Who else here think that Roy Jones, Jr just deserved the beating..

:goodthat's not how joe rolls. I keep going back and forth, defending calzaghe then admonishing him but he BARELY beat one hall of famer worthy fighter. Lacy and Kessler are a no. Jones fight doesn't count. He gets credit for Hopkins. The rest of the guys were low risk mandos and he hid behind that belt.

 

:thumbsupEXACTLY! joe was nobody but look at Jones resume that you listed:
Tarver (unlikely but possible HOF), Hill (HOF), Reggie Johnson (very, very good fighter), add Toney (HOF), hopkins (HOF) and it's a very solid resume. Before Lacy Joe beat....ummm...:dead....uhh...he fought a lot of guys

 

I don't often call fighters garbage but when it comes to Calzaghe, being the great fighter that he is, I have to make an exception. The guy is rated like he's some sort of God in Wales and England and I wonder why, especially when I see people turn their backs on Hatton. Hatton could have done the same thing, just stay in England keep fighting one can after another, Calzaghe style, and only make a major move when everyone is beyond shot. But no, Hatton decides to fight the P4P#1 guys at their best and made the fly to make it happen.

You know that if Lacy and Kessler didn't make the trip with their belts those fights wouldn't even happen, right?

 

i agree.
but to be great you need to prove it.

you cant say you have a fear of flying when the top two fighters in the world are just a few fights away in the states, and suddenly conquer that fear when they are past it.

calzaghe consciously subscribed to frank warrens milking philosophy, which is exactly the reason why hatton left him and eventually got his dream fights against equally skilled prime fighters so many years later.

absolutely calzaghe is better than a good fighter..that doesnt do him justice.

but he consciously avoided the US because that would have eventually have put a lot of pressure on him to fight jones and..or hopkins.

he and warren chose homebased second tier opposition for the most part and thats why calzaghe, of all the legitimate champions, garners the least respect.

its not his ability people are questioning for the most part, its the lack of respect people have for someone who had the skills, who called himself great, but wasted his talent in the pursuit of cold, hard cash.

like calzaghe said himself, hes a businessman.

 

Well Carl Froch lover , if you'd have read Joe's auto'b a little more carefully you'd have known that back then Joe was really suffering with his hands and had an 18 month period where he didnt spar 1 round in preparation for world title fights and still won them .

Carl Froch has not done anything and never will do anything to even be a) mentioned in the same breath as Calzaghe and b) share a ring with Calzaghe !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

To Carl Froch fans jumping in this thread, you guys should be lucky Calzaghe ignored him otherwise Froch would have been sliced to pieces and KTFO within 5 rounds AT MOST. It's good Calzaghe ignored him and left someone for you guys to cheer on, Froch is TRASH, Calzaghe, despite the hate I have for him, is A+.

 

It's a massive shame IMO. The Lacy fight got me back into boxing, I still watch it and find Joes performance stunning. However as a JC fan I really wish he'd hung around to face one more big name. Joe always said he was retiring because there wasn't anyone around at his weight that proved a worthy opponent, he said he envied Hatton for the stack of live competition in that division If Joe came back and beat the winner of this SM Tourney, for me his legacy would be sealed......you can always dream eh?

 

Jones deserves all the humiliation that Tarver administered to him in and out of the ring.

IMO he could have beaten Tarver but instead tried to play safe in the ring like the reluctant Roy that he is. Tarver has been insulting him in all chance he gets. Can't blame him, there is truth to it.

 

Cop out. Bollocks. And the addition of exclamation marks doesn't make your comments any more valid.

 

More bollox. Calzaghe didn't knock people out any more. He beat them over 12 rounds by out boxing them. When was the last time Calzaghe knocked out an opponent? Especially one with the punch resistance of Froch?

 

true but he's earned his retirement and he enjoys his legacy. he got what he wanted. and yes i'm glad people are giving credit to hatton for even his losing efforts. did he really have a shot against pac or mayweather? no but he tried. that would be like joe c PUSHING for a glen johnson, Jones, DM, or Hopkins fight back in '99-'03. he would have been the underdog but the fights would have meant something. Joe C just looks at the names on his ledger, not the context of the fights

 

spot on. every word.

im off for evening.

 

Lol. You really are torn on JC aren't you! Know how you feel.

 

Thats questionable and id have to lean slightly towards agreeing with you there but the fights did happen and Joe beat them both in world class style , the one common denominator in all of this is Frank Warren who you Americans know little about !!!!!!!!

Frank Warren would be happy watching his world class fighters beating up domestic and European fighters for there whole careers Warren was Hatton and Calzaghe's promoter , with Hatton the penny dropped earlier than it did with Joe hense Hatton fighting in Vegas from 06 onwards without Warren (huge legal battle between the two followed) .

However Calzaghe went through some very dark times in boxing due to hand injurys , specially in the late 90's , Warren beleived in Joe and stuck by him and in the end was a major driving force in the ressurection of Calzaghe , this is why Calzaghe stayed loyal to Warren for longer than Hatton did but eventually realised that he was treading water with him after being in Vegas for Mayweather Hatton , (again huge legal battle followed) see the pattern forming .

Im not arguing the fact Calzaghe timed everything in his career perfectly and was certainly looked after partially , but to say he was not a world class fighter is just plain stupid !!!!!!!!!!

 

haha i really am. i respect the hell out of his ability but he was too scared to lose to prove it. i KNOW he could have made a better legacy. if he fought say 6 of the best out there in their primes, he probably would have won 3 and lost 3 but he'd have our respect and admiration. Instead, he and his fans fall back on what might have happened had he done that...who he COULD have beaten. Joe Calzaghe is one of the biggest wastes of talent in the modern era