The greatest British boxer ever

TS's Dad obviously rates charisma and flair highly - I don't argue with that. Boxing is more than a record IMO.

 

TS dad obviously watched about the same quantity of boxing as Ive watched blind football

 

Lennox Lewis gets overrated on here in my opinion and I would put Calzaghe above him so for me Joe Calzaghe is the greatest Brit in the post-war era.

I think it's pretty much impossible to compare the post-war era with the likes of Jimmy Wilde etc.

 

Lewis probably does get overrated, but Calzaghe fought a lot of bus drivers who Lewis wouldn't ever have thought of facing.

The two main charges you can lay against Lewis are the two bad defeats and the fact that fights with Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe didn't happen in their respective primes.

But he did fight a faded Evander when he'd slipped a bit himself.... and fought everyone else worth a wank in his decade at the top.

 

Come on everyone knows he carried Jones the last 3 or 4 rounds out of respect, that's common knowledge.

 

He did but what irritates me on here is people can never back that up with who he should have fought. Apart from Glen Johnson falling through twice who else could he have realistically fought that he didn't?

Hopkins pulled out of the first fight in 2003 (I think), Toney and Jones were already moving up the weights by the time Calzaghe won his first World Title against Eubank and I can't think of many other dangerous opponents that were out there.

 

Are you Welsh by any chance?

 

He shouldn't have fought him, should he?

Wouldn't mind, it wasn't even all that lucrative a fight, given that Jones bagged himself 50% of the money.

 

Agreed. I thought he should have fought Pavlik personally, it would have been another Lacey style beating and enhanced his legacy even further no doubt.

But he wanted the biggest payday possible before retiring. Can't blame him that much, seeing as the snake took so much money off his back over the years.

 

Frankly I am not 100% convinced that Calzaghe would definitely have beaten Carl Froch.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ispFw6THxtg[/ame]

:think

 

Calzaghe blew it when he chose to fight Roy Jones over Pavlik.

Even in his book he said there was no point in fighting a faded fighter.

Hopkins took the limelight for what he did to Pavlik, which should of been Joe's moment to shut up the yanks.

His last three fight could've been: Kessler-Hopkins-Pavlik

 

Fighting (and beating) Jones gave Calzaghe a lot more 'mainstream' appeal, and a better pay day.

And although I would agree at the moment of the Jones fight, a victory would of at the time given him more kudos amongst the boxing fancy, as time goes by a win W12 Roy Jones looks better than W12 Pavlik, as people forget the 'context' (Roy had seen much better days) of the fight....

 

How is Calzaghe even the greatest Brit' post war?

Lennox has a far greater level of opposition than Joe. Essentially you're giving Joe the nod because he kept his '0'. Which is IMO, preposterous.

 

With all other things being even, the '0' is rightly a tie breaker. But I am with you, Lewis fought overall better opposition. He avenged defeats and had wins against opposition that were with hindsight more primed than Joe's opposition.