But not that many similarities, because Calzaghe's reign was actually genuine Ottke was a good fighter, and had the correct decisions been made he'd be recognised for what he is. A decent operator, not elite, but world class all the same
calzaghe has also had some close decisions too tho. i think even bernard said once he'd watched fights he thought some decisions were gifted to him. but like i said joe stepped up to the plate and fought lacy, kessler and b-hop. so yes we found out for definite his reign was genuine
Joe had one close decision up until Hopkins, and that was Robin Reid, who even Robin admits he lost So thats pretty much bull****.
And the Hopkins fight wasn't close at all, makes me wonder if these people watched the fight directly or just don't know how to score.
so now robin reid is a judge? aint bull****. and the hopkins fight was close. i think hopkins lost it but it was close. no way did he look like he won a clear decision but did win it via close decision. i mean **** he was down 2 rounds to start with and still won so it was close.
Robin Reid fought the fight, you know when you just got your ass beat. It was competetive but clear, it wasn't that difficult to score That was the only remotely close fight, Calzaghe won the rest cleanly. I doubt if he won by less than a 4 point margin since Eubank, not including Hopkins anyway, since that was at 175 and wouldn't count towards his supermiddle 'reign' There is nothing at all comparable with Ottke's 'close' (aka he lost) decisions
I saw the fight live at German tv and Sven gave an interview 25 minutes after the fight with his gloves still on.Kessler and Echols couldn't hurt Mundine but that ******* knocks him out could with one punch.....yeah right :nono
A bit off topic but apparently Sprott just gotted robbed in Germany 2nite; the poster on the Brit forum said Sprott won 8 of the 10 rounds. Didn't see the fight myself, just passing on the gossip.:good And on topic: Sven Ottke is a cheating ******* and is not underrated one bit.:deal
Ottke was a very good fighter. Sure he got home town benefit, but who hasn't? His reign and defenses, concurrent with Calzaghe's defenses, are why both just make them look bad. Blame who you want...but money always makes the fights.
Nope i think he is rated pretty much where he should be and if anything is overrated. These days most regard Ottke as a paper champion. He was never the best in his division despite all those title defences. He was massively overrated during his career. I remember people ranking him above Calzaghe and threads on ESB debating who was the better fighter during that time period. I never had a doubt that if they ever fought Calzaghe would walk right through him. Ottke wasn't even the second best super middleweight in the world during this time as his fight with Robin Reid showed. Ottke was world class though and was a worthy title holder, he just shouldn't have kept the title for as long as he did. He had all the advantges when fighting in Germany. The home crowd cheering everthing you did, the biased judges, the corrupt refs, who he would always complain to should anything not go according to plan.
You are right in the sense that the financial aspects of their situation clearly wasn't conducive in making this fight a reality. Fact is niether fighter were huge stars internationally and any fight between them would not generate the necessary interest and therefore extra revenue to make it worth their while. But Calzaghe definately wanted the fight and even agreed to fight in Ottke in Germany which just goes to show how confident he and Warren must have been. Both could make good money fighting at home but fighting each other would not have created much extra income as the American market was not interested in the super middleweight division at that time as there was no good American fighters at that weight. Having said that though, I personally believe Ottke wanted no part of Calzaghe. Calzaghe took a pay cut to fight Lacy as once again niether of these 2 fighters were super stars at the time and the big money simply wasn't on the table. Clearly Calzaghe was willing to make sacrifices to make the big fights happen though rather belatedly. Ottke other than unifying against Mitchell rarely showed the desire to be more than just another title holder. I had expected Ottke to look for the big challenges late on his career like Calzaghe has done but he never did. I guess he also knew where he ranked in reality, no matter what the judges said.