Joe Calzaghe retired 46-0 (32) in 2008. Get over it. Fans & haters; quit trolling!

Yes

Anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand boxing. Unlike Roid Jones Jr, Calzaghe achieved his success without having to resort to performance enhancing drugs.

Ottke comes in at second place.

 

I agree Ottke takes second place.

 

Was Joe Damascus a small guy in super middle weight?

 

Seems these Calzaghe threads are getting out of control.
The obvious answer is yes, as he is the most accomplished, has the best resume etc.
If I had to look at the history of SMW and who has the best resume, it would in my opinion go

Calzaghe
Eubank
Ottke

Those 3 arent debateable in my opinion when you look at resumes
After those 3 it varies and can be debated a bit more
After this it can be debateable with maybe Benn, Collins, (there would be afew others)
After this maybe Froch, Beyer, Ward, Kessler, Liles, Mitchell, Woodhall, Jones, Toney, Mitchell, Malinga maybe. Probably Kessler due to overall resume.

SMW has been my favourite division since the Leonard/Hearns rematch at the beginning and it is one division where I feel I know more than enough to comment, often frustrated by how so many posters dont have a clue about Calzaghe before he beat Lacy and not knowing the career and how good some other opponents were because of not being based in certain countries.
I can recall SMW champs like Sutherland, Catley, Thobela etc that many wouldnt know and would shock a few with how well Catley did.

anyway enough of that.

 

Pains me to say it but yes he is. Roy Jones Jr would have beaten him head to head but he didn't do enough at super middle to rank as a greater super middle. All he did was beat Toney, who did little at super middle himself before dropping off the radar at light heavy after the loss to Jones Jr.

Had Jones Jr stayed at super middle and faced the likes of Benn and Collins who both wanted to fight him he'd rank higher but he chose to fight an old McCallum instead and reign in a weaker division.

 

Doesnt stop anyone rating Holyfield for beating LHWs at CW though :conf

 

Yes.

 

2nd most accomplished smw perhaps, where his competition is cheating Ottke, later bloomer Froch, Kessler, Lilles, Eubank and of course the superior in everything Ward but way down the list in H2H.

H2H there are too many who had higher levels of ability.

 

haha, you completely ignored Ward!

selective color blindness. Ward half white so I guess only half his record counts.

 

that statement isn't true, it was 21 times aganst the likes of these.... those first three are the exceptions, the rest were largely nationals.

what you mean is the likes of ashira. that's what the likes of means.

 

Calzaghe throws up problems and asks questions of any fighter around his weight due to his style which makes him a tough nights work for anyone H2H.

 

H2H Ward is easily...his resume isn't quite the best ever yet, but he has some great names on it already

 

he does, but his lack of top level skills and reliance on stamina to win fights means he lacks h2h top level ability.

but sure anyone who can take punches and can keep throwing (regardless of poorer quality of output) is going to keep anyone busy whilst he is still on his feet.

 

you also got to figure in that other top smws defended unified crowns multiple times, whilst joe defended a crown other than the lesser wbo one only once? (bika?) and relied on notching up lesser wbo victories without which he would never have got to 21 defences.
Plus plenty of other SMWs won one of the big three (or more) titles much younger than joe - took joe till the age of 34 to try. EXTREMELY LATE. He was the oldest/latest Brit SMW titlist ever to do so behind nearly a dozen others. That's a LONG way down the pecking order. That's STUART HALL late.

no way joe goes unbeaten 21 times by defending any of the 3 top crowns, he needs a backdoor to do that like an equivalent of the IBA title today.

 

Yes his defenses is what gets him there but there were plenty of fighters that would have beat him


RJJ
Eubank in his Prime
James Toney
Nigel Benn
Gerald McClleland

He just ruled a very weekt division and racked up a ton of defenses in doing so..Not to many great fighters stayed at super middle weight I'm sure if they had they could,have done the same thing if the division was as week as the one Joe ruled in ..I mean look who the other champ was Sven Otteke that just spoke volumes of how week that division was back then