Is Joe Calzaghe Overrated?

calzaghe took on a bomber in lacy -stood right in front of him and outschooled him on the inside throwing every punch in the book and many that are not in any book showing great inside abilty and great defense while delivering a high octane offense.

calzaghe took on an excellent technical long boxer in kessler and was able to outjab and outslick him from the outside showing excellent footwork/feints/jab/straight lefts.amgles/head movement in a very hgh quality technical fight.

calzaghe took on a spoiler in hopkins and was able to outspoil the spoiler hustling his way to a win by any means nesacarry .

he outstrehged the strongman in bika

and did not let the c level manfredo even let his hands go.

whether you like calzaghe/hate calzaghe
if you are any good at anylysing fights and fighters what you must say about calzaghe is that he has a lot of strings to his bow/can fight against any style and knows how to adapt and improvise on the fly.

he has faults/fights down to some fighters level/poor punch technique when shoeshining/

but if you want a boxer to get a win no matter what style he is up against look no further than calzaghe as he always finds a way to adapt to what is in front of him and has more styles and looks than any other boxer in the world today.

 

He's overrated by some and underrated by others.

In my opinion he's a great fighter who lacks that one defining fight that shuts up the critics. And unfortunately it looks like he never will.

 

i agree with every word.
a wasted talent.

 

but anyone can look that good - IF they are good enough - against sub-par opponents.

and calzaghe has made a career out of it.

looking good against lesser fighters but never making the jump to be marketable enough to get the attention of the big boys leads to my main point which no-one can ignore.

joe calzaghe has never fought a world class fighter in his prime.

he's not a great fighter, but he might have been able to be one if he had the mentality of gatti or pavlik.

 

The guy did not fight is mandatory as a champion for almost 10 years...I think that is an clear anwers to your question...

 

Hows everyone doin? Here goes on my first post; No Joe aint overrated, n he ducked no one they ducked him. Analysis on request.

 

Johnson was never anywhere near the top of SMW and in any case Joe beat Sheika coming off a win over him. He beat several figther that were robbed vs Ottke such as Reid and Brewer. No one can blame Joe for not going to Germany to get robbed blind and Ottke certainly wernt going abroad. He beat Kessler who had wins over Beyer and Choc. No one has ever beaten everyone in a division, beating the man who beat the man has always sufficed. Yeah he took to long to get round to making the big fights but he still has done more at SMW than anyone else ever has.

Its funny how you dont criticise Jones for not facing the biggest threat at LHW - something that Joe HAS done at SMW, even if only recently.

 

Yes!

 

because jones fought on the international stage.

calzaghe and warren consciously didn't get into the american market because :

1. there was good money to be made milking british fans who didn't see the bigger picture and..

2. getting your props up in america meant that he would certainly have fought hopkins in his prime, and very possibly jones afterwards.


i don't mind a fighter who wants to fool the local tribesmen for his own material gain so long as he doesnt sit at home and call out the fighters who really matter - which is what calzaghe did.

so what does he do now?

he fights hopkins and jones at a combined age of 80-something and still thinks it counts...

 

Now that Joe's career is winding down I think it is safe to assume that very few will remember him as an ATG. A few will claim he belongs in the hall of fame, and he may eventually be inducted, but I would not vote for him. He simply did to little, to late. Even his best wins over the last few years came against questionable opposition. Lacey was an over-rated hype job who struggled against Manfredo. BHop was a 43 year old career middleweight. Kessler has yet to prove that he is the real deal; his career is still very much an open question.

Personally I was shocked when Joe's p4p rankings went up after the Hopkins fight. After that kind of abysmall performance, they should have gone down. So, in short, yes Calzaghe is over-rated.

 

welcome to the board but you have to say why you think he never ducked anyone....

i can answer your best argument if you can put it forward.

 

Highly overrated on this board, but that doesn't mean **** in the real world. When I start seeing respected writers, commentators, trainers...etc..saying he's a top ATG, then I might say he is. But they haven't, so I won't say he's overrated in the real world. I reckon when he's done fighting, he'll be ranked accordingly. Somewheres between 80-100.

 

You can get you panties in a bunch if like, fact is Joe unified SMW. I'm not poking at Jones nor really bigging up Joe, just pointing out the flaw in the logic of the previous post. Its silly to wave jones around as some shining beacon of taking the toughest fights when clearly he didn't.

Its interesting you bring up the "international stage" - by that of course you mean that fight in the US. Joe beat 4 of the best US SMW's of his time in Brewer Mitchell Sheika and Lacy plus domestic fighter of higher calibre such as Eubank and Reid - but of course they dont count if the fight wasnt in the US right?

Joe has fought half his fights outside his own country. Does Jones even own a passport?

 

No

 

Cazaghe is on the level of a Jermain Taylor with one difference Taylor beat Hopkins Twice so I favor Jermain.