I wonder why Joe Calzaghe was never offered millions for his return to boxing?

Well yeah, it would've fetched him a lot more street cred with die-hard fans than Manfredo, but I'm not sure it would've been more lucrative at that point. Froch was already popular at home but was still building up his fan-base gradually. Manfredo had received celebrity far outweighing his actual talents due to being on The Contender here in the US - so for Joe it was low-hanging fruit. A very easy way to grab a sizable chunk of change it shouldn't have been worth. In terms of risk for reward he would've had to be a moron to have fought The Cobra instead. :!:

 

yep
it was a coming home parade fight more than a competitive one.
50000 fans turned up
and money wise it waqs a bigger money spinner

i viewed froch at the time as a very heavy handed fighter /but slow and with his hands down at his waist a ko waiting to happen

who new then that he had a rock for a chin/huge will to win / and could box a bit as well when he needed to .

bit like calzaghe its the intangibles that made him so hard to beat.

 

He was never offered huge sums to come back for a couple of reasons. Firstly he wasn't that big a draw, he was never a PPV star in America, as mentioned his PPV against Roy was a flop costing HBO millions.

Secondly Calzaghe lacked a great rival to draw him back and that would have created enough interest for a huge purse to be offered. Lewis had the controversy over the Vitali fight, do you think Lewis would have been offered what he was to come back against Vitali had he dominated Vitali when they fought? Calzaghe wasn't a big enough name on his own to be offered millions for a comeback, he needed that rivalry that other big name.

As for Ward calling him out after he beat Dawson. That was just a case of a fighter calling out another for media coverage. There were no numbers in regards to what was offered, could of been millions, could of been far less when you consider Ward's lack of marketability. With Calzaghe's failure as a PPV draw and Ward's lack of drawing power any proposed fight at that time would have likely not come close to being what was paid to Calzaghe for Jones Jr.

 

because calzaghe was only a wbo champion for all but a few months of his reign, and wbo was for most of that reign an unrecognised title, who is going to pay for lesser titlist?

you have to remember that before Kessler and to an extent lacy, joe used to occupy one liners in newspapers or wasn't even mentioned, such was the apathy towards his lesser title reign.

you could say joe would have remained an unknown nobody nothing without Kessler turning up injured to face him in cardiff, and lacy helped make him something by coming to Cardiff too. His backdoor HoF status would likely have never existed without them.

the other thing is of course his relatively poor skill level and power, making him unexciting to fringe fans, and boring to purists who can see how bad joes fundamentals sometimes are.

 

Because nobody ever proved themselves in his league

 

certainly no one has joined the 40something-only club at LHW, joe is alone in that league yes.

 

Before the Manfredo and Bika fights Froch was offered the fight by Frank W and it was rejected by Mick Hennesy. So the fault of the fight not happening is not down to Calzaghe as haters want you to believe

 

Name more than one person over the age of 40 Calzaghe fought.

 

froch was offered a world title fight when froch was a county level subnational yes, but not after that. Once froch got towards brit level Joe started slamming the phone down everytime he rang.

wow superhandman you know how to dig your heroes grave.

 

What were terms?

Froch called Calzaghe out relentless for years

If fight was offered and turned down terms must have be insult

 

I'm still waiting for you to name more than one fighter over the age of 40 Calzaghe fought. Lets all laugh at butthurt Berol the convicted nonce fail at this

 

yes jones was days from 40, I admit hes a hairs breadth from 40something.


whats the problem with an approximation over a few days? let me know handman. haha you know how to dig your own grave too.

 

I believe the issue was Hennessey didn't think Froch could win and Frank wanted options on him after the fight

 

Froch wasn't a big draw then. Hell, even when Froch was prime he wasn't a big draw. That came at the end when he joined up with Eddie and sky .

 

its good you got something to believe in handman. blind faith is the order of the day in the church of cowardzaghe.