If Lacy & Kessler continue doing nothing, how will Joe be remembered in 30 years?

Well, win or lose the next 100 fights, will it change Kessler's and Lacy's performance before the Calzaghe fight, the boxing odds, the hype, the crowds and most importantly: Joe's excellent performance in the two fights? No, I don't think so. Hamed never fought a name after the Barrera loss. Does that take away a lot of Barrera's resume?

Of course a few big win for Lacy and Kessler can make that resume shine even more, just like Roy's after Hopkins great career 30+, or Hopkins' resume after both Tarver and Johnson knocked out Jones and Tarver beat Woods to prove he's not done yet.

IMO Lacy is finished. The hundreds of punches Joe landed beat the fighter's heart and soul out of him, remaining on the stool after the 8th would've been better. And the bad shoulder injury just took away his punching power, which made Jeff Lacy Jeff Lacy. It's a sad story, and even more if you are unfair enough to say he was just an overhyped bum - especially because it's the same audience that picked Jeff to beat the living sh*t out of Joe and they are not giving respect to the old man who supposed to lose on that night.

Kessler is a whole different story. He was never hyped, he's from a little non-boxing nation and it took 35 fights to get a world title opportunity - and he got 2 titles in style, went to Australia to defeat Mundine and to Wales to fight Joe to put on a terrific performance in one of the biggest fights in Europe ever. It was really really big, just the US wasn't involved. Kessler was so good in defeat that in the hottest division in boxing today, he's still considered the best as Joe moved up to LHW. That's pretty good. Whether Kessler will fight American names to get any kind of respect from the US (because he got none beating Siaca, Beyer and the vastly underrated Mundine) is a good Q. But I believe he has the tools to make Calzaghe's resume shine a bit better.

And Hopkins can do his part as well and you can't take the close but deserved victory away from Joe - and no matter how old he is, Hopkins resume is still the same before Calzaghe: old wins (Johnson, Tito, DLH), controversial losses to Taylor, P4P-er Tarver, P4P#2 Winky...

So IMO Calzaghe's legacy is complete, he's a legitimate ATG and Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins can't do enough to get Joe a Top25 spot - his place should be around the Top50, whether you put him in or out is a Q if you spend time looking close on his career. You'll find that while Jones and DLH did his part avoiding a lot of great fighters, Joe always wanted to fight the very best: that's Jones and Hopkins, and both said 'no thanks'.

 

maybe so but it's the performance itself that should be remembered. joe could have turned up, put in a half arsed performance and pulled out a 116-112. no one would care too much anymore but it deserves to be highly regarded because he turned up focused 110% and absolutely smashed the **** out of a guy expected to walk through him. toyed with him, humiliated him, outclassed him and showed his true ability to the whole world, that is what makes it such a highly regarded win.

 

yes and he's always soon followed by the silly kids who **** themselves at the word " calslappy " with their KTFO's and STFU's and LMAO'S . its ridiculous and quite infuriating really.

 

Yap; it doesn't matter at all whether Lacy or Kessler do anything in future. The only thing that matters is their performance on the night against Calzaghe, and Calzaghe's performance against them...unless you look at a career by boxrecking names, without watching any fights, of course.

 

i think the pachugger thing was about your username. its not a word i'd use.
its just a bit like banging your head against a brick wall discussing calzaghe with you, you obviousouly know your stuff but like it or not people do think of him very very highly .sometimes you seem to deride people who have that view.
i'm not saying you're in the same boat is the idiots who just scream CALSLAPPY!!!!!!!!!! at every available opportunity mind.

 

Well... looking at the fights alone (still not the answer you are looking for), I think both wins will be remembered. The Lacy fight because it was soooo one sided and brutal despite the odds that it can always be a nice visual example for fans, fighters and promoters to show what is 'difference on the elite level' means at it't best, and the Kessler fight because IMO, from a technical standpoint, it was among the 5 best boxing matches 2000+. Pure skill and beauty. So, I think, the fights themselves will be remembered because of the performance won't change. Whether the audience 20 and 30 years from now recognize the opponents and shout 'hey that's Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler on the picture' is a good question. I don't know. But my guess is no matter what Kessler does, he'll be the next one who's wins will be discredited by fans. He's not American, that's all.

 

Not that old but you know there are books and things like that :good

Yeah but look at their categories ... if I do lists they are mostly based on accomplishments, resume and longevity and so he wouldn´t be ranked that high. He should be Top10 at mw but Calzaghe is the number one smw - not a division as deep as mw but that still counts for something.
Also I said he will be seen similar, meaning boxing experts will discuss him and think highly of him but the casuals won´t know him anymore.

Hamed had a far better career before Barrera than Lacy or Kessler had before Calzaghe. The thing is if Lacy and Kessler won´t do anything decent in the future those wins won´t count for much. They will be remembered for the performance but not for the worth of them - think Ali´s win over shot Big Cat Williams.

 

The obvious problem with that scenario is that Bute is the only fighter fighting at 168. And Kessler is going for the belts at 168.

He will fight the best at 168 in another attempt to unify the belts.

 

Well, Lacy is fighting Taylor and Kessler is facing a mandatory after beating the undefeated Sartison for the vacant WBA title, since Calzaghe and Mundine vacated.

Haussler is not a boxer of choice, but enforced by WBA. Kessler needs a belt to get the bigger matches. He is too much risk vs reward without it.

 

I think it's a pretty good question.

I think even now Calzaghe is nothing more than a "hype-bubble-burster" who has managed to out 2 closet hype machines and barley beat a 43-year-old Hopkins.