Rate the following British fighters on a scale of 1 to 10

B-Hop was the Ring magazine champion going into the Calzaghe fight ie. the #1 ranked LHW in the world just like Usyk is the Ring champion at HW and Jai is at CW

B-Hop was also ranked #4 P4P at the time and even after losing to Joe remained in the top 4 for just under the next 2 years (top 6 for 2 years) even moving up to #3 for 4 months and even cracked the top 10 again over 3 years after the Calzaghe fight

He was coming off wins of Ring champ ie. #1 LHW Tarver, Winky Wright, after losing to Joe took Pavlik's 0, fought to a draw vs WBC champ Pascal who had just harvested Dawson's 0 in his previous fight, and then B-Hop beat Pascal in the rematch to become LHW champ again 3 years after losing to Joe, and then 5 years after losing to Joe he took the 0 of IBF LHW champ Cloud to become champion again then became unified LHW champ 6 years after losing to Joe after beating WBA champ Shumenov

Also, Joe's hands were shot to bits by that stage of his career and his chin clearly diminished from what it once was too

Even going on 7 years after losing to Joe, B-Hop became the first fighter in 15 fights to last the distance vs a prime absolutely savage punching Kovalev and the first to ever do so in anything above a 6 or 8 rounder, and only 1 of 2 to do in title fights Vs Kovalev during Kovalev's first reign ie. prime Krusher

I think Kovalev dropped every man he fought sans 1 in his first 33 fights and stopped the iron-jawed Pascal x 2 in his next 3 fights after beating B-Hop. Prime Kovalev was arguably the most savage puncher in the sport at the time, one of the most savage punchers in LHW boxing history, and just one of the most savage punchers ever.


And Joe would've fought a much younger B-Hop in the US had the later not ducked him/turned down numerous offers and opportunities to fight him. It's astonishing this keeps getting ignored and people try to pin the blame on Joe for that when B-Hop is the one to blame

Joe fought English fighters Eubank, Reid, Woodhall, Starie in England with mainly English officials and neutral ones when not. No Welsh ones at all. And yes, there is and has long been a fierce sporting rivalry between home nations in the UK so it's not like Joe fighting a non-Brit in England or Scotland where he would be considered the home fighter

He was verbally abused during his ring walks for some of them and even during his 1st British title defence vs Mark Delaney in Delaney's backyard

'Calzaghe entered 16-0 and had won the British title at the Royal Albert Hall, but his promoter Mickey Duff lost the purse bid to Barry Hearn. That meant traveling to Essex to face an unbeaten opponent on ITV. "The Brentwood Centre was hostile. It was the first time I had been in that kind of environment," Calzaghe told Sky Sports. "There was booing, spitting, name calling, but I just embraced it and fed off it."

 

B-Hop 63 fights fought outside the US x 4, one vs an 8-8 scrub, and one he nearly got KO'd in by another scrub who was subsequently knocked out or stopped in 7 of his next 9 fights, the lone win in those fights vs a fellow scrub, the remaining fight being a TD vs an even bigger scrub.

Ward 32 fights fought outside the US x 2, in North American countries the Caymen Islands and Saint Lucia, vs a fellow American and an American based Dominican

Roy Jones 76 fights and ffought outside the US 7 times, didn't fight outside the US until his 60th fight

Fought Lededev in Russia got face planted
Fought Green in Australia got knocked senseless
Fought Glazewski in Poland they robbed the Pole in his own country

Fought an Algerian scrub in Russia
Fought Enzo in Russia got face planted
Fought a domestic level Brit in Latvia
Fought an Egyptian scrub in Russia

But Roy became a Russian citizen in 2015 and was the home fighter vs Enzo and he was extremely popular over there. Hence why he fought 3 non-Russians over there too

If he became a Russian citizen before he fought Lebedev would it have been a home fight for both of them?

But America is the Mecca of boxing doe

Roy could've fought outside the US many times if he wanted to and in Europe vs numerous top Europeans at the time

So could B-Hop, most notably vs Calzaghe who he ducked and turned down offers to face him in both the US and UK, which keeps getting completely ignored

So could Ward. Vs Froch, Kessler, Abraham, or rematches against Froch and Kessler

And let's not forget he had home advantage vs every world class opponent he ever fought, was the only fighter in the Super Six tournament of the original six who didn't travel and how did he repay his promoter for wangling that ''big advantage'' for him? He sued him x 3 while they were terminally ill and on their deathbed

Kessler, Abraham, Taylor, and Dirrell, all travelled and Froch had to travel a whopping 4 times out of 5 to Ward's 0. And Ward was awarded a win and 2 pts w/o actually fighting after his buddy Dirrell pulled out

Ward and his team also refused to allow a single NEUTRAL judge for the Kovalev rematch after Ward's 3 home judges robbed the champ Kovalev in their fight over there

Kovalev was the three-belt unified champ, afforded Ward the opportunity to become the three-belt LHW king in his own country with a full stacked deck of 4 home officials, and then after they robbed Kovalev Team Ward refused to allow a single neutral judge for the rematch and had a full set of US officials again

Read that again. As per usual, free pass city

Ward also ducked Adonis and Bute and dragged Dawson down to 168 to try and gain a big advantage after saying he was ready for any big fight at 168 or 175 which ever so predictably gets completely ignored. All he had to do was agree to a catchweight of 2lbs more and he would've won Dawson's LHW belt

Free pass city for Ward though.

Re. Calzaghe fighting in other home nation countries. I'm not saying it's the same as Usyk fighting his foreign opponents in their countries. I'm saying that when he fought Englishmen Eubank, Reid, Woodhall and Starie in England with English refs and judges or English + neutral ones and 0 Welsh ones he is not the home country fighter. When he fought Lacy and other non-Brits in England and Scotland yes he was the home fighter and obviously he was for his fights in Wales

 

I'm an American, and not a British fanboy, with good judgement. Calzaghe is one of the best fighters of the 21st Century.
The Sonata Of The Italian Dragon: The Improvisational Virtuosity Of Signore Calzaghe.

 

I wasn't around on here back then, but I've been watching boxing since I was a young child. I'm only speaking to the level of talent that I witnessed then and since. Calzaghe was best of the best.