IBF, WBA + WBC Belts during Calzaghe's WBO reign

Ottke was the biggest fraud in boxing. There was no way he would come out of Germany to take on Calzaghe.

 

ried, mitchell, kessler, woodhall, brewer are the best 5 fighters on the list, and calzaghe beat them.

 

That list of champs means SMW was not exactly the strongest division over the last decade, but Joe didn't fight enough of them. But EVEN IF HE DIDN'T, here is a list of people in and around his weight throughout his time as champion he COULD'VE chased and at least tried to fight, but never ever did:

Steve Collins
Roy Jones Jr (don't say he is fighting him. This RJJ is nowhere anywhere near what he was 5-12 years ago)
Dariusz Michalczewski
Bernard Hopkins (until he was 43, that is. He was middleweight champion the whole time Joe was super-middle)
James Toney
Jermain Taylor
Antonio Tarver & Glen Johnson (both were hot property immediately after KO'ing RJJ)
Winky Wright (top 5 P4P at 1 stage)
Kelly Pavlik

There's 10 guys he could've fought 1997-2008, while instead he was taking on guys like BRANKO SOBOT, RICK THORNBERRY, WILL McINTYRE, TOCKER PUDWILL and EVANS ASHIRA from 1997 up til Lacy in 2006.

Not exactly Cal-Ducker, but definitely Cal-never went looking for the dangerous fights for a decade. Thank God guys like De La Hoya, Morales and Cotto never had the same attitude or we'd have had a decade of the top fighters boring their way through meaningless title defences to look back on.

 

Excellent breakdown bro :good

also hasnt calzaghe held all the above belts at some point ??

 

Going by this logic, for example, Hatton gets credit for being greater then all the guys Tszyu, Castillo, and his 44 opponents beat. Excellent.

eg. Tszyu beat Judah = Hatton > Judah

 

In case you think I was joking, yes TOCKER PUDWILL is on his resume.

 

Tocker Pudwill wasnt his fault he was a late replacement for Liles :deal

 

None of the guys you mention were in Calzaghe's division since he became WBO champ except Collins. Collins famously retired a couple of days before the bout instead of stepping in the ring with Joe.

You cannot blame Calzaghe for not fighting Pavlik, Hopkins, Taylor or Winky Wright when they were at least a weight division under SMW. If they wanted it, they had to step up and force the issue. None of them did, and in the case of Hopkins, he SKIPPED the division completely to fight at LHW.

Toney was ballooning by the time Calzaghe became established. The others you mention are LHWs so SMW division wouldn't have been completely unified if he stepped up sooner than he did to fight these guys. This is what has defined his career more than anything in a positive light. Not even the great Roy Jones Jnr has won all four major belts in the same weight division.

Everyone in the business knew that Calzaghe was a ****ing tough assignment for little reward for a number of years. Why the hell would the guys you mention step into a new weight division against this guy who was little known outside of Europe (and lets face it, the blokes in your list are primarily Americans save DM)? Calzaghe's profile in the States was almost zero at the time so why would Hopkins, Wright, Roy Jones etc give him the platform and the opportunity when there wasn't anything that great in it for them?

The only reason people want Pavlik-Calzaghe is because Joe is now regarded as pretty much the top dog of the 168-175 region. It's only recently that people the world over have generally accepted this fact so it's now OK to shoot for Joe Calzaghe - now he's a name - a prize scalp - and if you do it, you'll be the very first to beat him.... 3 years ago he was not a name.

 

Hatton is greater than Judah. He's done more, he's beaten better opponents.

Calzaghe is better than any one he has beaten or his opponents have beaten.

There is no one in Kessler, Lacy, Eubank or Hopkins resume that they won against that he would lose too.

So, it's perfect logic to use.

 

Calzaghe, as far as my knowledge goes... is the only guy to hold all four belts, plus the ring belt in a division and never lose.

Maybe Evander Holyfield at Cruiserweight? But he then lost a few times at HW.

 

Thing is, take a look at other peoples resumes, they can't really boast doing anything more than Joe - the only crime Joe has is not fighting more American fighters in my view..

Had he done that, he'd be considered an ATG.

Note - everyone on your list bar 1 is an American or American based.

 

Come the end of September, the list should look like this:

Roy Jones Jnr
Hopkins
Lacy
Mitchell
Brewer
Sheika

These are the best American wins on his record. All are very good wins and genuine challenges - I still think the Sheika win is very under rated.

Then you have the Manfredos and McIntyres of this world what were showcase fights for American audience digestion.

That's 8 Americans out of 22 title fights. The other Americans mentioned, I've already addressed in my reply to pacfan84.

 

This is exactly why Joe's defenses look pedestrian.

 

Ooh, great argument there.

Guy who is known to have judges paid off, who wouldn't fight Calzaghe even when Calzaghe offered to fight him for $1, illegtimises the reign of Joe Calzaghe.

Your hatred is so funny.

 

i never understood why ottke never wanted to fight calzaghe here in the UK everytime FW came on tv he would talk about we offered ottke the fight and he turned it down even in germany (calzaghe will need to be paid for going to a risky envioronment etc) with neutral judges still ottke turned it down.
not calzaghes fault that matchup