Is Calzaghe one of the most physically gifted fighters ever 168+ north?

Truth is if you want to be negative towards Calzaghe's career you have a lot of ammunition at hand. it all depends, like everything else, on the perspective you choose to use.


He has a very good career, with a little more ambition or self belief(which I sometimes think he lacked until post Lacy) it could have been excellent. He did not even have to fight Jones/Hopkins etc. Fill that period between 02-06 with a few out of Glen Johnson Winky, Ottke, Beyer, Eastman, Mundine, Tate, Michalczewski( a fight I am always surprised did not have more of a push behind) and his overall resume would be far stronger.

He will always have questions, and with his level of natural ability it is a shame.

 

Badintentions,
No! I'm talking about Lacy to unify, Kessler to unify and STILL viable top 10 P4P Hopkins for the RING title - and again, not like Calzaghe was a spring chicken, he is also (and apparently you didn't read what I wrote the first time) for a swarmer, a guy who fights his style of fight, at 36 a dinosaur.

You really thought I was talking about RJJ?

 

the hopkins fight is a good win for calzaghe - there's no doubt about that.

but we're still talking about a fighter who called himself great, called out jones and hopkins regularly when it mattered but did nothing about it.

when we talk about calzaghe it always feels like we're dusting off an old book and trying to find some reason in it for me.

hopkins and jones were there to fight when it mattered and both ruled poor divisions, so as far as i'm concerned there's no excuse for joe negging on these opportunities.

how hard would it have been to beat contenders from middle to LHW considering the 'talent' that was there?

 

the ring title is nothing...

its like calling a fighter 'undefeated' or 'world champion'.

in boxing you have to look at things incontext - its the federations and these 'illusions' that hurt the sport the most.

 

Tate retired two weeks before he was scheduled to fight Calzaghe, you don't get much duckier than that.

 

don't change the subject if you have nothing to add or say...it's rude.

 

Was that when the notorious Pudwell stood in? Warren was not the best at getting a decent standard of late replacements, but Pudwell was really scraping the barrel, almost better off cancelling that putting on that fight.

 

Calzaghe does have a lot of attributes that made him a formidable opponent for anybody. Hand, foot speed, ridiculous workrate and stamina, good chin and before his hand problems good power but I never saw him as a freak of nature like Ali, Tyson and RJJ. He was gifted in many areas but was never overly gifted at any one thing other than his stamina which is less natural ability and more to do with training and conditioning.

 

Agree with that, excellent all rounder, could fight up close, but also had an excellent jab that he sometimes forgot all about. The second half of the Kessler fight shows him boxing beautifully at range.

His ability to adapt was his real strength, limited sparring with adequate at best partners, but he was able to work out inside 3/4 rounds nearly every fighter he went with. Having said that for an intelligent fighter he still had a brawlers mentality, especially early in fights he would take a lot of risks, get hit with silly punches and sometimes forget his strenths.

Pretty unique fighter really, strange style, at times great to watch, on other occasions very messy.

 

Valid points here. The only thing I can add is that Hopkins and Calzaghe were supposed to fight 5 years before they actually did, and it's a shame Hopkins' infamous negotiating tactics nixed it at the time because that would've answered alot.

That's not to point fingers at one of them, because they all did it. Of the three of them, they all let negotiating politics leave great or at least solid fights on the table- the Hopkins-Roy rematch, Hopkins-Calzaghe in 02-03, Roy-Dariusz, Calzaghe-Johnson, Calzaghe-Ottke, etc. Calzaghe suffers the most from this legacy-wise, but frankly, boxing fans debating legacy on an internet board is the last thing the fighter cares about. They're called prize-fighters, not pride fighters.

It may be a shame from the fans standpoint, but in a dog-eat-dog business like this, it's to be expected. And, from an overall career standpoint, the trio all managed it perfectly because they're set for life financially, have their health, and have a shitload of accomplishments at the world level to show for it.

 

That was also the time period during which the original Hopkins fight was to have taken place. Hopkins wound up with a year long layoff in between defending against Carl Daniels and Morrade Hakkar instead.

 

:hey

 

esp his power

 

Calzaghe had exceptional stamina. That's about it.

In terms of other "physical gifts" like athleticism; speed, power etc.

He's obviously not a Roy Jones or a Ray Leonard.