my thoughts on joe calzaghe

I didn't think the fights of calzaghes I saw were boring at all. They weren't any more boring than Hopkins fights are. It just seems like Calazaghes career maybe was carefully managed by his dad and there's nothing wrong with that. In the US., most guys first 20 fights are weak.

 

I always said the same thing about Joe and Floyd....that their skills and talent make them great....but their resumes don't match their greatness in regards to them as fighters and what they are able to do in the ring. I will say Floyd has a better resume, but he could have a better legacy had he "chose" more challenging oppostion on his way to keeping his nice undefeated record like Joe.

 

Believe it or not there are a good number of Americans that like Calzaghe. If all you pay attention to is the criticism then it might look like we all hate him, but note the names that are talking **** and you'll see that it's the same people over and over - similar to the die hard Klitschko and Mayweather and (substitute skilled fighter here) critics.

And really, anyone that goes above and beyond legitimate criticism of any fighter isn't worth listening to, anyway.

 

Most of your list are Americans. So, how many Roy Jones fights have you watched?

 

I went back over the list on Box Rec. I didn't go into the earliest fighters because their records were bad, as is usually the case. And I didn't go over the end of the list beacause we all know them. These are all the middle fights and about 40% were from America. But where they are from isn't the point. I think I just mentioned that they were fought back in Europe. The honest question was how good were they and one poster said B and C level fighters.

In America you can't watch much TV boxing without cable and from between 2002 and 2008 we didn't have cable. So I completely missed Roy Jones' decline but I read about it and was surprised. Before 2002 I watched about five or six RJJ fights live on cable and I thought he was the greatest fighter post-Tyson. Calzaghe fans probably think Calzaghe is the best post-Tyson. There probably isn't any solid criteria to determine one way or the other. It is just belief or gut feeling. Sometimes there are really knowledgable, objective fans on these sites.

 

I've seen all of those fights and it's a little bit of a mixed bag, none of them are especially good fighters though, I would say that only Brewer and Mitchell could be seen as any kind of test, the rest were pretty much there to make up the numbers. Calzaghe has a 0 on his record (which I personally don't agree with as I think Hopkins won a close fight) but what you have really is Eubank at one end, Hopkins and Jones at the other and everything in the middle is 'meh' or at least it is if you're trying to argue any kind of atg status. Calzaghe was a very good fighter but his record is shallow.

 

I kind of like Andrade and Kessler got the decision over him. Were Kessler to win the SMW turney, the decision over him by Calzaghe would look even more impressive. Also, I really thought at the time Calzaghe won his chessmatch with Hopkins.

 

Exactly, he's a far better stylistic than Hopkins.

Far better styilist then Hatton, not sure why people say he's boring, he just doesnt get many KO's thats all.

 

There was one part of his fight with Jones Jr. that boggled my mind a little. He was holding his face about 6 inched from Roys chest and firing at will. That was a different sort of dominance than a KO, but it was still dominance.

 

Calzaghe - one of the best fighters I have seen with my own eyes. The only quality he lacked was a one punch KO. People can slag his record off if they want, let them. Truth is did Jones, Hopkins and Toney want any part of Calzaghe, (Most likely he didn't even register on their radar) also did they want any part of Benn, Eubank, Collins or Michalczewski? I find alot of people slag Calzaghe off, yet don't apply the same standards to the likes of Toney, Hopkins and Jones.

 

well i thought that the reason joe never got his credit in the statez waz because they were under the impression that the ukerz gave joe WAY too much credit for his talent and his resume

either way i dont care i think joe waz a fantastic boxer and one of the best if not the best of his time and at his weight.

 

I don't think it is any big deal that people pay more attention to fighters from their own country or community or whatever. It's just the way it is sometimes. Most people in the US aren't hardcore, fans. They only know the big stars. Some are from other countries (many from Central and South America) but most are from around the US. Lennox Lewis and Prince Hamed made a pretty good splash here but I imagine they were much bigger back home.

 

Hamed was always going to make a name for himself with his flashy ways, Lennox was an olympian so he had that going for him. Joe didn't really have anything going for him, he wasn't particularly flashy and never got to the Olympics (a massive mistake for british boxing). And yes of course they were much bigger than Calzaghe back home.

 

Amir Khan was much bigger then Calzaghe ever was here, and thats before Khan got near Barrera or the world title

 

Thats the Olympics for you. If Calzaghe had been selected to go to Barcelona, I suspect that he would have had a different career and early fame like Amir Khan. So many boxers get the limelight just from doin well in the Olympics.