Joe Calzaghe was an Amazing Fighter

Decent fighter. Not amazing.

Could have, and should have finished alot stronger than a shot RJJ.
Could have, and should have called out some names earlier and push for some big fights.

Overall, holding a title for 11 years with over 20 defenses is respectable and a commendable trait, however the over rating arises when his resume, victories and accomplishments is compared to the resume, victories and accomplishments of real ATG's.

Or when his wins are praised in such a way to notch them up to such an exent a Calzaghe nutthugger is born, and everyone knows they exist.

 

This picture is false...Calzaghe never had all those belts at the same time.

 

these mother****ers wont let it die this boring champ is retired move on

 

Yep.

 

Calzaghe was a great fighter. Not a high-ranking ATG or anything, but great nonetheless. P4P I consider him an ATG fighter, but his resume keeps him out of the discussion.

He suffered from being British with no great domestic rivals. Benn and Eubank couldn't get Toney, but they had each other, Collins, and Watson. Calzaghe couldn't get Ottke, Beyer, or Hopkins, and he was left with Reid, Bika, etc. A long list of good fighters but no real standouts.

His career-defining moment was when he beat the soul out of Lacy. People DID overrate Lacy, but that takes nothing away from the win. Joe was heavily favored to lose by stoppage, and he was regarded as a Eurobum much like Ottke. People had never heard of him and since he was foreign they assumed he had sat around all those years fighting bums and that Lacy would tear him up. It was Calzaghe's first exposure to American audiences (Showtime). He came in as the underdog, and delivered one of the most one-sided upset beatdowns ever, unifying the titles.

Then he beat Kessler, who was also largely unknown. The fact is, that when given an opportunity, Calzaghe beat everyone in his division. It just took him forever to get that opportunity. And then at the end of his career, he decided to make some money and beat Hopkins and Jones. I believe he severely underestimated Hopkins, but he still got the job done.

His resume could be stronger, but it isn't--through no fault of his own. He never protected his record. Imagine if Floyd retired at 46-0 a few years from now, having avoided Pac. There would be reason for criticism, because Floyd is KNOWN to cherrypick his opponents and avoid challenges. Calzaghe was the one challenging everybody else and getting no responses.

And people say he should have come to America sooner. To fight who? Mario Veit? Robin Reid? You need an American dance partner if you're gonna fight over here. Again, not his fault that nobody wanted to fight him.

 

Calzaghe was class. Can understand why people didn't like his style of boxing, and I can understand the complaints about the depth of his resume, but you don't dominate a division the way he was able to when you're an average fighter.

Great? It's hard to say, as reflected by the level of debate it's seemed to generate on this board in the short time I've been a member. His legacy is clearly blighted by a lack of real career-defining fights, which you can't really blame him for to be fair. Suppose it's a shame he didn't really get the opportunity to test himself often enough because he had a habit of rising to the big occasion. Because of that there's always gonna be an element of speculation as to just how good he really was (or wasn't). I thought Joe was sick though.

 

agreed: can't say wlad is a great fighter for his dominance despite the absence of fantastic opposition and then say calzaghe, with double the defenses, is a lesser fighter despite his superior longevity

 

dont need to wait years winning the super 6 against the quality of opposition Ward is facing will already be light years ahead of any comp Joe C faced and Ward beat Kessler' ass worse for starters.

 

True.

 

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Nah.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238220&highlight=ward+calzaghe

 

Apart from Kessler, who are these quality opponents that Ward has faced?

A. Green is a joke, I can easily name 10 fighters that Calzaghe has beaten that are better than Green. I can see Johnson beating him.

Miranda took Ward the distnace, but Bute took him out in 3 rounds. Pavilik stopped him in 7(at 160).

And these fighters are'LIGHT-YEARS' ahead of anything that Calzaghe faced. Don't make me laugh.

 

Right on! The guy is definitaly a HOF, he's the best SMW of all time (but the next Ring Magazine champ -probably Ward, Bute or Dirrell- will become bigger than him), he's got several good wins at 168 (Kessler, Lacy, Eubank, etc.), he got trough adversity (carreer going very slowly, early knockdowns in 4 of his fights, hands problems) but the only two ATG's he beat were a totally shot RJJ and a little less shot BHOP (who beat him IMO) and he could have fought more than that (e.g: Dawson, Johnson, or even fight the top dogs at CW to get another linear championship).

Anyway, VERY good boxer who is not an ATG, though. I reckon both him and Marciano get a little overrated for their 0's.

 

Ward has only been pro for 6 years and has only had 22 fights. Calzaghe fought Kessler (one of his top three opponents) after 43 fights.

Yes Green is nothing special, but then neither are Veit, Ashira, Pudwill, McIntyre and a whole host of other duds Calzaghe defended his WBO strap against.

And? Charles Brewer had been stopped a few times but took Calzaghe the distance.

Again, Ward is still fairly green but is already stacking up a resume just as good as Calzaghe's.

 

Nah. That wasn't Joe. One of the hugest hearts in the history of the sport though no question. You had to kill Joe Calzaghe to beat him. No overstatement.