Calzaghe win over a prime undefeated Kessler puts him a level above Hatton. I belive Calzaghe vs Hopkins is always competetive, prime Jones doesn't count as he's not human Hatton showed his level when he wasn't even competetive with Floyd or pac
Lewis by a very long stretch. Calzaghe wasted so many years doing nothing in fights nobody really remembers and nobody wanted to see at the time.
For me Calzaghe was more of an education to watch. Lewis always talks about the "Sweet Science" but Calzaghe had more up his sleeve in my opinion. I'm going to be biased because I'm a Welshman and Calzaghe is arguably my favourite boxer but I'd be interested to see how Lewis would have done had he had smashed up hands for the final third of his career and had to change to way he operated in the ring.
We always talk about Calzaghe with a huge caveat, and that's the fact that his record is so poor. If Lewis had badly injured himself, he could have not fought Holyfield for a few years, not fought Tyson until later, never fought Klitschko, and rely on people saying Michael Grant was a huge danger fight. I rated Calzaghe massively as a fighter. But compared to Lennox his CV is far weaker. Had he fought a younger Jones, or Pavlik/Taylor/Froch/Woods/Dawson/Tarver/Johnson as well as those he did beat (perhaps at the expense of some of the rubbish like Manfredo/Ashira/Mkrtchyan/Salem) then it would be a legitimate question.
I'm not huge on Lennox, seeing him outboxed and outfoxed by Bruno and Mercer past their bests, and even a shadow of Holyfield in the rematch. When he was punching holes in a shell of Tyson, he looked too scared to go in and take him out in three or four rounds which he should've done. He did prove himself against Vitali, though, being beaten up and losing and staying in there. He's certainly not near the fighter Ken Buchanan or John Conteh were in the modern era, and obviously streets and streets behind a Wilde, Ted Kid or Bob Fitz.
I mean your not wrong. When both were at their best in the rematch old past prime Holyfield was a bit better than peak Lewis.
Lennox, but as many have said Calzaghe is a great. Lennox did it all though, fought everyone he could (Bowe famously ducked him) and came back from adversity before retiring on top.
Really? More than Castillo and Oscar? Easy to make a case for Castillo winning the first. I thought De La Hoya lost but it was close. Also if we're talking post-Hatton the first Maidana fight and the Cotto fight were closer than Ricky.
