Would Joe Calzaghe Have Made It Past The First, Against Prime RJJ?

Blofeld · Mar 15, 2023

Greg Price99 said: ↑

Good post.

Eubank was past prime vs Calzaghe & took the fight on short notice, having instead been preparing for a fight at LHW, so whilst I've never heard him say so, he could have been a little weight drained too.

That said, Calzaghe was pre-prime too. It was his first world title fight & first fight against a world class boxer. In his auto biography Joe said he typically weighed 178-180lbs on fight night at SWM, but burnt so much nervous energy on the day of the Eubank fight, he said he was 172lbs going into the ring. He mentioned his exceptional stamina meant that he usually felt fresh going late into fights, but he was exhausted after 3 rounds vs Eubank. So, yeah, it wasn't the best version of Eubank, but it wasn't of Calzaghe either.

I'd pick a prime RJJ to beat prime JC by 10-2/9-3 type comfortable decision, btw.
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Interesting points re JC weight issues, I need to read his biography, surprised I have not got round to it!

Pugguy · Mar 15, 2023

Greg Price99 said: ↑

Prime RJJ's style was unique to him. My, admittedly somewhat inadequate, succinct description of his style would be "long-range potshotter".

Prime Jones usually stood at a sufficient distance from his opponent that using his relfexes he could evade their punches, whilst he was so "video game" fast he could launch in, typically with a single shot (i.e. no need to set up power shots off of jabs or use feints) & land.

i.e. he fought with a style that pretty much no one else in history had the physical attributes to successfully replicate. Which is why, as you allude to, his physical deteriation post age 34/35 & post moving back down in weight after Ruiz, was so exactly correlated with the deteriation in his performances & results.
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Exactly - that’s as much of a “style” as you could attribute to him - opportunistically and safely, working off his sublime speed and reflexes at a relatively safe distance - which is so much less a style than it is a fighter simply working off his pure, natural abilities.

THE BLADE 2 · Mar 16, 2023

Not against the Jones version from Griffin II

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Would Joe Calzaghe Have Made It Past The First, Against Prime RJJ?

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Would Joe Calzaghe Have Made It Past The First, Against Prime RJJ?

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