opinion on joe calzaghe?

Number 1 Smw.

 

should have took the right best him and retire
holding true bragging rights over him


like Carl did with groves
give the up coming whipper snapper his shot and sparked him r
this can't be debated
Calzaghe and froch is the great unknown
British fighters like to leave the great unknown as a legacy to us British fans

 

Maybe not.

 

ESB is utterly obsessed with the guy

 

Joe didnt stop mitchell, he was having difficulty hurting him with a hundred punches, the guy slipped and the ref jumped in rather than give him a moment to get correct his slip. Seconds earlier joe had literally turned to the ref asking him to stop Mitchell.

Imagine the uproar if Povetkin had been "stopped" by the ref for losing his balance when facing Price.

Shame , it was an exciting fight up until the fake stoppage.

 

Its well documented that he was a home boy, they (Father Enzo and Warren) have told their story on Joe not wanting to travel. I loved him, travelled to every fight, but I do feel the chances would've come earlier if he hopped on a plane. Cant fault him though as a fighter and a person representing boxing. One exceptional pure talent, had his off nights but always found away. The Ottke fight was never gonna happen as you say, and with the Reid fight v Ottke I couldn't blame him going over there, that's what he would've got I imagine, shafted if he didn't ko him

 

Great boxer. Great athlete (work rate in 12th was same as in 1st). Great boxing IQ/brain, could make adjustments after slow starts and find way to win.

 

Under rated fighter by many...

Joe was a great fighter. A Very adaptable fighter, many strings to joes bow...and I believe he would have done what was needed to beat anybody put in front of him...

 

Agreed, he wasn't ambitious enough. Had he been willing to take a pay cut in the short term and travel and take more career risks he would of gained in the long term in terms of pay and legacy. I think he realised that late in his career, he took a pay cut for the Lacy fight and that win took him to another level.

Though I'm not sure who he could of fought that could of accelerated his career like the Lacy win did during the early part of his career. Maybe he should of fought Mitchell before Ottke did and unified, Mitchell obviously wasn't scared to travel but he allowed Ottke to get there first with the unification fight which is why the Americans ranked Ottke above Calzaghe. Same with Brewer, he fought him only after he lost his belt to Ottke. Though neither Mitchell or Brewer had the kind of hype that Lacy had going into the Calzaghe fight. Not sure why he always allowed Ottke to out maneuver him to titles, maybe Warren wasn't willing to stump up the cash to pay off these title holders to unify.

 

the wbo disencouraged its holders from unifying to prevent them binning their belt. they actively wanted people to rack up plenty of defences in order to make them appear legit, not a "step-up" belt that u throw away as quick as poss

the flipside is, with that belt, you were little league to the others, and unifying with a wbo holder was a stepdown for a major title holder when they ought to have been facing good opposition and qualified mandos.

 

That makes sense, that along with Calzaghe not bringing in a big payday for anyone, probably meant those fights were always unlikely when they had belts. I guess the same with Reid, wouldn't of happened when he had the WBC belt only became possible after he lost to Malinga and Reid had nothing to lose in facing Calzaghe.

 

yerh plus calzaghe didnt want tough fights as the words from his mouth indisputably and incontestably say, he wanted easy jobs that had lost their way, mitchell and reid seemed to fit the bill but it appears they actually had more in the tank than joe thought.

didnt matter though, joe somehow was handed a victory over reid, and arranged with the ref to get the fight stopped with mitchell. he found a way to win.

 

Calzaghe #1 SMW

 

One of the smartest and quickest thinking Boxers i have ever seen. Straight up ATG. Should the RJJ, Hopkins fights, and a couple of other happened when they were peak? Yes but neither side at the time were hot on it and all involved seemed happy enough to breeze past each other no matter what bitching Boxers may of done about it later in their careers.

Could prime Joe of beaten a prime RJJ??? The question that will haunt us for ever, id have to say no, prime Joe was really fantastic but prime RJJ, well ive never seen anything like it he just looked like the perfect Boxer. But then i also gotta take in to account the prime RJJ was no doubt roided to the eye balls as were a hell of alot of the top Boxers in those days, i actually think that was one of the reasons Enzo and Joe were not keen to take that challenge, especially since RJJ totally refused to come to the UK to do it. They would just not of felt this fight would of been on a level playing field. Ive never heard either Joe or his dad mention any of this, this is just my gut feeling on reasons why those fights never happened when they would of been prime fighters.

 

Joe Calzaghe is a legend.

He's a top 50 ATG fighter and underrated by many.