I've got a lot of appreciation for the man's talent. But his resume is diabolical. Even if you give him a pass for not fighting Jones, Hopkins or toney when they were near their primes, there is a ton of other people he could have fought, and beat who would have improved his legacy. Glen Johnson, Antonio tarver, Kelly pavlik, sven ottke, Anthony Mundine, Carl froch, chad Dawson, jermain Taylor. You'd back him to beat all of them but he didn't fight them. Andre Ward eclipsed calzaghes entire career in two years. Joe has to go down as a huge disappointment
I would say it was a waste if he was anything special to begin with. He was just another pug so no big loss. He made a ton of money for doing very little so I guess taking the easy way out was worth it for him.
Considered the best Super Middleweight of all time,undisputed champion,undefeated,is very wealthy,future hall of famer,Im sure he sleeps well at night...
Considered the best super middleweight until Andre Ward. Hell even froch is pushing him close for number 2
Calzaghe beat people like Reid, Eubank, Hopkins, Lacy (who I don't care what you say went into the fight as an ex olympian with a 270-15 amateur record and unbeaten in the pros), Kessler, Brewer, Mitchell etc. It's easy to say that they're crap now but the only reason Froch's opponents are rated so highly is because of the super 6 media hype machine. It's just too easy to say super middle was great then crap for 10 years while Calzaghe dominated it and now it's crap again. Rubbish.
Hopkins was like 43 years old. Not his physical / mental peak at all. If anything his age showed in that fight and Calzaghe couldnt really take advantage. A career wasted? He made lots of money and had some great nights like Kessler. It could not be a wasted career by any stretch of the imagination. Silly, done 100 times, boring thread.
Pavlik was a hypejob, Ottke didn't want to fight Joe, Froch was barely a force when Joe was at SMW, He made an offer to both Pavlik and Taylor to fight the winner of the fight/ rematch can't remember which. Glen Johnson's Super middleweight career is very poor compared to LHW so not really relevant to Joe. Hopkins also refused a career high payday to fight Joe in the US. Ward's crowning moment is beating an older worse version of a fighter that Joe beat previously when Kessler didn't suffer from double vision. Joe also didn't use headbutts. Ward's resume isn't near to Calzaghe's yet. His legacy still has a way to go too I'm afraid. I want Ward to prove himself at 175 rather than drain LHW's down to SMW These are facts, these are irrefutable, deal with it
This has been covered a million times so I'll just post you some links to read http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/arc...e_on_hit_list/ http://www.puertorico-herald.org/iss...at0635-en.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/3030004.stm http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Calzag...*.-a0113144541 http://stage.thesweetscience.com/new...he-not-so-fast http://www.secondsout.com/columns/th...lla-v-hopkins1 http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427761 "A teleconference was set up in my office in New York for July 30th, 2002, and on the call was myself, Don King who was in the room, Frank ****** and Bernard Hopkins' lawyer, Arnold Joseph. Along with Arnold was a woman named Linda Carter, who was there on behalf of Bernard. We asked Arnold if Bernard wanted to fight Joe Calzaghe and we asked him how much money would he want if he did. The response we got was $3million and the fight would have to take place in the United States. After a little scratching of the head, we said 'Okay, done.' Frank ****** agreed on the spot, Don King agreed and we agreed so as far as we were concerned all parties were singing off the one hymm sheet. Arnold excused himself with Linda and I can only assume it was to call Bernard. Either that day or the next day, they came with a new demand: $6million, double the sum that had been agreed, the deal blew up.....he had then and still has no desire to fight Joe Calzaghe, that much is pretty clear." Joe gets criticised sometimes for not having fought the big-name Americans, but in this case the fault has never rested with him." Make your mind up based on all that. I for one think Bhop turned down a chance to fight Joe and was offer $6,000,000 according to one source
a) I know much more about boxing than you b) he was rated in the top 5 p4p c) he was going through his best run of performances at that time d) he was still world champion until 4 years later