Did Calzaghe avoid Ottke like the plague?

Thanks a lot for sharing that.

I really enjoyed reading it. :good

 

We've established two things.


1. I was mistaken. I didn't watch the Ruiz fight on Sky Sports with their pundits.

2. I did in fact, watch it through Sky Box Office as a one off event.


A few of my mates actually subscribed to Setanta Sports in 2007.

From memory, I watched the following fights:


Haye vs Enzo Mac

Mayweather vs Hatton

Joe vs Kessler

Joe vs Hopkins

Joe vs Roy

Roy vs Tito

Hopkins vs Pavlik


Like you say, if you subscribed, you paid Setanta directly.

But the Ruiz fight was a one off fight, on Setanta Sports - through Sky Box Office.


With regards to my replies to you, no, I'm not doing a list of bullet points.

My replies weren't that long.

You can either bump the thread at a later date, or we'll move on.


However, the two standout points that I made, were the excerpts I posted from the Ring magazine, along with the fact that Joe had the opportunity to fight Julio Gonzalez at LHW, in 2003.


Btw, a few days ago, I read the following article from the free library. (posted below)


It was just after Joe had beaten Kabary Salem, late in 2004.

He said the same thing as what he'd said before the Mkrtchyan fight, earlier on in the same year.


"There is nobody left for me as a super-middleweight."


There was no mention of Lacy or Kessler.


https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Boxing%253A%2BDOUBLE%2BACT%253A%2BCalzaghe%2Bkeeps%2Brecord%2Bbut%2Bslates%2Bhis%2Bperformance.-a0123541055&sa=U&ei=KsuiU4iHFM3K0AXZsIHoCw&ved=0CAkQFjAEOAo&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNGn8-F5mL3p0GYZUuhbR04wKnnbtA

 

Im sure Sauerland(I think) said Ottke got paid twice as much fighting in Berlin as he would have got anywhere else. He had no reason to leave Germany abnd risk his title, so he didnt.

Ottke was pretty poor in the scheme of things, neutral venue and JC stops him

 

You have been wrong with many things. Dont worry about it. Mayweather/Hatton was Sky.
As for the bullet point, well done.
I believe Erdei was Gonzalez mandatory for WBO LHW.
As for saying he didnt have anyone to fight, we dont know the circumstance as to why it was said, it could have been said to goad. We dont know. We do know Lacy was a world champ then and a big fight available, same with Kessler, so that point that you make, doesnt mean a thing.

 

but joes right, there were no more weaklings left at smw for him fight. He would after nearly a decade now have to fight someone good, or run gibbering.

 

I haven't been wrong with many things, only a few things. I did say it was from memory.

I'm assuming that I was correct with the other Setanta fights that I mentioned?

Regarding Gonzalez, Joe had the opportunity to move up to LHW, yet stayed put, even though he knew he couldn't unify the SMW.

Those actions tell you that he was more than content to keep defending the WBO against whoever was put in front of him, despite him telling people he wanted more recognition and bigger fights.

How can my point not mean a thing?

You keep telling me that he didn't go up to LHW 2004, because he'd got his sights set on Lacy and Kessler?

Yet we can see that clearly wasn't the case.

What have you got to say regarding the excerpts that I posted from the Ring magazine?

The WBO belt wasn't respected when Joe had it.

 

I can remember getting my bell rang once and hitting the grass, and my grandpa said in his deep southern draw... "You'd better get those hands up boy, you aint no Roy Jones"

 

Nobody's going to tell me that Joe wasn't content doing what he did.

We've heard from his recent interview where he spoke about Froch, that he's proud if his WBO defences.

Which is fine. But if he's happy to boast about his number of defences, he had no right to complain that he wasn't getting the fights that he wanted/deserved.

 

Ha! Brilliant!

 

bailey,

It wouldn't have been a major fight, but it would have given him some U.S. exposure, and it had've been a starting off point in a division that got more exposure than SMW. When Ottke wouldn't unify in 2003, what was left? Nothing. Lacy and Kessler had done even less in 2003. If he'd have impressed in the U.S. he could have potentially have been in the mix with Tarver, Johnson and Roy. Fighting Gonzalez would have been better than fighting Salem and Mkrtchyan etc.

As a stepping stone.

Why was it a weaker division at the time?

At the time, Lacy and Kessler had done nothing.

The LHW division had Roy, Dariusz M, Montell Griffin, Reggie Johnson and Antonio Tarver etc in it.

Those were all recognisable names.

Again, trying to fight any of those in 2003/2004 was better than fighting the likes of Kabary Salem.

If you took Sven out of the equation, there was nothing at SMW for Joe in 2003. Which is what he said himself the following year.

You have repeatedly said that Joe didn't need to move up, because he had Lacy and Kessler. But again they weren't on the horizon back then. So it appears to me, that despite saying he wanted bigger fights, he was just content to fight whoever Frank lined up for him.

I would be truly embarrassed to admit that I hadn't even read someone's post, if I'd been debating back and forth with them.

Not replying because you haven't got the time etc, is fine. But to not even bother reading it, is just ignorant. You could read it in literally 2 mins.

I'm not swayed by a magazine. I'm swayed by what I see with my own eyes.

You know that the WBO was a laughing stock back in the 90's, by respected boxing writers such as Thomas Hauser etc. We know that they moved a guy up the rankings after he'd died. That's absolutely inexcusable.

The Ring was respected, selling more copies of their magazines than any others.

 

:good