Did someone really claim that Bellew’s resume is better than Calzaghe’s? Surely joking Calzaghe beat Froch’s best win when he was prime, rather than losing to him and winning a rematch when he was semi retired...
To be fair to Bellew he clearly tried to fight the best on a more regular basis than Calzaghe. Seemed more happy to risk a loss. Of course he wasn't a better boxer.
No, but taking on a monster like Usyk is something that Joe never had the bottle to do. Roy must have got sparked 6/8 times before Joe got to him! His record just isn’t that great.
Spending 95% of your career in hopeless mismatches doesn't either. Especially when you didn't fight so many better opponents that you could have done.
Robin Reid was a very decent fighter at the time, plus Calzaghe was ill in the build up and on the night, it was a good win in hindsight. He would have beaten Froch on any day of the week, everything good about Froch Calzaghe was better at. Technically I can't think of a better British boxer of that era, he was on another level altogether, an education to watch.
As has been said several times in this thread, Joe would have likely beaten Froch, Dawson, Pavlik, Taylor, Johnson, Woods and Tarver any day of the week. But he didn't, because he was fighting Evans Ashira and Peter Manfredo.
Look at Ricky Hatton with Mayweather, he had the p4p number 1 fighter in the world operating in the weight weight division above him so he went to America, moved up, put himself out there, called him out and got the fight. Calzaghe was in exactly the same position with Roy Jones but said he knew his limitations and stuck to defending his meaningless WBO strap on against people like Tocker Pudwill at Cardiff ice rink.
Brixton bomber spilling a shyte load of truth regarding Joe in this thread Into have read his book and his own statements in said book And poster claiming Joe beat a more prime Kessler If Joe's was champ do you see him going to fight a prime Kessler in his own back yard Think real carefully and answer honestly Lol And those saying Joe beats froch easliy shame Joe never wanted to prove it to him self are yous
I don’t see how there is a debate about Froch vs Calzaghe...Lost to a worse version of Kessler, lost to Ward, got a gift against Dirrell who turned out to be pretty average, was losing against a past prime Taylor, losing against a green Groves in the first fight before a soft stoppage. He went on a solid run of fights but he didn’t win them all nor was it some kind of death row list of fighters... Yes Joe fought a lot of stodgy over the years but ended with some big wins and did have some decent world level wins during his long reign as WBO champ.
Froch just consistently fought better opponents than Joe. Also, whilst I would have backed Calzaghe had they fought, Joe got a close, disputed decision having been decked by a very old Hopkins, was decked by a completely shot Jones, and was more than capable of a performance where he didn't look the world beater he often did. (I'm thinking of his fights against the likes of Ashira, Salem and Bika here.) I make Froch a live outsider in a fight between the two of them, as opposed to a hopeless outsider.
remembered for finally winning a recognised world title at age 34, beating the low rated titlist jeff lacy, but also unifying for a few months against kessler without defending. and a long stretch of unrecognised title defences before he turned 34 that did in fact include a couple of good opponents - robin reid who he arguably drew with is one of them. he is easily one of the top five british SMWS ever both H2H and resume wise (well since the 90s when SMWs started to proliferate). These five include eubank benn froch, some solid company. Unification is what marks out the better SMWs, and it is what marks joe ahead of eubank for sure. Based on him beating two titlists and unifying briefly with just one unified defence, you have to rate him as a top ten SMW ever too at the moment, at least until we get more SMW history.
true, jones was a LHW at the time and then HW for a bit. ANd calzaghe himself admitted he wasnt chasing Jones by direct quote...so it is impossible to think he was chasing jones.
ah but he did knock out Minton, Prime Tocker Pudwill and Prince Mario Veit, so lets go with what he actually did, not what we want to imagine, as we do with every other boxer. actually i am not even sure he did knock out all those bums, although 2 of them were mysteriously seen as title defences by the wbo.
