How would Calzaghe do against these fighters?

I know why you felt the need to pull him up. lol. He's definitely expressed a disliking of Calzaghe in his earlier posts though. I think he was trolling.

His deterioration was solely due to age and wear and tear. What a lot of people don't seem to understand, or conveniently chose to forget, is that he'd been fighting for over a quarter of a century by the time he moved up to 175 (27 years IIRC) and due to his ultra aggressive style and natural competitiveness, had taken an awful lot of punishment during that time. Also wearing head guards wasn't compulsory back when he was a kid/teen either and he absolutely hated wearing them - an ill-fitting one contributed to him losing a fight in an amateur tournament once and he often wouldn't wear them during sparring.

And he wasn't just a three time consecutive ABA champion at different weights, he was also a highly decorated junior too. He'd been fighting a very long time and his body had taken a **** load of abuse over the years. But for some strange reason the rules seem to change when it comes to Joe. He must be the only fighter in the history of the sport whose body was immune to the ageing process and the negative effects of getting punched repeatedly in the head for over quarter of a century. According to the haters and the brainwashed dolts Calzaghe was in his prime from the time he first won his title to the day he hung up his gloves. lol

Here's a video of an exhibition match between a 16 year old Joe and future WBO flyweight world title challenger Robbie Reagan (he was a good fighter back in the day, albeit much smaller than Joe obviously). The ring announcer reels of a list of some of Joe's accomplishments as a junior (I think he won a few more before moving up to the seniors too).

3:02 mark

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He was past his physical prime before he unified at 168, let alone before he moved up to 175, and he'd also been blighted with major injury problems for much of his career, stemming right back to his teenage amateur days.

Here's a video of a 19 year old Joe expressing concern about his hands.

3:20 mark

''I just hope my hands get better you know.. Keep OK. And I can turn professional and do good at it.''


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It's difficult to pinpoint a time when he was at his peak. As you say, I think he did become smarter as he aged and gained more experience. That said, I think he always had great boxing ability, when he chose to use it that is, which he neglected to do far too often, and I genuinely think he could've beaten the fighters he beat towards the end of his career, a few of whom are obviously considered his most impressive scalps and most significant victories, just as comfortably, if not more comfortably back when he was in his physical prime. I actually liked him a lot when he was in the amateurs, particularly when he won his ABA titles at LM and MW.

He was blessed with great natural talent and physical gifts but I think all those problems he had with injuries and inactivity - there were way too many six, eight month, ten etc. gaps between fights throughout his whole career (the plan had always been to be much more active) - lack of quality sparring, or for a handful of his fights, no sparring at all, and training in that shitty little gym up until he made the 10th defence of his title (it didn't even have a proper ring) really held him back from maximizing those gifts and realizing his true potential.

Problems in his personal life outside the ring and having a tendency to fight down to the level of his opposition sometimes certainly didn't help either. He was just going through the motions in some of his fights. Quite a few of his opponents just tucked up and went into their shells and were more focused on surviving and making things difficult than actually trying to win. David Starie, Rick Thornberry, Juan Carlos Gimenez, Miguel Jimenez to name a few.

His best run of form when he was still in his physical prime was probably from between mid 2000 to early 2004 when he finally got over that spate of injuries that had plagued him since almost the beginning of his reign (early 1998 to mid 2000). This was when he was at his most active during his reign and he looked pretty sharp for the most part.

I think the rawer harder punching version who beat Eubank would've stopped almost all of the opponents who subsequently went on to last the distance against him. There's only one or two of them who I think he wouldn't have.

 

Thanks.

Yeah, he was a much, much better boxer than many give him credit for. Like I said, he was blessed with great physical gifts and bags of natural talent but he often neglected to use his god-given boxing ability in many of his fights. He had to contend with an awful lot of bad luck throughout his career and overcome a lot of obstacles and I think those physical gifts and his steely determination got him through quite a few fights where lesser talented and determined fighters would've slipped up.:good