Joe Calzaghe, among top 25 Super Middleweight in boxing history?!

atsch :roll:

 

he's in the top 1 SMW.

 

Joe stands slightly above Sven Ottke.

 

Erm, Jimmy Wilde?

 

I think he is in the top 5 supermiddleweights of all time.

 

Yeah, but you said 'considered' - Wilde is considered by some to be the number 1 flyweight of all time.

 

****, some of those aren't even flyweights.....:?

Jimmy Wilde is considered by most people to be the best flyweight.

Keith

 

Joe Calzaghe is the best super middleweight ever !! no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I'm an american and I consider Joe Calzaghe the best fighter in super middleweight history.

There is no fighter that has fought in the super middleweight that could have beat Joe Calzaghe.

 

God i hope your joking. Sven Ottke the biggest joke ever in SMW

 

The chasm between great talents and Joe is much wider than between Joe and Sven who had very similar careers. They fought similar comp, with similar results and benefited from advantageous conditions in nearly all of their fights. They both were opportunistic and took no chances and remain complete nobodies in the US. Neither KOd anyone (all of Joe's were domestic bums and the few that occurred later in his career were all controversial ref stoppages). Both fighters enjoyed a similar collection of back pocket refs and biased judges. Both were decent fighters who weren't exceptional athletes. If Sven had managed to tack a narrow win or two over a long in the tooth 40+ year old at the very end of his career he could have had an identical record and CV/resume.

Athletically Joe was a bit more nimble of foot with better hand speed but neither had an abundance of discernible power and struggled with most of the mediocre and average opponents they fought.

Joe is incredibly overrated due to ESB's "demographic" slant - and it is a population of internet sport fans (i.e., couch potatoes and scrubs) not knowledgeable real athletes. Take it from someone who has followed boxing a long time - starting with Ali/Frazier I on closed circuit in 1971, and has watched every single second of every single fight over Joe's entire career - the man struggled to get a narrow win over a way past peak weight cutting last minute sub in CE and then intentionally fought nobody (nobodies) for a decade. That was no accident. With Joe's frame he could have easily found his way to LHW if he was in search of legitimate greatness.

Any unbiased observer can see the difference between the elites and Joe. He stands historically near the top of the super middleweight division (WITH SVEN OTTKE) based upon his gaudy record. But, I rate him at SMW (I've got an earlier post which I don't have time to search for delineating the first 7 or eight in the division) between 8 and 10 based upon reality. I don't rate him at all if we widen the scope to the traditional middleweight/light heavyweight categories.

Of course, it must be acknowledged that ESB is loaded with kids that just LOVE Joe Calzaghe. But, it's a "demographic" thing as I've said. If you can't see the truth then that just makes you one more member of the ESB "I don't know **** about athletic talent and ability" club.

Even with boxing being completely out of favor for multiple generations now, the US is still a country that universally applauds great athletic talent and entertainment - no matter its place of origination. You couldn't find ten sport fans who have seen either guy fight who remembers them at all. They are complete nobodies. It isn't because they aren't nice people or good guys. IT IS because they were never special or extraordinary fighters. SIMPLE AS THAT really. Wishing for a different reality doesn't make it so - just as "undefeated" records have to be looked at to see the level of comp faced (i.e., "who was fought" and "when were they fought") - and wins over certain names lose their relevance if those names are collecting social security at the time of the so-called "victories".

 

25?! Sure he makes it. Easily.

 

Smw is to new to make a atg in that class...

 

Clearly a bait thread. I can't even think of a convincing argument for him not being number one. Who makes him number 2?