Floyd Mayweather vs. Joe Calzaghe, who was better/greater?

You can disagree with me.

It’s all good.

It’s why the forum’s so great.

It would be boring if we all agreed on everything.

You know that I love you as a poster.

I really appreciate the time and effort you put into all of your great threads.

You have exaggerated here though. Ha!

Joe was great. And again, a southpaw with his attributes would absolutely have caused Floyd huge issues. Absolutely. But to say that he’d have dominated him is just way off the mark. Again, Joe had flaws.

As great as he was, he never dominated an elite level fighter in his entire career.

If they were the same size, Floyd would still have been the better overall fighter.

I know that styles make fights, but Floyd would still have been the favourite for me.

Both guys were too great to get dominated.

 

I can’t agree with that.

 

Regardless, the guy I was quoting said that Calzaghe's opponents were past prime with the notable exception of Kessler. Ok, granted that is true. The two ATG opponents he defeated were solidly past their best. But the irony here is that all the ATG's that Mayweather fought were over the hill too.

 

If they were the same size I would favor Joe to beat Floyd. Fighters don't scale up. Mayweather already lacks workrate. Scale him up many weight classes and he has even less workrate. If you could make Floyd a Calzaghe sized man then he would flat out get outworked. You would watch the fight and go yea Floyd showed skill, he looked just as good, if not better than Joe in the ring. But then you tally the scorecards and you have to keep giving Joe rounds because Floyd just isn't busy enough.

 

Yes Calzaghe was one of the best fighters of the 90`s and came forwards, Floyd made himself difficult to beat by fighting on the backfoot that is a lot easier, two very good fighters.

 

Everything Hopkins had success with in that fight - counter punching, potshotting, defensive movement etc a prime Floyd replicates in much better fashion. Factor in his much faster hands and feet, and remove the stamina problems of a 43 year old Hopkins and it’s hard to imagine anything but a Mayweather win.

 

Again, fighters don't scale up. Floyd should be fast. Basically anybody 140 and below at the world level is fast.

 

That’s right.

Floyd never beat an ATG whilst they were prime.

He has better wins than Kessler though.

 

I meant in relative terms. A prime Floyd obviously has every physical advantage over a 43 year old man.

 

Stop!

 

PBF.....

 

Are you joking here??? There's plenty of fighters below 140 that don't have fast hands and some are even slow

 

I’ve no issue with anyone picking Joe. But anyone claiming that Joe would have dominated him is talking absolute nonsense.

A version of Floyd the same size as Joe would have been a better fighter than Andre Ward and Bernard Hopkins IMO.

Joe couldn’t just outwork everybody.

Floyd had incredible hand speed, a great defence, a precision like right hand that Joe was always susceptible to, with better overall skills.

Joe never dominated or clearly beat any guy on Floyd’s level.

 

Canelo is an atg and pbf schooled him