Somebody honest and knowledgeable help me understand Calzaghe

:rofl Greatest of his era:scaredas:
So many posts so little knowledge:hi:
You would say he is greater than Lennox for example:blood

 

I wouldnt disagree with this. To be honest Calzaghe only has himself to blame for people questioning his record. I've no idea who ducked who in there prime. I do think Calzaghe fought at home far too often for his own good though.

As has been said in this thread, Calzaghe's main attributes were handspeed, workrate, chin and his adaptability. Very rarely(if ever) did a boxer get better against Joe as the fight went on. It was usually Calzaghe making the successful adjustments in fights. He was of course knocked down on occassions but he was never in real trouble. Compare Calzaghe's legs after being knocked down to say Bute's legs after taking any decent shot from Froch.

His "slapping" is complicated by the fact that he did have hand trouble. He was also more explosive in his earlier days. Im saying all this as no fanboy of Calzaghe. For much of his career he was playing far too safe with his title.

 

Imagine true ATG like Ali saying i know my limitations i will not fight young savage Foreman boo hoo
Joe was good fighter good champion not even close to top 100 fighters of all time!!!
Funny thing was in British documentary about Roy they dont even mention Calzaghe as possible opponent, not even his people let alone anyone else.

 

You just described Mayweather!

 

Sure, whatever you say!

 

I wonder how can he be at ATG top 100:huh, in just last 30 years there is huge amount of fighters higher on ATG list and thats without even thinking hard, off the top of my head, Lennox,Wlad,JMM,RJJ,Morales,Pac,Floyd,BHOP,Holyfield,Foreman,Trinidad, DLH, Duran, Leonard,Hearns,Hagler,Holmes, JCCjr, Whitaker etc this is just guys from last 30 years that are far greater than he ever was, Joe cant be in top 100 fighters off all time NO WAY!

 

genius

 

Calzaghe's win over Kessler was more impressive than Ward's. Calzaghe fought Kessler's type of fight, and beat him at his own game. He stood in front of him and traded punches.

Andre Ward ran and pot-shotted Kessler, which Calzaghe could have easily done and won by a shut-out. But Calaghe wanted to impress the fans, and he did, which is why Calzaghe has more fans than Ward even now that he's retired.

 

Joe himself recently talked about Jones' greatness, said he understood why people called him Superman when looking at what he was able to accomplish.. Also spoke of winning the HW belt, and said it was an honor to share the ring with him...

More than just brainwashed Americans believe Roy Jones was a great.

 

But Hatton faced Pac and Mayweather at their best. Lewis took on Holyfied and Vitali. They said they wanted the best and took them on. Joe faced a solid Kessler, but should have faced a prime Jones and/or Hopkins, even possibly Ottke (though Sven's promoter was just as big of a wanker as War ren).

There was no "I know my limitations" talk from either of them.

 

He was a very, very good fighter with a very, very good career. Not quite great in either aspect, but not too far off either. Almost certainly underachieved, but not by much.

His best win is either Hopkins or Kessler. Hopkins being far and away the best opponent he ever faced, and it being for the light heavyweight crown. The drawback here is that it's 43 year old Hopkins (who was still fantastic, as we obviously know by now, but a good distance from his prime) and it was a very close, sloppy, even controversial fight. Though a minority, there are plenty of people who felt Hopkins deserved the decision.

Kessler is the best fighter he ever beat cleanly and soundly, with absolutely no argument otherwise. A good, solid, quality fighter who had never been beaten before and Joe impressed quite a bit in stepping up another level to comfortably outpoint the Dane.

After that, there's a considerable drop in quality on his resume. Comebacking Chris Eubank who took the fight on short week's notice, solid but massively overhyped Lacy (who he absolutely thrashed, of course. Mediocre opponent, but that performance was something special), respectable contender types like Robin Reid, Charles Brewer, Byron Mitchell, Richie Woodhall, and Sakio Bika make up the bulk of his top wins. He's also got Omar Sheika and the ghost of Roy Jones, but that hints to Calzaghe's problem when being talked about as a great fighter: a list of his top 5 wins will feature a guy like Jeff Lacy and a list of his top 15 will feature unranked, no-hopers. His resume is poor by the standards of most of the men he is compared to.

He does have Hopkins and Kessler though, and both of those are very good wins. He also retired unbeaten and was generally regarded as the top man in his division for a good few years. That, and he looks a horrible mess of an opponent to come across. Not overly impressive on film, but certainly a difficult task for most of even the elite guys in his weight range. His never having fought Ottke, though not at all entirely his fault, is going to hurt his legacy. Hard to stand on the grounds of being a 'long-reigning, dominant champion' when there's another guy in your division doing the same damn thing you are and you never even fight him. Staying at home to rack up relatively meaningless defenses of the WBO belt rather than challenging himself against the best in his division or just 7lbs above won't help either.


Still, he's got enough going for him to certainly see him in the HOF. He should probably be regarded as one of the 10 (or so) best fighters of his generation. If you did a list of the greatest fighters ever, P4P, Calzaghe would probably feature in somewhere close to the 150 mark, give or take a few spots. Overall very comparable to contemporaries Kostya Tszyu and Winky Wright. I'd rate Joe above both of those guys, but that's pretty much the level he's on.

 

People say he had a padded record, but he had 10 world champions on his CV, (maybe in a few weeks we can add Sakio Bika to that list as he has a world title shot coming up), and out of his 24 world title fights (The Ring included), 7 were in the country of his opponent, dealt with a prime, undefeated Kessler, without Kessler being impeded by headbutts (that said, Ward did beat him fair and square), beat Hopkins IN THE STATES, a man still at the top of the sport, outpunched him nearly 2-1, all without PEDs. Simply broke Jeff Lacy, ok, he was a bit of a hype-job, but he would have gone on to have a more significant career. I have to say, he often struggled early on, suffered a few knockdowns early in fights, but it says a lot that he STILL went on to dominate the other guy. Incredibly fast, vs Ward it'd be a toss-up (in fact, if the judges are anything like they were in the Ward-Froch fight, Calzaghe would win hands-down, I mean, how was THAT a 115-113 fight?)

 

Very well put.:good

 

Very good fighter, shied away from some good fights, but had incredible stamina, workrate an ring smarts. I think some here are overrating his chin, but I think his defense gets underrated. Very rarely got hit clean, which is a rarity for a volume fighter. Also had underrated power, but he never sat on his punches late career due to brittle hands. Definite top 100 all-time fighter, possible top 50. For as much as people give him **** for not fighting the best (me included), he did fight a number of really good fighters and was only troubled even a little by Hopkins (who I had him beating close but clear, although I think the younger Hopkins with better stamina would have won). Polarizing figure for a reason. No-brainer HOFer, borderline ATG. Nobody before him was so successful with his style, and I doubt it will happen in the future.

 

You cant say that he is not a good fighter,great stamina and workrate,he climbed the rings more then 40 times,but his level of opposition was rather low imo,he waited till bhop and roy got old as well.
Never quite challenged himself.,and thats the biggest problem.
Overrated and worshiped by the brits and some europeans,trashed by all others.
Thats about it.