How would Calzaghe do against these fighters?

He must've fought quite a few in the amateurs, I saw him whoop a pretty decent one (can't remember the guy's name), and seeing as he won his last 53 fights in the ams, I'm sure he must have beaten his fair share of them along the way. He fought at least three of them earlier on in his professional career too, easily stopping all of them in a few rounds.

He first defence of his WBO title came against one, Branco Sobot (TKO3), and he also fought an American one named Anthony Brooks (TKO2). Brooks had lost a MD to a young Glen Johnson earlier on in his career and lasted the distance against Daniel Perez (Perez is the guy who came over to the UK to mount a challenge for Nigel Benn's WBC super-middleweight crown, losing in seven rounds, although he did hurt Benn briefly).

He also blasted a tricky southpaw named Trevor Ambrose out as well (TKO2). Ambrose lasted the distance against some decent fighters (Sugar Boy Malinga and Neville Brown being two of the most notable - obviously Malinga wasn't a big puncher though), and scored a couple of upsets along the way. He also gave Robin Reid all he could handle before getting caught and stopped by a massive right hand in the 5th. He was winning the fight up until that point and he caught Reid with some big shots himself.

Brooks is the guy at the 00:10 mark of this video.

Ambrose shortly before at the 00:05 mark.

Sobot is the guy he drops with a sweet left uppercut at the 01:46 mark

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Ambrose vs Reid (great finish by Reid this. Check out the slow motion replay at the end).

Ambrose is fighting orthodox is this fight though (not all the rounds were broadcast though). He was fighting from the orthodox stance in most of the clips I saw but he is listed as a southpaw on Boxrec. I know he used to switch between stances sometimes. I have one of his fights where he switches between the two.

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Calzaghe was all set to fight southpaw Brian Magee over in Belfast too until the WBO insisted at the last minute that he defend against mandatory challenger Mario Veit instead. Both Joe and Magee had trained for that fight. Joe would've been stripped if he hadn't gone through with it.

''Joe Calzaghe's WBO super-middleweight defence against Brian Magee in Belfast on Friday has been cancelled.

The WBO has stopped the fight because of a rule which prohibits a champion from fighting less than 60 days before an enforced mandatory defence.

Calzaghe was last month ordered to fight number one contender Mario Veit in Germany on 7 May.

Veit's promoters protested over the Welshman's match against Magee, and the WBO has accepted their complaint.

Calzaghe's promoter Frank Warr-en told BBC Sport he had been led to believe that Veit's promoters were happy for Friday's fight to go ahead because the bout in Germany would be re-scheduled for June.

"But late last night I got a fax from [Veit promoters] saying that ZDF, the German broadcaster, were refusing Joe to fight in the interim because they had no other date other than 7 May for the Veit fight," said Warr-en.

"I'm annoyed but more importantly Joe, Brian Magee, the supporters were expecting a great fight.

"Joe's trained very hard for the fight and for once there were no injuries, and now this happens at the last minute.''

And I'm pretty sure negotiations had taken place between Frank Warr-en and Tarver's people about setting up a clash on at least one occasion. I think it was sometime not too long before Hopkins beat Tarver.