Calzaghe always had the opportunity to go to the US and fight Jones and Hopkins, even before the Lacy fight. The main reason why those fights fell apart, was because they refused to comply with the demands of them - P4P elite guys - coming to the UK to fight him - practically a nobody to the rest of the world. Trust me, if he went to the US, they would have happened. Hopkins’ physical prime began slipping in the Taylor fights, where it became clear he could no longer fight with a good pace for 12 rounds. 3 more years later against a high-volume fighter like Calzaghe, he was always going to have problems. And even then, he manages to outclass him in most parts and lose a decision which many people felt he won. Didn’t see Calzaghe being to keen on a rematch, either. So if a 43 year old Hopkins could do that, imagine what a younger, fitter Hopkins – who was built for 15 rounds! – would do. And the reason why he’s remained since, is because he’s been feasting on lesser experienced and carefully matched opponents he knows he can hang with – the Pascals and Pavliks. Sorry, mate. I just can't respect Joe in the way I do others.
Definately Calzaghe, I hate to make sweeping generalisations but a lot of Americans seem to harbour a deep resentment for him, probably due in a large part to over-zealous Joe fans proclaiming him to be an ATG, the best ever SMW ect ect. Plus the fact he didnt go over the pond until the end of his career, he did things his own way & never fought the best in his division whilst in his prime. 'Calslappy' had a lot of hand problems later in his career, if you watch his earlier fights he throws much harder shots. As his career progress he changed his style & was still highly effective. A lot of casual boxing fans crave the big KOs & just dont appreciate how skilled he was. They only see the 'slappy' style & dont value how good he was defensively, how accurate & adaptable he was. Joe was an excellent boxer, one of the best ever from Britain & its easy to critisize anyone's career but the only guy who retired with a better '0' was Marciano IMO.
judges in las vegas and canada do not like hopkins. as for calzaghe being disrespected, im suprised most people are voting for him - the fact remains that he hasn't fought one great fighter in their prime, not a single one.
While I agree that Calzaghe gets a lot of unwarranted disrespect because he was a really good fighter, but the adulation he gets, and the propping up by his fans is also disproportionate. The reason Americans took notice of him, is because he finally stepped onto the world stage, and the fight was promoted as such. You can't have the vast majority of your fights in an obscure venue, fighting obscure fighters, defending an obscure title(wbo smw) and expect the elite to come running. I think he was content to fight the weaker comp that would come to him for the most part of the decade he held the wbo belt. Hopkins was 43. Nobody is prime at 43. He might have still have been an effective fighter, fighting 2 weight classes above the weight class he did fight in his prime, which I would say was 97-04. But I would say it is more a credit to his savvy in the ring and in his matchmaking (except it backfired against Calzaghe), as opposed to him being anywhere near his prime. As for Mayweather, he is currently lying in the bed he has been making for the past few years.
calzaghe is. floyd is hated because of his own doing and rightly so. he deserves it while calzaghe gets it more than he deserves it.
Floyd has his *****s, B-Hop is very popular, and most Brits are behind Haye. Calzaghe... nobody likes him. The Brits, the Americans, everybody hates him.
calzaghe deserves the disrespect. Yes, he was a great fighter, but he never fought another great in their prime. froch >>>>>>> calzaghe as both a champ and a man yh joe was more skilled, but froch constantly fights the best, which is more than can be said for slappy
Hopkins lost those fights to Taylor not because he was past it, it was down to the wrong gameplan and in the rematch him being stubborn and not ad******g, he wanted to prove a point and it failed. The word prime gets tossed around a lot, what's really changed since his middleweight days, moved up a few divisions? what else, the dude hasn't deteriorated?! He can still go a solid 12 and can still make people pay for their mistakes. I'm not a Calzaghe nut hugger but you need to give the guys props, Hopkins has always been a bully in the ring, Calzaghe is the only guy EVER to bully him back, watch the adjustments Calzaghe made in that fight, he outsmarted the smartest fighter in the game.
Pacquiao. fighters of the decade, three times fighter of the year, 8 division champion, 4 division LINEAL champion... and people still find excuses all the time and call him overrated.
can i add another fighter who, on esb certainly, seems to get less respect that he deserves....mike tyson...youngest ever hw champ, literally tore a path thru a whole division, moved like a middleweight, hit like a train, great chin, and historically, perhaps the second 'biggest' champ since ali..internationally recoqnized....yet more remmebred for his demise and so called lack of competition than his victorys