The love given to Hopkins and the hate given to Calzaghe

bernard had the better opponents mate, which your break down only proves....

Lacy and Kessler, Joe's two defining fights, were never in the same class as tito and ODLH. don't forget B-hops 20+ title defenses in the the better middleweight division.

Joe Calzaghe's career was sorely lacking the mega fights. B-hop was in the big time for a long long time, proving his critics wrong all along the way.

When these two fought, it was JC that was on the canvass and it was B-hop fighting his fight - at the age of 43. for many ppl, b-hop won that fight. wind the clock back 8 years, when b-hop had younger legs, it would have been a smack down.

B-hop's legacy owns Calzaghe's legacy

 

100% agree. he didn't have the eye catching style to force the big fights with jones and hopkins or anyone else.

 

you're wrong, yanks loved hatton because he fought the best at their primes. Whatever you wanna say, JC will always have a massive question mark over his legacy.

 

YEEESSS! 100% right!!!

 

Very good post. Too often people like to quote the fluffy stuff, but don't look at the context under which they were achieved. Alot of fighters would have gone 46-0 against that resume. No disrespect to JC, because he may very well have have done very well against Hopkins' resume, but we'll never know.

 

Calzaghe is Euro. Those who hate Calzaghe also hate Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko, Adamek, Abraham, Froch, Kessler, Boytsov, Tyson Fury, ad infinitum, so saith the Pope.

 

Hopkins resume TKO 4 Calzaghe's resume.

 

D'oh!

 

:good

Really well put.

 

Don't be foolish. Not everyone thinks like you. As a matter of fact, I hope nobody does.

 

All joking aside, I view Calzaghe as a great fighter whose resume betrays him.

 

I'd rather use the phrase "very good fighter" personally, but I agree with you. It's his resume where he falls short first and foremost.

 

Fair enough.....a classic case of 'what if....?"

 

On a slightly different tip, people forget about Hopkins image and past; not that it should matter at all. Calzaghe is sometimes slated, and I do not feel he gets the right praised for his professionalism and attitude, apart from the reality TV phase. Hopkins was a known Prison ****** who’s hilarious nickname in Philadelphia is Salad Tosser after an infamous incident when he was doing time pre-world champ status. Nazim Richardson makes him out to be a hero in his excellent but slightly biased interview in the last issue of the Ring. Hopkins has been made out to be one of the P4P best fighters in the world over the last 3 years, beating ‘prime’ fighters at the age of 44. Fact is, Calzaghe spanked him with regards to output, speed and ring intelligence during their meeting, even though he (Calzaghe) was knocked down quite harshly in round 1. Joe Calzaghe received hardly any credit for that fight, even though Hopkins is still being touted as one of the best fighters in the world, future Heavyweight champion, and future record breaker, all at the same time whilst juggling Jupiter’s moons and flying the flag for the dying breed that is American Boxing.