what quality distinguishes ATGs?

Calzaghe and Judah are ATGs?

 

DISCIPLINE and WORK ETHIC on top of being just GIFTED makes for GREATNESS! You really can't "OVERACHIEVE TO GREATNESS" nor can you fake it...either you have it or you don't!

Make no mistake guys like Ali, Mayweather, Willie Pep, Pernell Whitaker, Ray Leonard, Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong just to name a few, a lot of the talent they had wasn't really something you could train for to acquire them if that was the case then we would have seen more and more fighters like them but that is not the case!

So I think natural ability and then you combine that with a great work ethic and a guy that refuse to quit regardless of how tired he gets in the gym or in the ring...that produces GREATNESS!

A ATG List probably shouldn't be any more then a Top 10-20 but people do all this Top 50, Top 100 BS so they can include fighters THEY LIKE PERSONALLY.

 

YEAH A Father or just having a great Male Figure/Role Model in your life at a young age to install Discipline REALLY HELPS! Because usually it is the fathers that take their sons to the gym at a young age or maybe their father was a fighter so they basically grew up in a Gym

 

The history book will surely read that Calzaghe is! Undefeated long standing world champion!!

Hallmark of an ATG = longevity as a world champion. Sometimes having a defeat or 2 is still ok - see Ali, Foreman, Holmes etc if you look through history at world champs at various weights you will see most have 1,2 or 3 sucessful defenses then are off the top...and stay off. Then occasionally you will see a champ that stayed there for way way longer than the rest...and kept beating is title challengers. He is an ATG. Simples.

 

Best of their generation in their respected weight-class.

 

I say this time and time again on esb, theres 2 factors that separate the true greats of the sport, the most important attributes in the fight game.

1 - adaptability, being able to work out your opponent mid-fight and produce a Plan B when the Plan A isn't working.

2 - Being able to fight in adversity, being able to produce your best when you need it the most, staring defeat in the eyes and coming through the other side.


This is what separate real greats like Ali, Leonard, and Calzaghe from the likes of Roy Jones.

 

We get it. You like Calzaghe more than Roy Jones.


Doesn't change the fact that even most Brits, including Joe himself, think Roy would have whipped his ass in his prime.