Greater Fighter: Vitali or Calzaghe

Hard to compare them. Joe for the majority of time was in england defending his WBO belt and not doing much more than that. Ottke was the best fighter in that weightclass during that time imo. But late in his career he stepped it up considerably which might give him the edge over klitschko.

Vitali to my knowledge faced everyone he could possibly face within the time frame available, with the exception of his brother. The odd story with Byrd and LL is known. He lost both fights, both due to injuries, in both cases he was leading on the cards. If he had beaten both we d not be argueing here. If he had lost both fights due to the opponent being much superior, we d not be argueing either.

Heavyweight for being the heaviest weightclass maybe is more in the focus than supermiddle where calzaghe spent most of his career.

I give Joe props for Kessler and Lacy,
B - Hop is a borderline case a) the fight was too close, b) b hop out of his natural weight c) he was 7 or 8 years older than joe. The JOnes he faced was washed up and the win accounts for nothing in my book.

 

Vitali's resume is so thin, it's laughable. Calzaghe doesn't have a great resume, but he at least beat Kessler, Hopkins, Eubank, Reid and Bika, all top 5 fighters in his division.

Vitali made a career out of fighting plodding bums and letting his brother Vladimir take on all the talented contenders.

 

Calzaghe is the better all-round boxer

 

Vitali is better fighter FOR SURE, their record are pretty thin so i dont know to who that goes, not going to bother with that!

 

However, I guess if they ran around calling themselves 'The Best Ever', without actually having any willingness to prove it, you'd take their word for it, then they wouldn't be overratted at all, right?

 

they are both very similar - both fighting weaklings in droves, etc.

calzaghe fought more weaklings though. and vitali never waited till the best were pushing getting into 40smething before emerging from hiding to beat his cheat and call them out.

though you may argue that calzaghe partially unified, vitali could have partially unifed too if he had taken the calzaghe route, winning an additional title and then running away from its defences instantly.

on the other hand calzaghe did not have a borther to win his fights for him. on the other hand why would you need a brother to win your fights when you are fighting people you cant lose to like a string of calaghe unknown weaklings?

 

byrd ****s in calzaghes hands

 

He what's in calzaghe's hands

 

pooops

 

Gotta be Calzaghe. He beat past prime greats where as ole Vits had his face torn off by one.

 

Vitali didn't make his legacy on past greats like Holyfield, Tyson or Bowe. Lewis had one if his best performances in the Rahman rematch. Vitali made him Lewis look old.

Who's greater? Hard to say. 168 pounds is not a glamor division, heavyweight is. Both will be in the hall of fame.

 

What legacy? The one built on a LOSS to a faded overweight Lewis?

 

You can make a case of Joe Calzaghe beeing the man at SMW, taking out top names like Chris Eubank and Mikkel Kessler, and slapping down mandatories for breakfest. At LHW he would have needed to do a bit more than to s**** by a still good but aging fighter in Bernard Hopkins. I don't rate his victory over Roy Jones Jr.

Vitali Klitschko was never the man. He beat up a bunch of highly ranked fighters but lost against the two best boxers he ever faced, in Lennox Lewis and Chris Byrd.

Calzaghe easily has the better resume.

 

lol. WOuldnt say Blown out. But he is the greater fighter

 

vitali

calzaghe didnt beat a hall of famer within 5 yeas of their prime in his career

vitali didnt get dropped from my memory

h2h i think vitali gives any hw in history a tough fight given his toughess, chin, size, reach, jab,

whereas i think prime roy jones would have beaten calzaghe clearly