Not Calzaghe bashing - But why do so many people think he's rubbish?

If you can't see what a class, brilliant fighter calzaghe was, regardless of resume(which i think is above average coincidentally), you don't know **** about boxing.

His ring smarts, stamina, jab,chin, handspeed and champions heart are of the highest level.

Anyone can pick holes in resumes.. i mean look at the **** RJJ fought

 

Doubt anyone that knows boxing well enough would consider Calzaghe rubbish, his abilities can't be denied no matter what. Only thing people might/do consider rubbish is his resume and I can't blame him for that, the SMW division was always poor, he just did his job and dominated for as long as he can.

 

He was never lineal at LHW because he never fought Erdei.

 

Excellent Post , praise from fellow boxers like Hagler, Sugar Ray Robinson and Floyd Mayweather Jr is praise indeed.

 

Your new so you probably think this is an original thread, which is fair enough. But this must be the millionth time this has been discussed, just have a flick through the archives n you'll see it constantly talked about. There should be a Calzaghe forum too so I dont have to read the same **** every day.

 

He had a dodgy three year spell, in the minds of the Rocky loving delusional boxing fans he should have been fighting the HBO / ring promoted 'big' fighters. He fought for paydays so people say he was a cherry pickers.

I can understand why people say he slaps because he throws his hands hollow and only snaps 2 in 10 punches, but i think this was a massive part of Calzaghe's success, because fighters who fought him were overwhelmed and didn't know when and where the power was coming from.

 

There is a reason he was only in the ring annual top ten p4p rankings from 2006-2008, when his career started in 1993, and he was a champ since 1997.

And despite being WBO SMW champ since 1997, the ring put him number 1 ranked SMW after 2002.

The Ring also thought Calzaghe was rubbish.

Source: http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings

 

The ring is an organisation to promote Golden Boy fighters, who cares what they think.

 

Because a lot of fans knew that Roy wasn't the fighter he once was and that Calzaghe was going to win comfortably, despite not being at his best himself. Useless starp, pah, you would give everything to hold a WBO title, it is a recognise world title, doesn't make it useless because you hate Calzaghe and he held one.

What was he retiring for? Because he's 37 years old, had been a pro for I don't know 16 years or something? Had 46 fights, cleared out a division, beat the lineal champ in another and achieved everything he had to achieve. He had nothing left to prove. Just because he didn't have any 'wars' as you claim, doesn't mean his physical condition wasn't deteriorating - speed, stamina, energy, reflexes, agility etc. Things he relied on. By the way, he has had 'wars'. Well maybe not wars, but he loved to brawl and trade and took some big punches in his career. Anyway, just because a fighter doesn't have an all-out war doesn't mean they can't retire. Stupid reasoning.

Limited Jeff Lacy? Right. So what round did you have Lacy to win in? Beforehand every American and every boxing expert around the world picked Lacy too knock him out. Too strong, too power they said. The new Mike Tyson. Yet Calzaghe produces one of the great British performance's and dominates Lacy winning every round, and yet he was over-hyped. Calzaghe ruined him, as did the shoulder surgery.

Mikkel Kessler is the best 168 by a country mile. He's got strong fundamentals, one of the best jabs in boxing, amazing timing and understanding of range, power, a very solid chin, focus and determination and an array of punches, and was the unified super-middleweight champion. Calzaghe beat him comfortably in another great performance.

Kessler hasn't proven himself because he's been held back by his promotor and is having problem with Palle and needs time to sort it out. But taking every single round off of a strong, powerful, aggressive and energetic guy like Andrade, arguably a top 5 SMW, is a pretty good indication. As is a good performance against Calzaghe, a relatively simple win against Anthony Mundine, and a sting of stoppage wins over fringe contenders without so much as breaking sweat.

I'm not a Calzaghe nut-hugger by any means. If I was I wouldn't admit Roy at 168 prime-for-prime would beat him, as would possibly Hopkins and Toney. What this discussion proves is you are a Calzaghe hater.

How can you seriously know Dawson would of been prepared to go to England to fight him? Fighters make statements like that all the time, because he knew Calzaghe was retiring. What if Calzaghe called his bluff?

The fact is still nobody knows Dawson here. Hell at least people knew Manfredo from the Contender series, and that's the only reason it did 35,000 at the Millenium Stadium - an 80,000 seater stadium. Nobody knows Dawson, it would deliver pale figures in comparison to fight against the likes of Hopkins and Jones Jr.

Give over. Everybody knows he was weight-drained. The clue is his lacklustre performances compared to his one's at cruiserweight, for example the Paul Briggs fight immediately before Dawson fight. Most fighters start at a lower weight when they begin there careers and move up as they condition themselves. Adamek started around the 180lb mark, and as he conditioned himself it's not illogical that putting on muscle definition, he would way even more and have to drop more.

It's no coincidence that having moved up to cruiserweight, he looks more energetic and fresh and physically stronger and is hitting harder. Not because of 25lbs of extra weight behind the punches, as he's fighting CW's who are used to taking the punches of 200lb fighters, but because he's fresher and in better physical condition and sharper.

I'd like to see a source for Kessler apparently turning down Dawson. Besides, why is Dawson picking on natural super-middles like Kessler or Calzaghe? Why doesn't he fight somebody in his own weight-class, preferrably he isn't 40 years old or so.

The guy Dawson went and begged WBC chief Jose Sulaiman not to make him fight - after he had been enforced as a mandatory - and instead went and lost to nie on 40 year old Glencoffe Johnson - who was pretty inactive on the comeback trail after losing his title to Clinton Woods.

This is actually a pretty good indication of what would of happened had Calzaghe called Dawson's bluff and offered to fight him in England, this is Dawson's proven track record. The fight was suggested to take place in Romania or Canada, where Diaconu's big fanbase in each country would provide a greater increase in revenue.

However, instead of taking the fight, he then went and begged Sulaiman again not to enforce Diaconu as a mandatory. After Sulaiman it clear Dawson would have to fight the tough, powerful, unbeaten Romanian, he then ran a million miles, dropping his prestigous WBC belt and picking up a less prestigous belt, the IBF, against Antonio Tarver - nie on 40 year old Antonio Tarver that is - who had just produced a lacklustre, un-inspiring, slow, tiring, un-energetic and frankly woeful and boring performance against an even worse Clinton Woods.

Kessler, Lacy, Mitchell, Eubank - these were all guys that could bang and weren't exactly slow either. Chad Dawson is NOT a power puncher. Stop making out that he's some sort of monster puncher. He has above average power, neither special, nothing Calzaghe hasn't seen before.

Reach is no good if you don't utilize it. I'm not convinced Dawson has the timing of Hopkins or Kessler, and therefore I don't think he could keep Calzaghe at bay with the jab, which is a punch Calzaghe takes away from his opponent brilliantly. Kessler's jab is one of the best in boxing and Calzaghe took it away from him and made it useless.

And too say Kessler winning 3 rounds automatically means 5 for Dawson shows how very little you know about boxing. Styles. It's all about styles. It doesn't mean because you perceive Dawson as a better fighter than Kessler, that he automatically picks up more rounds. That is a foolish presumption. Dawson is a solid fighter, he's nothing special and he showed that in unimpressive perforamances against past-prime 40 year olds Johnson and Tarver. I could claim having watched Tarver II, with Dawson having to take breathers and taking every 3rd round off, against a fighter that doesn't work anywhere near as hard as Calzaghe, that that's automatically 4 rounds in bag for Calzaghe.

Speed perhaps. But Dawson himself has never, ever faced somebody the level of overall ability, with the intangibles, class and speed of Calzaghe. He doesn't match him in some other crucial departments. They are both pretty equal in speed and hand foot. That is not where this fight will be won and lost.

For a payday. Calzaghe knew in his mind he was going to retire and wanted one last big payday to go out on. So he fought Roy. I love the way people criticize him for fighting 39/40 year old Roy, when he was 37 himself.

 

Haha. The 'shot Roy put him on his arse' quote again. Watch the fight cum-guzzler. It was a forearm and Calzaghe got straight back up. Dawson would of been on the floor till the count of 10 had that happened with his questionable chin. Hell weight drained Tomasz Adamek had him on his arse, didn't C+ level Eric Harding aswell?

Hopkins may not have as much natural power as Dawson but I'm telling you now, he delivers his power far better when he needs to because he's a far more intelligent, textbook and superior boxer. He landed a perfect counter on Calzaghe that momentarily put him down, before he got up and carried on and won the fight. Again, I doubt Dawson would of got up and composed himself so quickly, if he had got up at all. Calzaghe has a great chin, great heart and amazing recouparative ability and adaptability, Dawson wouldn't knock him out. No way in hell.

Nearly 12lbs? Why say that, it was 10lbs from 160 to 170. Don't forget Hopkins was a 160 all his career aswell prior to stepping up for the Tarver fight, Pavlik had a height and reach advantage, and had recently fought and beat Jermain Taylor at 166.

Why is he called out Froch and Adamek? Because he wants to take the cruiser weight belts and enhance his legacy, or beat a guy who is now a known-name coming off an impressive win over a great fighter - something Dawson isn't, and claim a 168 belt and be a 3 weight world champion. Dawson doesn't sell, simple as that. Not even in his home country.

Let's face it, Calzaghe has an unbeaten 46-0 record, is a two-weight lineal world champion, defended a world title for 10 years against some very good fighters like Lacy, Kessler etc, and will go down as an ATG, deservedly so. You have also just said Hopkins is 'past it', so why is Dawson - a 'prime, hungry fighter' in your own words, calling him out, or for that matter a retired Calzaghe?

Let's just face it, your boy has fought a bunch of 40 year olds and won unimpressively (Tarver), if won at all (Johnson) and weight-drained fighters (Adamek) and made his career out of those 3 wins. He also wants to pick on natural SMW's like Kessler and Calzaghe - also nearly 40 - instead of fight younger, strong light-heavies in his own division (Diaconu)

If and when he beat Dawson there would always be somebody else. People will never let a fighter retire when they should retire. Like Lewis. He was losing it, people criticized him for not fighting Wlad or giving Vitali a rematch despite being him.

There will always be somebody else, once Calzaghe beat Dawson there would of been calls for him to fight somebobdy like Tavoris Cloud. There's always somebody else. And idiot haters like you will never respect an ATG career like the one of Joe Calzaghe. By far a better fighter than Chad Dawson could ever dream of being.

 

Amen :good

 

Not Amen... total bull****.

 

Explain please.

I've heard him get **** for all of the reason's I listed.

 

Because he is!!!!

Joe Calzaghe had perfect timing!!!!!!

He was able to hide in Wales fight the best Euro competition and catch of the greats of the era at the end of their great runs...****ing genius!!!

But he absolutely sucks!!!!
Sucks!!!!