I don't hate the guy, I don't hate any boxers and I don't hate anyone I don't know personally, but I don't respect the way Joe Calzaghe has orchestrated his career, I don't respect the way he conducts himself, and I believe he is spectacularly overrated as a fighter. JMHO.
So was I...... A lot of them were past their best or never any good to start with. His reign of error is little better than Hatton's WBU run for me. Calzaghe's best defences prior to fighting Lacy were probably Reid, Woodhall (who retired straight after) probably Byron Mitchell and Charles Brewer. The rest don't really add up to much.
For about 5 years, after Hamed, British boxing had no real world champions, and no one fighting in America in the big p4p level fights. When we really needed Calzaghe to fight over there and get fights with particularly Roy Jones as p4p #1, he did nothing. He stayed in Britain and fought Tocker Pudwill, Miguel Jimenez and Mger Mkrtchian et al. In 2005, Ricky beat Tsyzu became a p4p fighter and went over there to give us the biggest fights. Haye becomes the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in 2007 and goes after the biggest fights at heavyweight. So in 2008, about 10 years too late Calzaghe goes over to America and fights a 43 year old Hopkins and a 39 year old Roy Jones. Thanks a lot Joe. I used to love Calzaghe, but he wasted the time when we actually needed him. I don't know whether I HATE him, but I hate what he did for 10 years. As a boxing fan I don't understand disliking boxers for their personality. All I care about is who they fight and how they do it.
I used to be a big fan. But he has become a **** of epic proportions in these last few years. Very arrogant, tries to con the fans with 'legend killing' fights like Jones, and his showboating makes me cringe. I still support him when he is going into big fights, I just wish he would sign for a few great fights before he retires, and not just spout crap that nobody deserves a shot at him.
Interesting to read that. Makes a change from the usual responses i.e. he's a knob..etc :good Did Calzaghe choose not to go over to USA or where there no fights available to him at that time?
Calzaghe only made a big enough name for himself on the back of the Lacy win. The reason the Lacy match was made was purely because Gary Shaw was supremely confident of victory. That match happened because of Lacy, not Calzaghe. The Kessler win was a fair one but the so called mega-fights with Jones and Hopkins are more to do with the poor state of the sport internationally at the weight then anything else. Chad Dawson would have done a better job on both.... Darius Michelzewski... Virgil Hill... hell even Henry Maske may have well beaten Jones and Hopkins.
I personally don't like him, I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate him though. The reason I don't like him is that he never pushed himself to move forward. A "world title" won against an old Eubank doesn't have a lot of legitimacy, doubly so when you factor in that it's the wbo. Everybody slated Eubank for fighting a big string of stiffs when he held the wbo but when Calzaghe did it you got Barry McGuigan and co calling him the best fighter Britain's ever produced. I don't give a **** what a boxer's personality is like apart from a couple of extreme cases, a Naz or a Roy Jones I wil really dislike because they're total twats. I just don't like Calzaghe because his whole record reads as typical Frank Warren filler material. 'Why should I fight a guy who might beat me when I can fight a stiffy for the same money and protect my 0?' Just the fact that the guy never took a risk, you can't call a guy great based on what you think he could do, he has to actually do it. It says an awful lot about a boxer who digs up the corpse of Roy Jones to "build his legacy"
I think he's great. Boxers with Calzaghe's skills don't come along ever five minutes. I suspect a lot of the dislike on the main board stems from the fact that you're never going to see him spatter an opponent all over the canvas in two rounds.
The first half of the post is spot on..... I think Chad Dawson is overrated personally, he would have stopped Jones... not sure about him vs Hopkins though. Michalczewski is very underrated, him vs Jones would have been an excellent fight. Henry Maske wasn't all that though, in the grand scheme of things.
Because he is not as good as he thinks he is, and because his record is not as good as his fans claim it is. Unless he is being misquoted constantly, I would also say he is a very egotistical and arrogant hypocrite.
Come on Beeston.... Maske of then Vs Jones of now, Maske out jabbed Virgil Hill FFS thats pretty impressive... Hopkins beating Pavlik was fairly suprising but Pavlik was massively over-rated on the back of the Pavlik win.... Compare 1998 p4p top ten to now and you'll get some idea of what I mean about the dwindling numbers of exceptional fighters. This may sound harsh but having Pacman and Calzaghe battling it out for the P4P number one spot is a pretty embarassing reflection on the fighters of this era.
People who dislike him because of his boxing style then I think that's fair enough it's their opinion and if they don't like his style then that's up to them. But the ones who say they dislike his personality I just don't get it. He's a quiet, introverted and down to earth family man who hates the limelight really but that's the position he is in. Should he act all false and try to be something he's not in front of the cameras to please some people or what? I really don't understand what's not to like about him as a person to be honest.