Name a fighter that would have beaten RJJ the night he fought Toney

I knew he could fight from seeing his amateur exploits and I knew he possessed all the necessary attributes and intangibles to go onto have a distinguished pro career after watching him against Eubank.

 

I understand what it's like on here. It's tit for tat a lot of the time. Although I do think you're extremely harsh on Joe sometimes, I do regard you as one of the better posters on here. :good

 

Here's that old post of mine about regarding Calzaghe's injury problems around the time he fought Reid. Please don't anybody reply to it I'm just re-posting it to back up some of arguments I've made.

We have video footage of his post-fight interview from the Gimenez fight where he talks about how he hadn't been able to do any sparring in preparation for the fight due to problems with his wrist.

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Then directly after that fight he's out of action for a full ten months, having to undergo surgery on his wrist, and then suffering yet another injury (to his elbow) during preparation for Reid, which had to be rescheduled to a later date. Other than an injury induced eight month sabbatical in 1996, Joe had been fighting very regularly prior to facing Reid. Fighting three or four times a year had always been the plan once he'd won his title (he needed to back then if only for financial reasons as he wasn't earning big purses at that stage of his career), but once his body started giving out on him he wasn't able to do that. He was back to fighting once every four months for his next three fights after returning from injury, and he also looked a lot better too.


Like I said, the commentary team even mention during the Reid fight that there had been rumours leaked from Wales that he'd had to curtail his sparring sessions early due to injury and I remember reading about his injury problems in the boxing press back then too.

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Reid certainly seemed to be aware he was still having problems with his elbow as he locked Joe's arms up on a couple of occasions in the first round and violently twisted them.

Here's the first round.

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Reid was always a dirty ****er and he fought a VERY dirty fight against Joe too (you can see exactly what his intentions were just from the amount of flagrant fouls he commits in the opening round). The referee had to pull him aside on numerous occasions during the fight to sternly reprimand him for his flagrant fouling (and it was very flagrant too). He deducted one point off him for it and the only reason I don't think he didn't deduct more (which he should have done) is because Reid was the home fighter and he had the bulk of the crowd behind him.

Just to give you a taste of how dirty Reid was in that fight, here's a selection of some of his fouling from the 2:00 mark of the fifth round onwards (he committed plenty more before that too but I've already gone to more than enough effort as it is and I can't be bothered to go through the whole fight lol).

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Regarding him injuring his hand during the fight, well you only have to watch it to realize he wasn't throwing it with anywhere near the same regularity or force as he did against Eubank and some of his earlier fights. He was really leaning into it and putting his full weight behind it in that one, throwing it with abandon from first bell to last, whereas again Reid he was throwing it much more sparingly and not with the same bad intentions for the most part.

Also, a journalist who attended the post-fight presser said this about Joe's hand:

''At the post-fight news conference Calzaghe's hand had swollen horribly around the knuckles''


Here's what Joe had to say about the problems he was having with his wrist and elbow around that time too.

''Worryingly, I began to have problems with my right wrist during training for my next title defence against mandatory challenger Juan Carlos Gimenez, who had been the distance with both Eubank and Benn. It was recurrence of the injury that jeopardised my career as a teenager and affected my preparations a lot in sparring and general bag work. I went to see a specialist but there wasn't much I could do except protect the hand as much as I could.

''I underwent another operation on the problematic wrist, which didn't seem to do much except keep me out of the ring for the next ten months, which was terribly frustrating at a time when I was hoping to build some momentum in my career. Over the years I've tried loads of different methods to try to make the wrist better, even soaking the bandages in vinegar before I wrapped my hands.

''The operation itself left me unable to throw a punch for three months, and then I injured my left elbow in an innocuous sparring session with Gary Lockett. I was only throwing a few jabs when I jarred the elbow but it was enough to extend my stay on the sidelines. A bout that been planned for the Autumn had to be scrapped, so I set my sights on having a better 1999.''

"I saw a specialist on Thursday and he says I have got golfer's elbow and should rest for at least six months. I can't be doing that, though, because I need my career to get back on track after a lot of time out already through injury.

"I will be seeing him again this week to make a final decision, but it is not looking good.

"It is inflammation of a muscle attached to the inside of my elbow, which I jarred fully 10 months ago. I twisted it in sparring and although it is not connected to an old wrist injury, it had affected my preparation badly. I could not spar for the last fight and it's still painful."

And here's a video of him talking about that too.

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