Joe Calzaghe's accuracy.........

Know this guy?

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First of all, its inevitable that this willl turn into a calzaghe-hopkins thread....

...secondly i have no idea what you are trying to insinuate about joe's 'accuracy' ...first of all you are saying that he was not a very accurate fighter, but then saying he should have been against hopkins (apologies if I misintrepreted it, but what you have written i s a bit vague)

calzaghe was never a clean puncher, and he did indeed throw alot of spontaneous, awkward punches (slaps, depending on your inclination), and technically, he had very little going for him, apart from his extremely high work rate.

i personally felt hopkins won the fight (by no means clearly), but i felt the fact that Joe was unable to meet the great fighters of his generation at the correct time, consequented in his 'undefeated' stature.

 

Considering his technical flaws, Calzaghe shouldn't have been successful at all. But the reality is that his style was so unorthodox, and he threw punches with such insane volume and speed, that he could overcome those flaws. Opposing fighters got overwhelmed, regardless whether punches were hitting clean. Another thing is that Calzaghe had amazing footwork. He knew how to flurry and get the f*ck out of harm's way over and over again, and did it in ways that the opposing fighter couldn't catch up to. He was an anomaly.

 

Good thread!!! (lets hope it doesn't get invaded )

In his earlier years he didn't slap quite as much (although he still did) and he put much more on many of his shots. His moto is 'throw a punch as soon as I'm in a position to throw it, then throw up numerous follow up punches in quick succession'. Its like a windmill affect. But his punches aren't quite as compact as they should be

2 other things Joe didn't do well:

1. Coming straight forward without head movement, makes it easy to time right hands on him. This is a good video, before he fought Hopkins, BHOPs is shouting 'watch that straight right hand Joe'

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrMqMMljNE[/ame]

2. Gives up his height a tad too much

3. Flurries at short range, these don't significantly hurt an opponent and a big counter punch is pretty easy to land, ie BHOPs counters

What people underrate about him:

1. His offensive/defensive movement/footwork is brilliant
2. His timing/feinting

 

those slaps were due to his hands being severly damaged later in his career... this was also the reason for his low knockout rate!!

fortunately for him with broken hands he was still good enough 2 be the best on the planet!!

 

and finally, the ability to Adapt (with a capital A). I've never seen a fighter in the modern era who adapted mid-fight better - even better than Hopkins.

 

Calzaghe had Glass Hands for a good portion of his career. If he sat down on his punches more, his gloves would have burst due to the Glass Shattering beneath them. His punches would have bounced off the gormess face of Glass Jaw Jones for example, and shards of Glass would have lacerated Jones' face even further, possibly earning him a DQ. :deal

Imagine a Calzaghe without Glass Hands. The damage he would have done would have been immense. Even though his hands were Glass, he still managed to lacerate and maul endless opponents, much to the chagrin of Rojos and Hopasexuals everywhere.:rofl:happy

 

Joe had great ability to take his oppents weapons away and he had great footwork, stamina, chin and good hand speed a bit overated in this department maybe but it was still better 99% of other SMW's. He was a great fighter who didnt quite show it. The fact that he beat everyone he faced and bar bhop and kessler and Reid shows to me that he would have given anybody hell. Sadly as ever the tocker pudwills on his record dont look so clever

Im surprised his accuracy is coming into question tho - only against hopkins did he really look wild and ragged - he landed on kessler fairly easy from memory i think Hopkins has to take a lot of credit for the way he fought against Joe - but for me Hopkins didnt quiet do enough later in the fight

 

Hopkins is a cagey fighter. If you're actually expecting him to get hit cleanly and a lot, you're crazy. The fact that Calzaghe landed a lot more hits on him than anyone he's ever fought is a testament to Calzaghe's ability to score points with the judges, technique be damned.

I mean, there was a slaphappy heavyweight champion in the 1920s if I remember correctly. One of the lowest KO ratios ever, but he just outpointed a lot of opponents by slapping them with his windmill attacks.

That said, he's a smart fighter. Adapts well, good footwork, good reaction timing, ability to counter in his own windmill attacks, superb conditioning. He also had great recuperative ability and fast handspeed.

 

I think you go to too much effort to appear to be thinking very technically, because believing Calzaghe's horrible punching technique made him more effective doesn't really mark you out as seeing some alternative perspective that we are all missing at all, it marks you out as someone making a grievous error. Calzaghe's punching was dire, it was purely his toughness and workrate that saw him through. If he could actually punch, he may have been a great fighter, but his wide open slapping style would have seen him sorely exposed by any prime HOF calibre opponent.

 

You have to understand that Calzaghe didn't slap all the time. When he's focused, most of his punches straighten up.

 

So he was unfocused 99% of his miserable career?:huh