When Joe Calzaghe is old and long retired

Agreed JC could have done more to fight more often in the states but I am just making the point that compared to many other top American fighters, he has fought abroad more often than most.

 

Agreed. I should have said "major" regrets. Everyone would do some things differently in hindsight, but there's no way he's going to reflect on what happened and feel like he royally screwed up. He has accomplished too much for that.

 

I think Everlast sells them they are Cotto's boxing shoes, I actually think they are pretty ugly ****ers

 

No I think you are missing what I am saying here, you kind of have to derive the point I was trying to make. Joe should regret not getting exposure in the U.S. because he missed the opportunity to make a lot more fans, just by the common sense fact that there are more people and the U.S. is a bigger market. I didnt say anything about TV coverage, or where he fought

 

Joe Calzaghe stated many times in a few interviews that he never really had any ambitions to fight in the States. He wanted recognition there and to do that, he fought Hopkins in Las Vegas. As for fighting there earlier, I don't think his career would have been much different to how it turned out because the costly divorce from his wife (whereby she earns 50% of his future purses) pretty much tied his hands to promoter Frank Warren. Warren is notoriously good at milking his boxers for all they're worth so packing out the CIA, Ice Rink, MEN and Millennium Stadium over the course of 10 years has lined Joe's and Frank's pockets no end.

At the end of the day (to coin a phrase), Joe and his family are now financially secure for life. That was the most important thing to Joe. Having been told before he became a world champion that he would never be able to box again due to the bones in his hands breaking, I'm sure he's very happy with how his boxing career turned out. Therefore, I don't think the regrets - if there are any - will play on his mind at all. He got to see his kids grow up, he's set them and himself up financially for life and he's got one hell of a resume still behind him.

On the whole, it's difficult to see what else would make him happy. He's a private family man and boxing is secondary to him.

 

1) Financially secure. Very well off even if not mega-rich.
2) Undisputed champion, and will likely retire unbeaten
3) Isn't punch drunk, and hasn't even had nose broken

That sounds like damn near the ideal career to me. The rankings may not be as kind to him, but from a personal standpoint, I'd put much more weight into the 3 factors I listed if I were a fighter rather than what random people say about not fighting more tough fights.

 

I think he will. If he had fought in the US earlier, his fan base would be tremendous by now. He might have a couple losses-might still be undefeated-but I also cannot blame him for the lack of will on the part of many US fighters for not wanting to fight in Europe. Its not like the US is the mecca of boxing these days, or even in the past ten years...

 

No one likes to travel to other countries to box cause the hometown boxer usually gets the benefit of the doubt in a close decision (some countries are worse than others Germany cough cough but every country has issues.) America may not be the "Mecca" of boxing but, its a large market that remains untapped if you dont expose yourself to it.

 

i think US is the mecca of boxing, why would pac, cotto, miranda, casa and other mexicans would want to fight in the US?

 

It may bother him a little, but if he retires undefeated (which he should manage) then I'm sure he'll sleep alright at night. It's been far from a perfect career but it has been a pretty darn good one.

I bet even Sven Ottke sleeps well at night so Joe will have no problems :yep

 

Why would Joe really care that fighting in the US would have given him more fans? Hes a private person, still lives in his small comunity in Wales, hes not flash he dosent seem to seek the attention so why would he care? He still sells more tickets in Britain than any US boxer in America! When did RJJ, Tarver, Pac, Barrera, etc etc ever do 50,000+? Mecca of boxing? My ass! Someone also said he needs to fight in the US for exposure? do you not have TV or internet? It just proves what an ignorant bunch some Americans are!

 

Does Carloz Monzon regret it? Probably not.