Would Calzaghe have been the best ever if his hands had stayed injury free?

a lot of people go on about joes pitty pat style and being a soft puncher.....what a lot of people don't realise is he adapted his style and changed it due to having bad hands.
if you watch fights earlier on in his pro career he was winning a lot of fights with KO's, and knocked down eubank with a big shot then developed bad hands and changed his style a bit to pro long his career
a lot of fights his hands was so bad later on he didn't even spar.

 

If calzaghe didn't Have hand problems they would probably have to give the man he's own wing in the boxing hall of fame, or else move the boxing hall of fame to wales in he's honour.

The man is tbe

 

Calzaghe did appear to have bad hands but theres a running theme throughout his career. He stopped the guys that werent up to much and decisioned the rest that were decent fighters. I dont think the hands were the problem with his lack of knockouts at the top level. It was more about his technique but what do i know really.

Honestly to this day i dont think calzaghe was a naturally talented fighter just that the old man worked him so hard he became a very difficult fighter to beat. I still think the old man lucked out to an extent with him maybe the bad hands actually helped him with that. Its a bit like they broke the code by mistake. Just worked him so hard...throwing punches after punches on the mitts that it became second nature to him. Did they even work on anything else. When it came to fight time fighters couldnt handle the barrage of punches thrown at them. There wasnt that much boxing going on. Was more of a street fight with calzaghe with one goal in mind...to throw more punches than his opponent in exchanges. Didnt matter how technically bad they were. It was effective. But can we put him down as an all time great because of it. Could be argued the hand problems actually made him harder to beat because maybe they did tweak his training to allow for it and it ended up producing a harder fighter to beat than he actually was to begin with.

Not deriding the mans achievements because to go 46 and 0 is quite an achievement. Some pretty decent fighters along the way. I think a younger bernard would have shut him down had the footwork for it...just didnt have the stamina for it to get a convincing win. I know people will say calzaghe was as old but his whole game was build around incredible workrate he would always have been a hard fight for older fighters.

Its a difficult one with joe because there was probably a lot of boxers over the years better than him as fighters but he may well have beaten some of them. Make of that what you will.

 

How on earth can Calzaghe rated ??? He was incapable of throwing a LEGITIMATE SCORING PUNCH !!!!!!
Some of those Brit stoppages were insults to fans intelligence.

 

Finally...something I agree with C.J on....Calslappy is....wellllll Calsloppy!

 

The hypocracy of some people is amazing...
The same people who attempt to diss Lennox Lewis for retiring when he did also cheer Calzaghe for ducking a rematch @ home in Wales against Hopkins But instead ran away for a life of drug & alcohol abuse

 

LOL See watch & learn You've made a start

 

Watched all of his fights including his KOs run in his first 23 or 24 in which he faced a terrifying selection of overweight, fat, inexperienced, untalented, old, crippled bums and never-weres. I think the fighters he faced in those first 20 odd wins couldn't have beat anyone in my gym .. and I mean 24 Hour Fitness .. not a ****ing boxing gym. What a collection of garbage and utter dross.

Eubank was weight drained to death against Joe. That short notice fight and brutal two week weight cut gave Chris nothing to use. He was like Dawson against Ward. Always easy to get dropped or have punch resistance issues when one is dropping weight and muscle on short notice (and it is much more difficult and impactful after 30 than at 20) then trying to compete in combat. It is the contradiction of getting "weaker" and pushing your body in an activity which requires more not less of oneself. But, the difference is that Chris was still almost even by the 12th as Joe lost the second half of the fight except for about for one round. Joe was fading and struggling in the 12th. I was in Vegas for Joe versus Hopkins. Joe was dire. Seven year age advantage was the only thing that allowed him to edge it - not his talent. He is a pedestrian athlete. Hopkins was horrible too but still one could see the vast difference in athletic talent and boxing skill.

 

For a punch to to score it has to land with the knuckle part of the glove so that cancels him out and will always haunt his legacy. That being said he was a slick difficult southpaw with lighting fast reflexes with the ability to stand in the pocket and hit without being hit. Those who rate either him or Ward being the greatest of smw's forget that RJJ was prime at that weight and would have kod both.

 

He was never a devastating puncher. If you look at his 32 stoppages. Only two were actual KO's, and a fair amount of the rest were straight up British Stoppages.

 

Lmmfao, the best ever what?

 

No but I have to give Joe his just due. You have to do something right to have such loyal fans.

 

We both know he wasn't looking for a Jones fight.

Behave.

 

On a H2H basis, Roy is the greatest SMW of all time.

 

No gonna argue that. I think he is from 154 to 175.