where do you rate calzaghe among top british fighters?

Fantastic list! Where would you put Joshua now?

 

I do not know about 'fantastic', some of it makes me angry! But to answer your question, I will do another this year, he will not qualify for it. But if he retired tomorrow, then four years down the line, I see him above Duke McKenzie but not Randy Turpin, so #18!

 

You have Kell Brook in there and other active fighters.

 

Yes, because he turned pro in 2004, and when I do the next list if a fighter who is still active turned pro before July 2009, I will consider them too.

 

Terrance Crawford should be looking at Calzaghe.If he isnt careful, he will be remembered in the same way. World class talent but without a resume strong/deep enough to match the obvious skills

 

Yes good point - he won his first World Title against Skippy Burns who did not engage all night losing nearly every round. Now fighting faded Khan and the pattern begins to build a picture which then has people questioning how good he is.

Hopefully he gets some super fights in before his time is up.

 

Joes career was blighted by injury (he often fought injured ) just how good he was we will probably never know but all said and done he retired as many would agree as our only undisputed Super Middleweight champion and to a lesser extent imo in terms of esteem a part owner of the Light Heavyweight title . Not too shabby for a slap per .

 

Yes i do. Great fighter, one of my favs. Wish he had more big big fights so i could enjoy them!

 

One of my favourites. The fight with Kessler doesn't seem to get much airtime but the overall fight quality is absolutely outstanding. Both fighters take credit for that.

 

I'm going to sound biased as he's my favourite boxer of all time but I think he was an absolutely fantastic boxer.

The Kessler and Lacey fights were brilliant, Joe boxed beautifully and took the 0's of two World champions that were expected to beat him.

What I love about Calzaghe, what sets him apart from the rest, for me, was that he achieved what he did despite all the injuries, having to adapt, and he did it the whole way through training with his dad in a shed and running up and down a mountain. That's a story that you won't hear of again, it's beautiful.

 

I don't think Lacy and Kessler were necessarily expected to beat him in fairness. The bookies had Joe as an odds on favourite to beat Kessler and the Lacy fight was priced up as a fifty fifty shot.

 

Top 10 for sure...

 

When I did rankings a while back I had him at number 3 (4 if you include Fitz as British).

That may well be a bit generous, as he is difficult to rank for the reasons covered already. It's also very difficult to objectively rank Calzaghe's career against someone like Ted Kid Lewis; completely different era, and in many ways a different sport. It also depends a lot on what criteria you use to rank fighters.

Either way, I think he is definitely top 10, and there's a reasonable argument for top 5. A legitimately great fighter, who overcome a frustrating and unfulfilled mid career to secure a lasting legacy in his later years.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/mar/06/boxing.joecalzaghe

According to the article above Lacy was 6-4 on coming into the fight - a slight favourite.

I suspect that the US bookies had it a bit wider for Lacy. I vaguely recall him being mentioned as 3-1 on in some quarters.

I think it was as much the manner of the victory as the fact that Calzaghe won, that was the real eye opener. It is probably overstated now how heavily favoured Lacy was; there were plenty of question marks about him coming in, and Calzaghe was still highly thought of. It was a really difficult fight to call coming in, although obviously it turned into a one-sided drubbing.

 

I think you need to rate him one of the best top 5. He had to change his style due to his brittle hands as in his earlier career he had devastating heavy hands. SO he had to change his tactics and box more and not put to much power into his shots. I recal he mention against Kessler if he had strong hands he would of stopped Kessler in Rd8 and Hopkins in the later rounds.

Unknown to most of us he faught probably 60% of his career with hand injury.