Lacy and Pavlik - similar?

It's more so this, who really knew or gave a **** about Hopkins before he stole the momentum from Tito in their fight where he easily won?

Calzaghe prior to Lacy, hardly anyone in the UK knew who he was if they didn't know the boxing scene, yet, 168 was as solid a division in his day as 160 was.

Once he beat Lacy, people wanted to discredit him, largely because a lot of support started occuring for him and people started saying things like he'd easily beat Jones Jr in their primes, which I disagreed with.

As for his performance against Roy, he Roy Jones Jr'ed Roy Jones Jr, I felt he actually relented a little bit by the end of the fight and was simply keeping Roy in the fight, he wasn't pressuring him the same way he tried to stomp Lacy out in the final rounds.

What he showed against Roy was a "What if?" in terms of what a fight in 1999-2003 would have been like.

 

Yes, but to make matters worse for Pavlik...

The guy that schooled and embarrassed him had been pretty easily beaten by Calzaghe by anyone who has an objective view of that fight. While it was a sloppy performance, it never deserved to be anything more than 115-112 to Calzaghe owing to the KD in the first round.

Lacy got absolutely blitzkrieged by one hell of a performance by a motivated fighter who was probably on the last legs of his prime....

 

Dude, Lacy was the clear favorite in the fight with Calzaghe, it doesn't change the fact that he got absolutely dominated and wasn't anywhere near the class of his opponent.

In the Taylor vs Pavlik case, Taylor was showing signs of creaking all the way to that fight, disputed draw with a feather fisted Winky, problems with a very small Cory Spinks and the disputed decisions against Hopkins, while looking at the results on his career before Pavlik, looking at the actuality is quite different.

But going to your point, beating Lacy and Kessler don't make Joe a legendary fighter. I agree with you.

Beating Lacy and Kessler, having dominated a division for 10 years and then finishing it off by beating Hopkins makes Joe a legend.

46-0, with 32KO, with more title fights than non title fights - very few fighters will ever match that, he combined talent, with longevity.

Look at his career and his resume, give me the names of fighters since 1994 who have fought between 160 and 175 and tell me who you think would have gone through undefeated.

 

Those same people put Rocky Marciano in their ATG list, despite the fact that his achievements are no where near as impressive as Calzaghe's in terms of title fights and moving up in weight classes.

I can be realistic and say "Hopkins is the only ATG that Calzaghe ever faced." but can you be realistic in giving credit to a career that went from 1995 through to 2008, without ever being defeated, having over 20 title defenses against fighters who were mainly Top 10 in their division at the time he fought them, finishing off his career by being ranked common consensus #2/#3 P4P, beating a #2 P4P late in his career?