Did we all forget the Joe vs Bika fight?

Bollocks huh?

Well lets have a look at the list of fighters on the P4P list since 1997 when Calzaghe won his title against Eubank that were in the 160-175 range. Now I'm not saying he loses to any, or all of these guys, just that he might have.

RJJ
Antonio Tarver
Bernard Hopkins
James Toney
DM
Jermaine Taylor
Winky Wright

That's a lot of missed opportunities. Now how about a list of fighters that would have been a hell of a lot more compelling than Sakio Bika, Manfredo, Evans Ahira, Kabary Salem, Tocker Pudwill (come on now thats just embarrasing), Rick Thornberry and on and on and on.

Glen Johnson
Clinton Woods
Eric Harding
Montell Grifin
Eric Lucas
Markus Beyer
Anthony Mundine
Sven Ottke
Danny Green
Reggie Johnson

and on and on and on.

 

one problem with your list

RJJ
Antonio Tarver
Bernard Hopkins
James Toney
DM
Jermaine Taylor
Winky Wright

not a single one of these fighters you listed had a single 168 fight from 1997 to 2007 and calzaghe has not had a single fight at any weight but 168 since 1997 so how can calzaghe be considered of having missed his oppurtunity to fight them.

its like me saying that dawson has missed his oppurtunity to fight D/M .

your timeline is all out.

 

sven ottke i agree on , the money should have been found to make that fight, but lets be honest american tv had no intrest whatsoever in ottke and as far as i am aware not a single fight of his 20 defenses was ever shown.

in fact a great exciting fighter like D/M only had one fight v virgil hill aired stateside that i am aware of.

 

the fighters on the bottom list would have made for a much better resume and spectacle, than a lot of the garbage warren spoon fed, i agree 100%

 

Er, I do believe Kessler was the biggest boy he could possibly fight. The fighters you speak of are not even SMW, so I'm not sure what your point is????

 

Eh? Kessler was the best opponent in the whole world Joe could have faced (we've been hearing it enough recently) and he beat him. No controversy or complaints, he was simply better, yet you think it proves Joe is beatable? Who the **** by?

 

1/because hbo wanted him to fight manfredo rather than steiglitz.
2/money
3/warren

 

sonofdarkness you are blinded by your ignorance. Calzaghe took the title from one of the best 168lbers in history. Has held the title for over 10 years, best the snot out of lacy -bet you hoped lacy was the "nest big thing" also-and beat kessler, who is the second best SMW in the world. You should stop posting cause your backing up the board with too much....sssssssHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!

Who the hell has hopkins beaten? oh yeah, I forgot the Robert Allen trilogy, or that clown from France. Truth has it his biggest win was against a welterweight in Trinidad. You add it up...

Lets hope B-bop fights Calzaghe. Then when hops loses, what will you do? what will you say?

 

You have proven my point by stating "Calzaghe has not had a single fight at any weight class since 1997". EXACTLY!!! I listed fighters that were in the 160-175 lb. range between 1997-Present. The lighter weight fighters I listed had to go up or down a couple of weight classes to prove that they were the best, and to fight the best. Calzaghe never did this, while fighting in what has historically been a weak,transition weight class. And even with it being a weak weight class he still managed not to fight the best at SMW over a TEN YEAR PERIOD! If all fighters were of the mentality that Calzaghe is then we would not have had the following fights-

Pacquiao-Morales
Pacquiao-Barrera
JMM-Barrera
JMM-Pacquiao
DLH-Mayweather,Mosley,Trinidad,etc.
Trinidad-Hopkins
Leonard-Duran
Hearns-Hagler
Leonard-Hagler

Etc.,Etc.,Etc.

Also to write that its like saying Dawson missing the opportunity to fight DM is just being ignorant of the argument that is being presented to you.Dawson was somewhere around ten fights under his belt by the time DM lost to Gonzalez.

The fighters I listed were all either 1 weight class above or below and in their prime during his ten year "WBO reign". They were ALL fights that would not have been out of the question IF Joe had really wanted greatness, not just the Tocker Pudwill's of the world. Its really unfortunate because a lot of those fights very well could have been FOTY candidates.

And also, since when has having all five belts meant jack ****. Its all about linear and or the generally accepted champ at a weight class which Joe has been for about 4 years not 10.

 

Beating blown up or old guys like DeLaHoya,Trinidad,Winky and Tarver is not as good as beating young champions in their real divisions.When Hopkins DID actually fight a young MW he lost and since then Taylor has turned out to be not quite as good as people thought.

 

Hop has taken care of his body and has not been in too many wars, so at his age he has the experience to be compettitive, I see the Calzage fight being a close affair but if Joe wins by brutal KO, everyone will say B-Hop was shot

 

One could say that until THEY fight Joe, they are not champs either.

 

joe is th best supermiddle in the world fullstop...ive never been a huge fan of joes but he did the job n did it well...i know all i care about is that joe keeps the momentum going and fights more of the best fighters... i think mikkel is a big part of why this fight happened and shows a fresh attitude that we should all b glad 4 because we know if mikkel becomes champ he'll look 4 the best 2 fight again...good fight joe and kess thanks