Even more egregious is how he hid out in Wales, defending his useless WBO belt, feasting on bums. He hardly squeeked by Robin Reid for crying out loud, it was heavily disputed, and this is some all time great? Have you seen the video I posted? I have absolutely NO DOUBT that the refs over were specifically in there to make sure he won, there is no other way to justify the stoppages in this video. Everyone has a bad stoppage here or there, but to have an entire collection of blatantly horrible stoppages, where it's dead obvious the referee is working for him is just pitiful. Check this out if you haven't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgTJhEdj5M I mean this is a fighter who FLAT OUT SAID when RJJ was still prime that he thought RJJ was a great fighter, but he wasn't interested in getting tough fights. How does a guy say that, and yet people try to proclaim he was some monster, taking on all comers, cleaning out divisions? atsch This was an opportunist who waited until RJJ had been knocked senseless and was a corpse, while he flat out said he had no interest in facing Roy while he is prime. I remember a video where he said he thought Roy had slowed down enough to fight him, how pathetic. The good news is, time will most likely fix this issue. Many great fighters finally get recognition later on, while the seriously overrated ones tend to fade away eventually, and are never considered among the greats. Give it another 5, 10 years, and nobody will ever be mentioning Calzaghe again, he'll never sniff the top 100 ATG list, or be considered an ATG period by any respectable source.
Oh yeah, pretty horrendous. First Manfredo is blocking everything with his gloves, then he begins bobbing and weaving while Calzaghe flails wildly, missing everything. All the sudden: BOOM, referee jumps in, despite nothing landing. :rofl Heck I'm willing to bet it's rather easy to manufacture a Calzaghe like career. Grab an average boxer with excellent conditioning, let them fight only in their hometown with referees who are working for them, waiting to stop the fight the first moment they can. Just have your fighter flail away with slaps like Joe did, as soon as they can get off one or two uncontested slaps, have the ref ready to jump in, just like he did. It would be rather easy to manufacture another Calzaghe, very much so.
Do I think there was hometown referees waiting to stop it the first moment they could? Absolutely. Someone who is delusional has no proof, I have posted a video compilation that has DEFINITIVE proof of my claim. We've all seen a bad stoppage here or there, but PLEASE explain how there can be such a multitude of these stoppages? This isn't one or two bad ones, this is an ENTIRE ****ING COLLECTION of blatantly horrible stoppages, it's VERY obvious the ref was waiting to stop it the first moment he could. Go ahead, watch the video and explain these, please do. Find me ANY FIGHTER, ANY who got anywhere near this many stoppages in this manner, I'll be waiting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACgTJhEdj5M
I was looking at the top 10 LHWs and SMWs in Boxing Monthly this month and even after all these years retired Calzaghe has wins over 3 top 5 fighters between the 2 divisions. Then looked further and every fighter with a loss in those divisions has a loss that eventually points back to someone Calzaghe had beaten. Even the fighters without losses in Ward and Kovalev had debateable decisions to Boone who in turn has a loss that eventually leads back through the losses of other fighters to a Calzaghe victim. Ring SMW C.) Ward champ has a debateable win over Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 1.) Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 2.) Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 3.) Abraham who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 4.) Steiglitz who lost to Andrade who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 5.) Groves who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 6.) Oosthuizen who drew with Chilemba who lost to Bellew who lost to Stevenson who lost to Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 7.) Bika lost to Calzaghe 8.) Degale who lost to Groves who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 9.) Periban who lost to Bika lost to Calzaghe 10.) Vlasov lost to Chilemba who lost to Bellew who lost to Stevenson who lost to Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe Now if thats overated when he has been retired for all these years it makes todays era look weaker Ring LHW C.) Stevenson who lost to Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 1.) Hopkins who lost to Calzaghe 2.) Kovalev who drew with Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 3.) Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 4.) Braehmer who lost to Veit who lost to Calzaghe 5.) Dawson who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 6.) Shumenov who lost to Hopkins who lost to Calzaghe 7.) Cloud who lost to Hopkins who lost to Calzaghe 8.) Cleverly who lost to Kovalev who drew with Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 9.) Chilemba who lost to Bellew who lost to Stevenson who lost to Boone who lost to Pascal who lost to Froch who lost to Kessler who lost to Calzaghe 10.) Alvarez unbeaten but his biggest wins are opponents who if you follow down the line lead to Calzaghe Doesnt look bad considering how many years he has been retired and when you look at SMW champ Ward, his biggest win is an unwell past best Calzaghe victim. Add in 46-0 WBO WBA WBC IBF Ring SMW titles, Ring LHW title, 24 world title wins, champ for over a decade between 2 weights. First fighter to hold Ring titles at 2 weights, wins over top 10 rated fighters who held world titles of sorts or became world champs in Eubank, Reid, Woodhall, Veit, Brewer, Mitchell, Lacy, Bika, Kessler, Jones, Hopkins Cant see how thats overated when he has been retired for over 5 years and still a factor
Calzaghe is the most overrated fighter I think I've ever seen. His best wins were against over the hill HOF'ers and he decides to retire when the 168 division really started heating up. He lost to Hopkins 7-5 IMO and only his deluded British fanboys actually consider him an ATG. He was a very good fighter, with a sissy looking style...but he was effective at what he did. Just not nearly as good as what some people think he was.
Bailey, why even bother in these discussions? Don't even pretend you're open minded, or care about the facts. You are a diehard Calzaghe fanboy, one who makes no efforts to hide it. Doing that garbage you did up there with the "he who lost to this guy who lost to that guy, who beat this dude, who lost to this guy who lost to Calzaghe" is absolutely ******ed. In the Stevenson one for example, you go down FIVE FIGHTERS IN A ROW, of course if you trace **** long enough, you'll eventually find some way to tie it back to your hero. Guess what? It means absolutely NOTHING, that can be done with anyone who has a decent number of fights, don't even try to act like that means jack ****. Eubank, good fighter, not amazing. By this point he had already been in MANY wars and was extremely shopworn. He had a grand total of TWO fights in his career after Calzaghe, LOSING BOTH to Carl Thompson. Robin Reid, oh yes quite the champion, beating the great Vincenzo Nardiello for the belt. Look at his resume, not a single great win. Oh yeah, and Calzaghe still struggled horribly with him, many feeling he lost the fight. This isn't a guy to be bragging about bailey. Richie Woodhall, yet another weak ass champion, the kind that only exist because of how many belts there are, and the politics involved. Beat Thulani Malinga to win it. Number of great wins on his resume? That's a 0. Charles Brewer, mediocre fighter, only a champion because the title was VACANT, he beat GARY BALLARD for Christ sake, Ballard is a bonafide scrub, a nobody. Charles Brewer retired 40-11 having never beat one decent fighter, forget great. Byron Mitchell. Atrocious fighter, retired with the amazing record of 29-11, what a win Calzaghe!! Jeff Lacy, the absolute scrub who got schooled by a completely shot RJJ. Lacy was an absolute bum, period, stop trumping him up. You Calzaghe fanboys pretend like America thought Lacy was the next Tyson, some machine ready to destroy everyone in his way. Hell no, HBO hypes people to sell fights and make money, not a single knowledgeable person thought this guy was any good. Best wins were over Scott Pemberton and Robin Reid, this guy was garbage. Went 5-4 to finish his career, and has beat absolutely nobody. This MIGHT be the most pathetic of the wins Calzaghe fanboys trump up. Kessler: One solid win over Froch, name one other notable win? Solid fighter, not a great one. Bika: Nothing special as a fighter. Lost to every decent fighter he ever faced, zero notable wins. RJJ, TOTALLY shot when Calzaghe fought him, don't even start with that garbage. RJJ was a ****ing corpse, he was done. Calzaghe himself said that he thought Roy had slowed down a ton, so he was ready to fight him. What did Calzaghe have to say when Roy was still live? "Roy is a great fighter. I'm not interested in tough fights." Get out of here. Hopkins: Oh yes, Grandpa Hopkins. Let me guess, you're gonna say "look what he has done after, what a great win!" Hopkins has LONG been declining, he only fights people with low workrates, who are slow, he has picked carefully. Chad Dawson had far less trouble with Grandpa Hopkins, so he must be an all time great too, right? :rofl Oh and despite never being known as a hard puncher, and being very old, still managed to floor Calzaghe, and only lost by SPLIT DECISION. Quite a few gave the fight to Hopkins. Wow, doing that just made me realize Calzaghe's resume is even worse than I ever imagined. He really does have an absolute **** resume.
How can he be overrated when Americans don't give the guy any respect? Calzaghe is a legend ATG 46-0 was the best SMW ever and also went up in weight and beat another ATG, If Calzaghe was American he would get the credit he should, People actually talk as if Glenn Johnson or Chad Dawson would have beaten him! To put it simply Calzaghe was as good and IMO slightly better than Andre Ward if you don't think he is a legend and an amazing fighter you don't no boxing. Also explain how Hopkins is old when he is still a world champion today? American ****wits like to think the only way a British fighter can beat them is if their fighter is past it? Well Calzaghe wasn't in his prime either and was fighting at LHW not SMW his better weight.
This should be a copy and paste for every "Smoking Joe is overrated" thread.... Well done that man :happy
Yes, a legend who hid out in his homeland for all but a small fraction of his career, with hometown referees stopping his fights the first second they could. A legend who flat out said "Roy Jones is a great fighter, but I'm not interested in tough fights," who admitted that he waited until he thought Roy had slowed down enough, before he'd face him. Could hardly scrape a SD, and was floored by a 43 year old Hopkins, who many felt Hopkins deserved the win. A man who has absolutely ZERO great wins to his name, who systematically avoided all the greatest challengers, being content to stay back in Wales defending his paper belt. Andre Ward already has a far superior resume to Calzaghe, and would have absolutely annihilated him. If someone thinks Calzaghe is an all time great, they don't know **** about boxing.
