From 1996 to 2002 he was, but not by the time Calzaghe got to him, idiots like you know nothing about boxing. Hopkins is good for his age, but since turning 40 and the Taylor fights his record is 9-1-4 and he has to be selective about who he fights. Taylor and Dawson both beat him much more convincingly than Calzaghe did.
Floyd is certainly craven when it comes to the very best but joe calzaghe invented the word. He was defending a supposed world title against subnationals back to back for years. basically hatton, khan, and ricky burns even would all be undefeated if they picked like joe cal. but joe cal would never be undefeated if he faced floyds level of opposition.
whatever is anyone's choice, you cant argue, joe's legacy is getting better and better as bhop keeps winning. pedjr had his chance with drainelo but he was more concerned with winning he handicapped him, which completely destroyed his win. i dont see any in his future opponents that will up his legacy going forward. he just went life and death with a b/c-level fighter and forced(paid?) the guy to wear pedjr's preferred pillow gloves. if he has any dream of leaving a better legacy, he should fight pac while there is time. both of them can lose in the next fight or two.
Joe has Kessler as a big name prime win, and that's it. everything else he did was little league, the occasional world level opponent, or even worse, preying on 40somethings. Mayweather, although just as much an unlikeable disrespecting wifecheating druggie as Calzaghe is, has fought big names at least one in every three opponents, with fairly good opponents in between. but its obvious calzaghe is getting elevated by some fans because he was white, which is highly racist. If he was black he would be another also ran behind sven ottke. that said, he was still pretty good, just never great, as has been said by many important pundits over the years. Its difficult to call someone who had such poor accuracy when punching as a great boxer, most of the time he fights he is swinging at air.