Marvin Hagler vs. Joe Calzaghe

It is not about the weight at all.

Hagler was a very busy fighter himself. How could Calzaghe ouwork him? weird logic

Calzaghe did not have a great chin all, he was dropped several times. Hagler probably destroys him fairly quickly..

 

furthermore joe was only able to up his workrate by reducing his accuracy to a negative effect overall.

matter of time before joe gets dropped and with no corrput welsh ref to stop the fight and award joe a fake win.

 

Exactly. According to some he is beating Hagler and Toney. This utterly riduculous.Classic Forum is dropping in quality here

 

I think it's fairly obvious that Calzaghe is busier than Hagler. It's the cornerstone of his style. Another very busy fighter, Antuofermo, was competitive with Hagler. The same essential stylistic problem is magnified here, given that Calzaghe is bigger and better than Vito.

And Joe IS a fair bit bigger, especially when considering that Joe fought as high as 175 and that Hagler was a smallish middleweight. Quite a few of zaggers' opponents had fought at a high level at LHW. Some of Hagler's hardest fights were from welters moving up.

If they were the same weight, I reckon I'd pick Hagler to win.

But they're not, and I see some stylistic and size problems for Marvin here.

 

hagler is quite capable of throwing like joe, but hes not as inefficient as joe.
the difference is that calzaghe throws wild inaccurate punches, hagler when he htrows in the same manner, throws to hit and to hurt.

 

Hagler was more economical, and accurate, yes. Calzaghe is not inaccurate, he just doesn't have much power. Well, his old version doesn't, the version that fought Eubank was hitting pretty darn hard. I just think that Calzaghe is a big ask for Hagler, given the size disparity.

 

actually yes he is inaccurate relative to the elites and worlds he fought. He lagged below their accuracy rates on every occasion.

 

The way Calzaghe found himself on his ass in the first round against an old Hopkins and a shot Jones doesn't bode well for how he'd handle a prime Hagler.
To be fair, he got up and recovered well, but someone as sharp and skillful as prime Hagler would probably retain that initiative and either stop Calzaghe early or make him go into survival mode the whole fight.
Calzaghe would deserve a ton of praise if he could even go the distance with Hagler.
I liked the way Calzaghe outclassed Lacy but Hagler's a completely different league.

 

I agree with the general premise of your post. But Calzaghe was hardly prime himself when he fought those two guys and it was in a higher division that both had frequented for years. Those two components alone would make a prime Calzaghe vs a prime Hagler a totally different match. With that said, I concur that Hagler should be favored. But just not based on the example you gave.

 

Good thread

 

I'm not sure Bernard Hopkins had frequented 175 much at that point. His pro debut, which he lost, and the Tarver fight - I think that's it.

I agree my point taken in isolation doesn't make a case, but it illustrates partly why I have my doubts over Calzaghe's overall quality, considering there really isn't much of substance in Calzaghe's lengthy prime at 168 in terms of opposition to gauge much of anything on.

 

Calzaghe was a very good fighter, arguably a HOF .Hagler was an ATG. Calzaghe was just not on the level of Hagler.

Calzaghe is a guy who fought a lot on his hometurf for the meaningless WBO strap.He wasted years there and never fought Ottke.

He fought some great fighters when they were clearly past their best in Jones and Hopkins.Arguably even lost to Hopkins.

 

... and those 2 fights are biggest fights in his career. He beat 40+ years old Hopkins narrowly and compare to how Jones getting KO by Green, Tarver, Johnson etc, Calzaghe victory was the least impressive.

 

I didn't see him a land a single punch on Hopkins.
He merely scruffed and scraped at him a bit, brushed his gloves against him occasionally. I didn't see a real punch from Joe in 12 rounds. Maybe there were a couple, it's not exactly a fight I bothered re-watching.

 

Hagler beat antueformo up in the 2nd bout.We are talking prime Hagler and not where he had an off night.

Joe does not look big to me