So who should Calzaghe have fought?

Yes everyone makes up things to look good. Nobody makes up **** to make themselves look bad! What kind of a person would make those quotes I posted up, they serve absolutely no other purpose then to be honest.

 

Thinking about it again, I'm not going to knock Joe here for those quotes, I throughly respect him for his brutal honestly. Something rarely seen in the game.

 

Whatever. :roll:

 

He cleaned his division at the same time as Hopkins cleaned his division, meaning there were no "stars" rising up from Middleweight because Hopkins kept at Middleweight. There was a contract signed and ready to go with Hopkins vs Calzaghe in 2002 that Hopkins pulled out of at the last minute

RJJ cleaned the division above him and wouldn't fight Calzaghe in his prime, because I quote from RJJ "The Risk is too great for the reward"..

Realistically, outside of Hopkins or RJJ - no one else made sense.

He either defeated or defeated somebody who defeated every champion in his division - he then went up and beat Bernard Hopkins while Bernard was still a P4P Top 10 (still is) and the reigning LHW Ring Champ.

Like anything, people judge Joe harshly because he hasn't lost but the one thing he has done like no other before him is completely clean his division without ever losing.

 

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Ottke - Joe offered to fight him for $1.00 in Germany and was hellbent on knocking the guy out. Ottke said no, Ottke wanted no part of Calzaghe, knew that he probably wouldn't get to the point the judges could screw Calzaghe.

Despite this, Mitchell, Reid and Brewer all "beat" Reid in my view. They just weren't credited with it. Joe beat all of them handily, the SD against Reid was laughable, cause he won that fight easily.

Should have fought Glen Johnson - yes, was signed to fight him but had issues with injury, then issues with divorce.

I agree, he should fight Pavlik - I'd also like to see him fight Dawson.

 

I think this is spot on, absolutely on the button... except for the Glen Johnson thing. Yes, Johnson would be a more impressive win than Rick Thornberry but c'mon Johnson wasn't really on Joe's radar except for the hullabuloo that is constantly dragged up now.

Johnson was a middleweight for a long time before moving to 168 in 1997 - incidentally the year Calzaghe became WBO holder. Let's examine Glen Johnson's SMW record:

Mercui Sousa - Lost
Joseph Kiwanuka - Lost
Armando Campus - Won (this guy had a 3-20 record)
Troy Watson (24-16) - Won
Augustine Renteria (9-23) - Won
Marcelo Zimmermann - Won
Sven Ottke - Lost
Syd Vanderpool - Lost
Omar Sheika - Lost
Toks Owoh - Won

Glen Johnson as a Super middleweight: 5-5. So there's no need for Calzaghe to fight him at that weight to prove anything. Joe even smashed up the same Sheika (in 5 rounds) that beat Johnson in his previous fight.

Glen then moves up to 175: Beats Thomas Ulrich then doesn't win for another 4 fights there. Beating Harding got him his 2 part shot at then IBF champ Clinton Woods.

Let's put a timescale on this thing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/3524624.stm

July 2004 was being mooted as a date for Joe Calzaghe to MOVE UP to Light Heavyweight to challenge Glen Johnson for his newly won IBF title. Johnson wanted to fight Calzaghe in his first defence. Calzaghe chose to stay at 168 with his solitary WBO strap. We all know what happened next.

To cut a short story long, if Calzaghe had moved up to fight Johnson, most think he would have won. If that was the case, we wouldn't have seen him become the first person to clean out the Super Middleweight division... wouldn't have seen that Lacy fight, wouldn't have seen the Kessler unification showdown and we certainly wouldn't have seen Ring Magazine with so much egg on their faces:

http://www.thering-online.com/ringpages/ringupdateJulDec06.html#calzaghe101606

This is the one I take the most pleasure in posting. I implore everyone to click that last link and laugh heartily as you realise that Calzaghe is the Ring's only ever double belt holder. I sometimes think of booradley or some of those other muppetts as this Dettloff character - except they don't run their spellcheck as much as his editor does.

This is a long way of saying yes, Johnson would look nice alongside the great wins like Kessler etc... but would he have even fought them if the Johnson fight happened?

 

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Nobody can deny that Johnson being on Joe's CV improves it, but I personally think far too much is made of it. Johnson is a good solid pro who's as tough as they come and would have been there until the very end - a certain 12 rounder if ever there was one. But Glen got lucky with his timing at LHW and his wins over Tarver & RJJ are the only thing that adds credability to the Calzaghe ducking allegations. Joe pulled out of fights with him, and the Road Warrior went on to beat America's biggest names of the time in the division. I'd say that this is nothing more than unfortunate timing on Calzaghe's part.

 

Negotiations would be tough to get them to agree to that fight. There's a shitload of cash involved with Calzaghe being the only draw in Cardiff so he'd demand a massive share of the purse no doubt. As the belt holder, Dawson/Tarver would want 50/50... Calzaghe wants a financially sacrificial lamb to the slaughter, not some bullish American mouthing off that he's the "real champ". Pavlik's the only one who stands to lose the least if he lost but the rewards are massive if he wins - a gamble worth taking. To my eyes, Calzaghe is a fully paid up member of the "who needs him?" club with Tarver and Dawson.

 

Even today...

We can cut to Dawson, Tarver, Pavlik... even throw to Johnson as well.

Three/or four very good competitive fights, in the very recent past, that should/could have been made.

 

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Of course... I have massive reservations about Calzaghe's motivation for the RJJ fight. He could **** it all up at the final hurdle by taking his eye off the ball. It is fairly evident to me that his preparation for the Hopkins fight wasn't what it should have been mantally. I think there's a risk it could be worse for the Jones fight for various reasons.

Motivation for Pavlick wouldn't be a problem however.