Is Joe Calzaghe a "Ricky hatton" that never met a Floyd or Manny in his division

Calzaghe is a better all round fighter than hatton...im sure calzaghe would feel kinda offended by the comparison. You mention hopkins and jones....but did they ever fight and beat anyone on the level of a pacquiao or floyd(jones less so seeing as he beat hopkins even with a damaged hand)??????????? Thos two could be rite up their with the best ever when its said and done.

 

His resume should be much better than it is. Even with 2-3 losses. 10-11 of his WBO defences are pure garbage. You can forgive so many tomato cans, but 10-11? He could of been the first ever 168 Ring champ 4 years before he actually won it, had he of fought and beat Ottke. All in all, even if Calzaghe is remembered fondly in years to come and gets into peoples top 100 atg, I don't think it'll be too long before enough fighters come along that push him out of that bracket.

 

Is this a serious post?:huh

 

Cut the man some slack, he started watching boxing after he witnessed the epic battle between Carl Froch and Jean Pascal. :deal

 

huh?? who has hopkins fought on the level of pacquiao and floyd?? let alone beat????

 

.....:huh:hi:

 

thought so...pacquiao and floyd are two extremely elite fighters. You thought about saying trinidad or something and then would have to just shut ur mouth. even him prob at hes best at welter and with extra padding on hes hands!

 

simply put............yes!

 

In a relative sense absolutely. Joe was protected and toiled in arguably the weakest, least prestigious weight class for a decade and a half. There were some great fighters in the SMW division but all were gone by roughly the mid-90s.

Joe struggled with countless fighters. He was essentially a good fighter, a definite HOFer. Certainly not elite though he is an anomaly in that by not being thrown into tough conditions he managed to get well into his mid-30s in near pristine condition (that is an incredible rarity that has almost never been seen as "greats" have always been thrown into the fire early and repeatedly). Warren made sure every opponent was well considered for timing and that the conditions were favorable to Joe. He almost always had predisposed refs, leaning judges, and generally advantageous conditions (notwithstanding the overstated "oh so tough" Welsh/English rivalry claim for the type of crowds he faced - and part of my family is Welsh). Joe's chin is overrated as it is more of a case of not facing great athletes who could touch it (and when he did face the few he met in the ring, he got touched. Non-peak Eubank caught him repeatedly and easily. Hopkins (nearing 80 years old) was clearly the more talented and caught Joe too. Roy Shot Jones .. same thing). Joe's punching prowess is also a fiction. He only TKO'd bums when he had good hands and KO'd no one for the entirety of his career.

Ricky deserves credit for facing the best late in his career. Joe doesn't because both fighters were over 40 by then.

Based upon his entire attribute set, Joe really should sit between 150-200 all time or about ten slots above wherever you want to place Ottke, Collins, Kessler, & Sheika.

Head to head, prime for prime, there is a huge list of guys who would have beat him including RJJ, Toney, Hopkins, McClellan, McCallum, Liles, Eubank, Benn, Watson, Jackson, Nunn, Kalambay, Tarver, and on and on and on.

Calzaghe has a bit of the "Mariciano" career. Incredible on paper, but made up of bums for 2/3 of the career and ending with a bunch of old, way past prime ATGs. These fighters are beloved by their "own" but their accomplishment deserves an asterisk relative to the road hoed by real ATGs.

It isn't always who you fight, but when you fight them.

 

James Toney would have boxed circles around Calzahge.

 

That's because he never had the balls to cross the pond and take a risk against the top guys. Had he done that, he too would have suffered the same fate as Hatton, losing that O!

They were both protected by Warren.

 

Joe Calzaghe is a much more talented and skilled boxer than Hatton, it's really not that close. Hatton made the most out of his natural abilities and got as far as he could, but he is nowhere near the level as Calzaghe as a boxer

 

This claim will never stop being funny. A guy winning a fight doesn't resort to faking low blows to try to get his opponent DQ'd late in the match

 

Joe Calzaghe is the most overrated fighter of all time.

 

calzaghe was a great fighter.

simple as really.

difficult style cos of his speed, skills and excellent stamina.

i agree he was kept too long at super middle defending against sub par opponents.

frank warren was too content to keep him at home fighting in cardiff every few months. :roll:

they should have stepped joe up to light heavy and gone for a roy jones fight in the early 00's. but warren had the showtime link up at the time and jones was a HBO fighter.

calzaghe-jones would have probably gone to purse bids if calzaghe had become a mandatory challenger.

warren didn't want that little scenario unfolding. :yep