Was Calzaghe's 'Fear of Failure' detrimental to his career?

Jones Jr (1997-2003) - didnt want anything to do with jc (high risk, low reward)
Taylor - simply didnt move up in weight soon enough
Pavlik - should have fought pav before bhop, instead of the farce which was the jones fight
Johnson - journeyman with a terrible record at the weight
Tarver - seriously
Dawson - wouldnt draw enough money to make it worthwhile

 

i do beleive if joe came over to the states right after he won the titles, he would have atleast 2 loses on his resume, and i'm no calzaghe hater thats just the way i see it.....i actually think he had a fear of america, but not of losing.

 

i think a loss would have probably made it easier to attract the bigger players in the game

 

Your a brilliant poster, at least on this topic. I've not noticed you before but you are 100% as is Gaz S.

I've long been a Calzaghe critic much to the loathing of the various huggers on here. The way I look at it is that had Calzaghe gone 20-0 (11Ko's) and scored the victories that he did and retired unbeaten, we as boxing enthusiasts would have been more impressed then the 46-0 figure that gets banded about over and over. And as for the 19 defences or whatever it was.... 15 of them weren't worth sky plussing.

The pointless, often ugly victories actually devalue his record. Boxing is full of fighters whose records are inflated to say the least. But when they lose it kind of takes that 0 away and with it goes the skeptism etc.

Joe never lost and therefore he is always going to be a victim of his own success as people will want to know why he didn't lose. When they order their DVD of Joe Calzaghe they won't see a phenom- they will see a guy who can't punch properly, whose showboating was bizarre and unentertaining to say the least. They will see a strange little fella speaking shite in the corner making zero sense. They will look for a 'messiah' and not find one.

But Calzaghe was a very good fighter and like Monzon, Henry Armstrong, Pernell Whitiker and a host of others, he wasn't great to watch. But he had a great set of lungs, a good boxing brain and a decent jab. He just kept winning and no matter what we say about his opposition, his punching technique and his personality (I find him a nice chap personally, but a prat in and around the boxing ring) he kept winning- and ultimately that is really all that matters.

Was Calzaghe h2h as good as Benn, Eubank- even Micheal Nunn? IMO no!! But he had the consistantsy they did not. And that is his real claim to Greatness, not the 46-0 and not the title defences.

 

I'm not too sure if "fear of failure" would be the right choice of words, unless he got over that fear later on in life; his late career surge, with victories over Kessler, Hopkins and Lacy brought him up in my estimation. It could be that he did indeed lack a bit of confidence in himself and it took the springboard of the Lacy win to convince him that he could mix it at the highest level.

The Hopkins win is the biggest on his resume, especially taking into account that Bernard went on to defeat Pavlik and prove that the version that fought Joe was not a shot old man.

As we all know, Lacy's career collapsed after the Joe defeat. Whether he just wasn't that good all along or whether Joe "wrecked" him, I don't think any of us will ever know.

The Kessler win looked brilliant at the time, but with the big Dane's continued inactivity that result isn't looking as good as it once did. The guy needs to sort his **** out and get back into the ring. A chunk of Calzaghe's legacy hinges on what Kessler does with the rest of his career.

I'd agree with others who say that a win over Johnson wouldn't have added that much to his resume, but if Joe had have got to Tarver before Hopkins that would have added something. Wins over Taylor or Pavlik would have added a bit of gloss also, but the haters would have thrown the smaller man argument at Joe for those two. Joe would never have been able to hang with a prime Roy Jones.

For me his early and middle career mediocrity is offset to a large degree by his late career wins. A very good fighter, but probably not a great.

 

Long been a critic on here??

But you only have 100 and odd posts.........

Long live Baz Carey!

 

So post counts equal knowledge do they?

 

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Whats up softy... you still hiding? :rofl

I'm free all day- lets catch up??

 

You must have missed all the furore in the build up to those fights. The fans were clamoring for Joe to get in the ring with those two legends.

 

Its just the way the sport is Dan. Last night I was at the olmypia to watch Carl Frampton make his pro debut. Absolutely brilliant performance-Sky dropped the bell not recording it because I have no doubts he will be British champion at the very least.

However that aside, there was around 40 Nigel Wright fans and approx 60-70 locals plus the Sky team and the fighters it was shocking. The matches were awful with the Sky team reguarly laughing at Micheal Pass's attempts to say the opponents names.

For me those matches were a waste of time for the fighters and the spectators. Apart from adding a plus 1 to the win column its impossible to gauge what was achieved.

The locals were leaving before the final bell of the Ajose fight and only the Wright fans and a handful of boxing geeks, like me, stayed.

 

It was like that at the Munroe and Moore fights that I attended.

The main events were good (better than last night) but both undercards were awful. I got to see Jeffries and Sutherland, but very little else was worthy of attention.

 

TV is keeping the sport alive, but its also killing it.

If that show wasn't on TV last night they would have to have put on decent matches. Personally I think that they need to stop importing opponents with such regularity.

Carls opponent last night had kickboxing shorts on and a pair of adidas samba???

He needed medical attention after the fight and i'm not suprised. These imports are generally a waste of time. I'm a boxing fan but spent most of my time daydreaming through the show....

Stupid. That is one of the things I hate.

its like Degales next fight, as far as i'm concerned thats his debut... its the first time I will be able to watch him with any possibility of comparing him to the 'normal' fighters who can't afford to import szytuchvich abawallibongo.

 

Yeah I will go along with that.

That is why I like what Hennessy is doing with Fury. The last guy DeGale fought was a complete and utter bum. I'm about 11st 10 atm, I'd fancy my chances.