Joe Calzaghe the best fighter of the past 20 years.....FACT

Annihilated is a gross exaggeration that a lot of people use. He didn't do the same to lesser fighters, to older fighters and to similar level fighters so I dunno where this idea comes from that somehow Jones beats Calzaghe up to the extent that he is annihilated.

Roy Jones beats Calzaghe for sure but annihilated? Shouldn't think so.....

Calling Calzaghe the best of the last 20 years is crazy though, I agree.

 

His frame of mind was all wrong and he lacked any creativity. I think he 'bottled' it. His post calzaghe performances bear no resemblence to his creative attacking performances against Pemberton and Reid. :goodIt was nowhere near as vintage as I first thought. It was just a fighter bang up for it against someone who bought nothing to the table, on that particular evening, other then durability.

 

Good points Jeff, but would you rate, for example, Tyson's victory over Spinks the same way because Spinks was not in the right frame of mind?

 

Slightly different Kos but I can see where your coming from.... i'd liken lacys performance more to McCall against Lewis then Spinks against Tyson. How about Vaden against Norris or Welch against Akinwande, it was just a complete no show. I just think that the praise that was heaped on that victory was a little unwarrented. Claude Abrams called it the best performance he had ever witnessed live.

 

The only good point the TS has made is that Chad Dawson needs to rematch Glen Johnson.... the rest of his posts are awful!

If Ricky Hatton beats Pacquiao..... he goes above Calzaghe beyond question, in term of accomplishments, if he isn't above already. Talent is a different question of course.

 

If Calzaghe is so great why did he fight bums and nobodies in his own backyard for the vast majority of his career?

Simple fact is, Calzaghe's resume is weak as hell, he's not a great fighter, he's barely a very good one.

There are at least a dozen fighters from the last 20 years who have a better resume and better accomplishments. Chavez, Whitaker, Holyfield, Hopkins, Jones Jr, Lewis, Trinidad, De La Hoya, Mayweather and Pacquiao to name just a few.

 

The man who rematched a man he beat inside one minute ?

Yet not the man who handed him his ass ?

CALZONE.

 

Total rubbis,a prime Jones would have finished what he started in the first round.It would have been a very quick embarrasing defeat for Joe.And no way is Joe the best fighter of the last 20 years,he isnt even in the top 20.You are forgeting his fights prior to beating Lacy.Pudwill,Starie and Manfreado were the usual level Calzaghe fought with.He also has some very dodgy wins on his record Rob Reid and Hopkins were 2 he lost in my opinion.A decent fighter but there is a long list of guys above him from the last 20 years.

 

Have you been drinking????

 

TBH I think Calzaghe won that fight pretty clearly but I've never thought that that was a good reason why he would have beaten Hopkins in their primes, both men were over the hill when they fought - not just Hopkins but beating JC at 168 prime for prime would always be tricky for Hopkins irrespective of what happened when the did actually fight IMHO.

 

he's massively over-rated, the only claim he has is a manufactured unbeaten record. I respect that he has some big fans on here but people who know very little about boxing or are very new to the sport like calzaghe1 and mrplow latch on to the unbeaten tag thinking it's the be all. Truth is, if your a neutral and can't see through the bull**** you really need to learn about the sport properly and not just believe what itv tell you.

 

I think that is quite a condesending thing to say Unbeaten can mean what you want it to mean, but what it sure as hell does mean 99% of the time is that the man either knocked out or stopped someone, as performed well enough to convince a ref, or 3 judges he was worth the win. To take that away from a man who made boxing his career, is completely unfair, and basically bull****. Ok fair enough, some of the names on his record are not great, but name me a fighter who has fought top quality fight after fight from start to finish in his career.
Ok maybe it is jumping the gun to say best in the last 20 uyears, but give the man some credit

 

hello I have posted many, many times about my thoughts on calzaghe. He's had an excellent international career and unified a division. However he belongs nowhere near the true ATGs.

 

JC is good but hes not quite a sloth bear

 

I am sure you have, and certainly would respect your opinion. Just from a personal perspective, i just felt it was far too a scathing comment about a man who has done a great deal for the division.
Maybe part of the reason calzaghe won't have a true legacy in the opinion of many people is that he didn't fight certain people in his prime (hopkins springs to mind), but i think the biggest factor is his promoter, the biggest downfall of many a british fighter on the international scene.
However i must conecde it is premature for anyone to be speaking about calzaghe in terms of the best fighter of the last 20 years, especially so close to his retirrment (and who knows how long that will last).
Cheers for the reply