Your Take On Joe Calzaghe's Fight Game?

[abadger]

OK, like him or dislike him, and resume aside, what as a boxing fan do you make of Calzaghe as a boxer. How talented is he? What is his biggest strength and his biggest weakness? What enables him to win his fights? What type of fighter would beat him? Opinions please!

Please, no trolling.

[Naps]

Good points: Speed, chin, work rate, stamina, heart.
Bad point(s): Power, occasionally his defense worries me on rare occasions.

Who can beat him? In the world today, no-one.

[RichCCFC]

Good points: Speed, chin, work rate, stamina, heart.
Bad point(s): Power, occasionally his defense worries me on rare occasions.

Who can beat him? In the world today, no-one.

What he said.

[1g5a22]

What he said.

and him.......

[Xyei]

I'm not a big fan but I don't dislike him.

He is extremely fast for SMW. I can't think of anyone in the SMW division that is faster than he is. His style is so unorthodox that it gives everyone he faces problems. He does have a damn good chin and seems like a tough SOB with quite some heart!

He does seem to get hit more than he should sometimes but it doesn't seem to affect him in a negative way. It's almost like he needs to get clocked a little bit to get the ambition to turn **** on!

How ever you slice it, he knows what the **** he's doing and does an great job at winning in boxing.

[Xyei]

I forgot to mention his incredible stamina and work rate, which is what wins him most of his fights.

[Michigan]

I hate the bastard BUT.....

Skill wise hes kind of talented in my eyes.

I was most impressed with him against Kessler..he was throwing fast punches getting in and out.....he looked good....real good.


Albeit aginst Manfredo he looked good as well.

He has no pop in his punches....and very poor punching technique....little defense to speak off..he does have a good chin though and a good workrate...great stamina too.

Is he the number 2 p4p boxer in the sport...HELL NO.

Top 10 yes.

I think a hard puncher who like to fight beats him.

Pavlik??

[KingTito]

It's effective. It's very hard to win a decision against him. It hasn't happened yet. He throws a lot of fast punches and has good boxing skill that can greatly disrupt pretty much anyone's game plan for the fight.

[abadger]

I agree with all the posts so far, all the attributes and weaknesses you guys list are definitely there, both good and bad, but I don't actually think that any of them is actually the most important thing that Calzaghe brings to the ring, at least not for the 2008 Calzaghe anyway.

To my eyes the best way to describe Calzaghe is as an attacking version of Bernard Hopkins. I think his biggest strength is the way that he is now able to switch up his gameplan in such a way that he not only negates his opponent's attack, but does so in such a way that benefits his own. Mikkel Kessler said it best when he said "Joe spoiled my boxing". In the Kessler fight for the first four rounds or so it looked as though kessler was landing the most and was the stronger man, and looked most likely to win. From R4 onwards this changed until in R6 suddenly the tide had turned completely and Kessler was finding it very hard to hit Joe at all at the same time as finding himself on the receiving end of a slick, aggressive attack. The same thing happened against Hopkins if you watch closely, with the key point in the fight coming when Calzaghe realized if he tried to box at distance or in close Hopkins would frustrate him all night long, so he moved into medium distance ensuring that even if Hopkins clinched him, he would always land some shots himself.

Of all Calzaghe's 'basic' attributes, i think his chin is the most important, and is also the thing that enables the strength I have just described, insofar as he can rely on it quite heavily so as to be able to implement the strategy of his choosing irrespective of what his opponent does before he gets it right, and also leads to his biggest wekaness, his defensive openness, which is basically born out of knowing he can take his opponents best shots.

As for the fighter to beat him, right now I think that is someone who is faster on his feet and with good boxing skills. There are not many like this out there, but of current boxers, I have to say I'd give Chad Dawson the best chance to beat him.

[AceNguyen]

With his workrate, you have to knock him out to beat him. I can't think of another fighter I can say that about right now. Whether that's fair or not(the slapping question) can be argued, but he gets results. That being said, I think Kelly Pavlik would have around a 40% chance of beating him; it would be a competitive fight. I don't agree that he's unbeatable at that weight.