Michalczewski vs calzaghe in their prime?

Great, close fight. Calzaghe would win the early rounds, DM was a slow starter. At some point, DM's power shots would land and Calzaghe would have to dig deep, as he did when those uppercuts from Kessler landed. I believe Calzaghe edges a points win based on his insane workrate. DM is definetely an underrated fighter, he beat the two fighters who beat Toney at LHW, plus good, clear wins over Hill and Griffin and the first to KO Rocchigiani.

 

Calzaghe would not lose this one on points he'd pick up a fairly clear UD here the other option would be Michalchewski catching him while behind on points and knocking him out...

 

Prime Calzaghe has way underrated power on this forum...he had a record of 21(20)-0 when he fought Eubank. Those are not the stats of a feather-fisted slapper. Also he was the first person to stop Byron Mitchell. His hands weakened badly around 2005 when he broke his hand during the Evans Ashira fight and his power was never the same.

He would have had the power to trouble DM and this would have been a very close fight.

 

Michalczewski had good power and a lovely left jab that completely dominated Hill (before RJJ faced him?) but his defense was poor. Calzaghe would've picked him off and outmanouvered him to win a clear ud.

 

I guess some people here watched only late fights of Michalczewski where he was on the slide, as it can be the only excuse for ridiculous predictions like "Calzaghe by TKO".

DM fought some decent punchers (and most punchers are decent anyway when compared to Calzaghe) and was never KO'd in his prime (on the other hand, Calzaghe was down even against ancient Hopkins and shot RJJ). I recommend watching his second fight with Hall (when he was already past prime) before claiming Calzaghe can do any damage to him.

Size: DM (he had a belt at CW once)
Power: DM
Chin: DM (no comparison)
Speed: Calzaghe
Workrate: Calzaghe
Defence: both have some flaws, but while DM can take best shots from Calzaghe it doesn't work the other way around.

Calzaghe may win some early rounds, especially that DM was usually slow starter, but I doubt he can make it to UD.

 

Calzaghe is WAY too open to right hands to beat DM.

 

DM is overrated in my opinion, Calzaghe would have won a comfortable UD.

 

DM was a real good fighter but I believe Calzaghe would have beaten him convincingly. Prime Calzaghe could hit alot harder, and although I dont think he would stop a prime DM, I think he would have troubled him. Remember how hurt DM was when caught (admittedly off guard) by Rocchigiani.

 

I think that he was acting pretty well :good

 

His record was horribly padded though and it seems he has benefited from almost bizarre stoppages where the other guys looked far from done but the ref called the fight anyway. There was one posted here not long ago.
From most of the early **** Ive seen of he did have some pop and he showed this during his title reign aswell...but for the most part I saw him just overwhelming his opponents with his speed and awkwardness.

I honestly cant remember ever seeing Joe stop a guy with a 10 count knockout...though I havent seen his whole career admittedly.

To be honest I dont think his power will trouble DM that much..his speed is Dariusz's biggest concern.

 

It's the spped difference that kills Dm. He just didn't move well around the ring, and his hand speed was average at best.

JC controls the action.



Keith

 

Hopkins at his late forties didn't need a lot of speed to knock Joe down in the opening minutes of the fight. RJJ was also shot - he was demolished by Tarver, Johnson and Green, but in the meantime he went full distance with Calzaghe... and BTW also sent him down in the 1st round.

If they were able to put him down, DM would likely keep him there. I wouldn't bother that much about speed difference - DM style wasn't built on speed, and he still kept winning against decent opponents generally without problems.

 

:good Agreed!!

 

DM had an iron chin, he would just walk through Calzaghe´s slaps - and I´m ignoring that DM had a decent defense in his prime.

Yep, he beat Hill before Jones and unified three titles just to get stripped of two because he wouldn´t defend them three days later ... that was because the sanctioning bodies wanted Jones as champ.
Prime DM had a decent defense actually.

Some reason here. Thank you. :good

Yeah, Rocchigiani got shafted there. BS DQ! :bart


Like I already wrote a good jab can negate a speed advantage. DM had probably the best jab of the 90s - and I´m not speaking lhws but p4p. And he had a very good right hand which Joe C. is vulnerable to.

 

Since Joe in his prime had wickedly quick footwork, I'd favor Calzaghe to win a UD if he can steer clear of gambling and taking chances. If he starts to "toy" at some point in the fight, he gets knocked out.