither of us is likely to be persuaded otherwise.

I am merely attempting to explain my reasoning.

 

Please tell me any fight and round that peak Hopkins took breathers so I can check it out, as I have a sneaky feeling this post is just a pile of biased bollocks.

 

Hey, I'm sticking true to what I said in my original request:


I'll just ask you a simple question, and read and digest your answer, as I know you will have thought about this before so my little paragraph won't change your mind.

I only wanted as answer as you are about as knowledgable and objective a Calzaghe fan as there is on here (well, you and TFFP both are), and I just genuinely cannot understand why anyone would think peak Calzaghe could beat peak Hopkins, so I was interested in reading your reasoning.

I still disagree completely, but it was a good read and perfectly valid viewpoint. Thank you for going to the trouble mate :good

 

Prime Roy would knock him out. It took him 2 rounds to adjust to a washed up roy who doesn't have the same handspeed, foot speed and shot reflexes. Everytime Calzaghe try to come in and get offensive, Jones would make him pay and get out of the way for the return. Jones stamina was also better. I see the fight lookin similiar to the Vinny Pazineza fight in some ways. Your workrate doesn't mean anything if your not close enough to Utilize it and he wouldn't get close enough to a prime Jones and Jones also had more pop back than which is why he would knock Joe out.

A prime Hopkins Beats Joe too. He would do everything he did to Joe in their fight but more decisive.

Calzaghe reminds of Rocky Marciano. Good fighter but caught fighters at the right time.

Antonio Tarver has more of a style to trouble a prime Roy than Calzaghe does and that fight would be more debatable than Calzaghe.

 

Im not saying he was gassed & needed a breather badly in his prime but he would drop his workrate in just about all of his fights in patches & those patches are when Calzaghe would do his best work as he very rarely took those kind of breathers himself.

Ps. I find it quite ironic that YOU would use the word biased when discussing Calzaghe I get the feeling that he isnt really your favourite boxer to put it super mildly.


Botswana :thumbsup

 

People sometimes talk out their ass. Doubly so for DiBella. Almost every real boxing analyst disagrees.