Joe Calzaghe vs James Toney at 168

IIRC Calzaghe started off as a KO machine and then stuffed his hands up as a result.

 

Accumulation ko guy. Not exactly lots of snap with both hands. But he was a finisher back then which is more important anyway.

 

by not showing up.

 

how come it just happens to calzaghe?

 

and james would hit with nearly all of it, and it would damage each time. joe would miss with nearly all of it, and none of it would hurt when it did land.

joes skills are rudimentary compared to JT.

 

Pretty sure he had brittle hands. I'm not that clued up on Joe's beginnings

 

Calzaghe did have brittle hands, his first 20 odd fights or so he was stopping people although I'm not sure if he was rendering them unconscious or the like, but his hands did give him problems as he got deeper into his career.
Having said that although you hear all the old "slaphappy" stuff from people and although his KO percentage went down later in his career he did tend to still hurt people, he couldn't be discounted on that score, a bit like Ali.
I think this is a fascinating fight I love Toney's skills but I think he's simply outworked here.

 

Toney UD

 

Its always a tough call picking a guy to lose who was never beaten. But Joe had some very close and iffy fights against a few men who were lesser fighters than a prime James Toney who was decisively better than anyone Calzaghe ever faced. My inclination is to lean slightly Towards "lights out." But the incredible hand speed and work rate of The Pride of Whales combined with the tendency of James to show up sluggish and unmotivated shouldn't be counted out as factors.

 

Is that when he went on that long losing streak then?

 

Pride of Whales?? if either man fits that description it would be latter day James, not Joe

 

Magoo with the post of the thread as usual ^

 

Hahaha. I see my spelling error now. My apologies to our Welsh posters.

 

Thanks friend. Although in fairness, there are a lot of great posters on here with some pretty awesome responses.

 

i agree with joe by decision despite a kd