how much more would calzaghe have to do to get the respect he deserves?

Me? its you seems to be spouting the same one sided drivel over and over. No1 is arguing his resume is very lacking and he could have done certain things at certain times to improve that. But people like you go beyond that and are like a train on rails that just cant stop. You cannot seem to accept he was very skilled or that people refused to fight him just like he did them. For you its all one sided with no inclusion of the many exernal factors that effect peoples careers. Try to show some balance and lack of bias if you can.

 

Dude, the pot calling the kettle black. Calzaghe was an elite boxer, but not a great one. He beat a lot of good boxers, but he never beat anyone who was great, or still great in the cases of Jones/Hop. For ****s sake get over it, you cant talk a boxer great. Now Bute on the other hand, is headed for greatness if he can keep it together.

 

I can see both Ward and Bute are great because of the skills they display when they fight but using your methods i guess Bute is merely an average fighter and Ward poor because of who they have beaten.

 

I said "if he can keep it together", and I dont give a **** about ward, or Calzaghe for that matter, over and out.:hi: Mediocre British great white hype.

 

Why are we even bothering at this point. Show a little common sense and quit bringing up **** fighters Joe beat and producing pages of excuses for every fighter Joe decided not to fight. You act like putting a fight together is so insanely and difficult and that there were 40 or 50 guys out there so scared shitless of Joe that was impossible to find anyone for Joe to fight. It wasn't until the Lacy fight that anyone in the US cared about Joe. The reason; he hadnt fought anyone worth mentioning. Despite the strange decisions Ottke benefited from, he had a much better resume up to that point than Joe. Accept the fact that if Joe was facing a higher level of competition most people with any sense believe he would have gotten his ****ing head caved in. His defense was pathetic. No one will ever know because he only stepped up three times after winning his "title" and one of those fights was against a b level fighter(Lacy). He looked like the ****ing man against Kessler. He looked like a ****ing idiot against Hopkins. Not the stuff of legends.

 

:wall

 

I also think Bute could be great. But he needs to step up his opposition too.
He's not young in boxing years and needs to put some quality names in his win column.

 

Bute is very skilled and has the most prized commodity in boxing, power. The SMW is not a weak division right now and there will be no excuse for Bute not facing quality opposition. I have a feeling his promoters will go straight for Froch when he is cast off the tourney as Froch is similar to the plodding zombies Bute's been eating up. I would rather see Abraham or Dirrell.

 

Well is more chance Dirrell will be cast off 1st unless he can beat Ward so you may get your wish.

 

You can't retire without ever doing the work in the ring and get credit for the work. Using your math Joe Mesi is also an all time great. He is undefeated. Maybe he would have been good enough to give Vlad hell. Maybe he would have bloodied and beaten the Tyson that Buster Douglas fought. We will never know. He can't get credit for beating Tyson in that fight, only Douglas earned that right.

 

1993: Boxing debut
1997: Wins vacant WBO title
2002: Becomes number 1 SMW
2005: Fights out of UK for the first time.
2006: First time has a unification bout.
2006: Becomes Ring SMW Champion
2008: With the likes of Froch, Pascal, Green and Dirrell entering the top 10 Calzaghe moves up in weight.

Calzaghe could have put more effort in becoming the main man in the SMW division instead of taking 5 years. He would have been better off not fighting Ottke leftovers. And instead of fighting Richie Woodhall in 2000 when he was just a challenger fight him or make an effort to make a fight when he was the WBC SMW champ a year earlier before Beyer beat him.

When Calzaghe becomes the number 1 ranked SMW, he starts fights with Tocker Pudwill and Mario Veit.

Instead of taking 9 years to have a unification bout, and getting Knocked down by Mitchell and Kabery Salem, press for a Unification bout earlier. Since he was the number 1 ranked SMW it cant be that difficult.

When the SMW division began to heat up with the entrances of Froch, Dirrell and these Super6 brears, Calzaghe moved up in weight. There were still fights with under forties in the SMW division.

He took 9 years to become the Ring SMW champion, so how can people say he ruled the division for 11 years.

Realtalk: Frank Warren is to be blamed for alot of the above ****, and German boxing politics since they also ruined the flow.

and the RJJ fight made the BHop SD win look like Calzaghe got lucky that the BHop of Pavlik fight didnt turn up.

Not the stuff of legends.

Calzaghe and BHop both did **** in their fight, but BHop immediate response was alot stronger than Calzaghe's

 

deal:deal