Why wasn't Calzaghe given more credit for his wins against RJJ and Hopkins?

Nah Josephine cannot throw a legitimate scoring punch He slapped like a schoolgirl thays why he gets no credit

 

Joe realized as his career was winding down that he would be cast into mediocrity without any decent US names on his resume. So he did what a man does, he finally departed for the US and would take on the absolute best the US had! But he was 10 years too late! LOL
It's actually pretty pathetic. He wouldn't go near these guys near their primes, and only goes over when he needs their names on his resume. And then while he's fighting a completely old, broken down Jones, Joe mimic's and clowns him. I couldn't decide which was sadder, that Jones was STILL fighting, or that Joe was actually trying to show him up.

 

Because a lot of people wanted the American to win. I am American and I laugh when fellow Americans don't respect Calzaghe. I'm just telling you from my POV how I see it. Guys back Lacy, he got murked by Joe, then they proceeded to hate Joe.

 

Roy did stay in the U.S. but he was the consensus P4P, no.1 fighter in the world.

It's nothing really to do with wanting home court advantage.

Roy didn't need to leave America, yet Joe needed to leave Europe to obtain the biggest fights for himself.

Their circumstances were very different.

 

Hopkins was 43 years of age when he fought Calzaghe. If Hopkins was Calzaghe's age of 36, he would have KO'd Calzaghe that night. Hopkins boxing prime probably ended before he beat Trinidad. What he had lost athletically, he had gained in ring IQ, skill, and technique though. His prime physically/athletically as a boxer was somewhere from 31 to 36 years old. Looking at his fights during that time span, you can really see a huge difference when comparing what he could do physically in that time frame, and what he could do physically 38 and up. He's clearly a more geriatric version of Hopkins at light heavyweight when looking at the athleticism. Much slower, and stiffer, lower work rate, much poorer punching technique, no punch variety, can't cover distance like he used to, can't react like he used to, worse stamina. That is all clearly evident in his fights at light heavyweight.

 

I think he was but Hopkins and Jones fan base had trouble accepting the loss. Calzaghe had Hopkins looking slow and confused. It should be noted that the only judge who saw it for Hopkins was " Judge Adaliaide Byrd. 114-113. Her cards are crap! No arguments there from anyone! Calzaghe won it by 2-3 rounds. You could say he won it by four rounds.

[url]http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Bernard_Hopkins_vs._Joe_Calzaghe[/url]

Roy Jones suffered a bad cut and was badly out boxed 118-109.

 

Big arguments from many. Video analysis of the fight even showed that Calzaghe hadn't hardly landed any punches. 48 is significantly less than the 232 CompuBox button mashers claimed they saw. And those 48 slaps weren't ****. Hopkins outpunched him in the majority of the rounds. The correct score for that fight is 115-112 Hopkins, based on video analysis of the fight.

 

Quantity vs quality.

 

Calzaghe-Hopkins could've gone either way. There are two really tight rounds in that fight which pretty much determine who you score for. But Joe got the decision over a good version of Hopkins who would go on to accomplish still more in the six years that followed, so that's a very good win on his record.

One only has to look at Roy running in camp to get an an inkling of why Joe got no credit for beating him. His legs were shot to hell. Calzaghe was much, much better preserved than Roy and was a big favorite for a reason, the same reason with which he eased his son's concerns prior to the fight ("Don't worry, son, Jones isn't that good anymore.")

 

True he was the man. & circumstances were different.

Unfortunately at that time his challenges were across the big pond.
Nigel Benn wanted him, dariusz michalschewski another I'm not leaving my home-type of champ.

I always accepted the Olympics fiasco as a possibility, but where that sucks to me is how Roy's last 1/2 dozen fights were indeed outside the U.S. Understandable, no one here wanted to see him go life and death with tomato cans.

RJJ IMO beats all, but he wasted his best years fighting who?
Gman moved UP to SMW to fight RJJ. Benn took it.
Michael Nunn had a bit left, but lost to Rochiaghini only for the belt to snatch it and give it back to Roy? Without a fight? He had to sue the belt org-which he won, but why not make him look bad in the ring Roy? He decided not to.

 

Because they were washed up, particularly Jones

 

There wasn't much difference between them, age wise especially when you look at when they all started fighting. Joe only started 3 years after Hopkins at a very young age.

Hopkins also didn't win his fight title till the age of 30, after his 30th fight. He was a late bloomer in that fact.

Roy Jones was a year before Hopkins.

What often gets forgot about was the fact Joe calzaghe was chasing fights with these guys years before. Roy even turned down one offer saying the money offered wasn't enough, but then took the next fight at a fraction of the pot.

You can't blame him really at the time calzaghe was the young lad knocking everyone out before his hands were shot. Risk Vs reward. Lots of risk a little reward. WBO wasnt held in the same regards as it is today.

 

Only thing I disagree with is calling a 2008 version of Hopkins the best opponent Calzaghe faced "by far". Yes he was still operating at the world class level (unlike RJJ by then, which makes it all the sadder that Roy only just retired within the last couple of months, a full Ramírez decade later ) but I think you're selling a prime Mikkel Kessler very short to say that a 2008 B-Hop is better than him "by far". In fact I disagree that he's better, period.

I'd say Calzaghe's best opponents (taking into account how good they were at that juncture of their careers; not how big a name they were before or since) are:

1) Kessler
2) Hopkins

*big drop-off*

3) Reid (underrated, was smack in his prime and should arguably have gotten the nod versus Malinga to come in undefeated, and was arguably robbed of at least a draw against Joe)
4) Eubank Sr. (was more past it than Hopkins but mustered up a good performance; Joe called it his toughest fight years later)
5) Lacy (overrated... but was a physical specimen in his prime, and undefeated having faced some decent opposition and was on a good run of form - within a limited style and skill-set - with his Tyson-like intimidation game on-point and confidence mile-high)
6) Bika (spoiler extraordinaire at his peak, also gave Ward just as tough a fight)
7) Veit II (had improved a ton since their first encounter, when he took a big step up too soon and was done in by the bright lights; had beaten some good names)
8) Sheika (was on a decent run after his zero was stolen by this absolute legend: [url]https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/tony-booth-is-a-legend.570119/[/url])
9) Woodhall (in the same category as Hopkins & Eubank, well past his prime but still not in Jones territory and capable of putting up a decent fight where punches weren't pulled even though he & Joe were friends)
10) Mitchell (arguably should've been undefeated and coming into this as the A-side with the majority of belts in a unification, dealt Calzaghe his first knockdown)

Really the order for those bottom eight is arbitrary. You could shuffle them around in nearly any order and justify the placements. Hopkins and Kessler are on a tier above the rest "by far" - with more distance in that gap than exists between the pair of them. IMO.

 

RJJ at that point they fought is struggling to find a place in Calzaghe's top dozen worthiest h2h scalps. He's floating on the same bubble as Peter Manfredo Jr. and the Kabary "Egyptian Magician" Salem.