Joe Calzaghe- one of the greatest of all time?

[robertzimmerman]

Damn you must have a lot of time on your hands.



IMO Joe should have went to America in his twenties and we wouldn't be having these discussions about how good he was. His own fault.

Correct.

He always tried to play the: "I'm a victim of circumstances" card, saying that he was overlooked etc. But what did he expect when the U.S. fans and media didn't really know anything about him, because he was defending a lightly regarded belt in his 30's, against guys like Salem and Mkrtchyan etc?

[hugh grant]

The lacy win was very good. It was a statement that you shouldn't underestinate JC .

People said Jeff was really good, after JC beat the prime laccy, they said lacy was no good? Similar to Floyd beating ssm. But SSM was past prime anyway with 5 losses. But SSM was underdog anyway. Lacy was favouriute.
So Joe should be compensated in some way

[Kigali]

Joe was a great fighter, but he wasn't overly ambitious.

What more could he have done?

He struggled to make weight to fight in a relatively weak division, where he defended a lightly regarded title 21 times.

The answer to your question is obvious:

He could and should have moved up to LHW much earlier where he could have tried to have fought the more recognisable names in the sport.

To be fair, he had awful injuries and personal issues that hampered his career. It was very stop-start in the early 00's. But he should never have been fighting the Kabary Salem's of the world when he was in his 30's.

He was more dismissed than avoided.

He brought absolutely nothing to the table.

The majority of the U.S. fans didn't really know who he was until he'd beaten Lacy in 2006.

Great fighters do great things.

Joe never did anything great because he simply was not capable.

[Cinci Champ]

46-0. 21 title defences at super middle, an era of dominance. THe ring champ at super middle and light heavy, retiring as the longest continual champion in the sport. Wins against lacy, kessler, hopkins, eubank, roy jones and he took on all comers and never ducked a fighter. To me this is the credentials of an all time great, yet when people talk about all time greats his name isnt mentioned? WHat more could joe really have done in his career than what he did? So why do people not rate him that highly? Did his career fly under the radar for msot of it due to him fighting in britain? Or was it his inability to secure the blockbuster fights when he was younger? That seems harsh to me when it was clear he was avoided. Please discuss

it doesnt help that most of his biggest wins were against guys not just past their prime but well well beyond their prime. he may never get the credit he deserves because of the competition he faced. him being british and maybe even fact that hes white doesnt help either theres a stigma for both in boxing

[New England]

resume lacks, but the guy could f#cking fight. great gas tank, tons of punches, awesome chin and recuperative power, left handed, totally unique fighter. he'd slap the badou jacks and the james degale's of the world into next week.

[i got the keys]

trust me joe was avoided, read his autobiography many times. joe was desperate for that breakout fight when he was younger but he was seen as too risky at the time for jones etc to fight

You're the least likely person to be trusted on any topics regarding Calzaghe or GGG.

[fighter1234]

yeah and hbo had a calaghe-jones ppv already setup if calzaghe won...not saying that came in to play but people don't like hopkins too much so being in america didnt really matter much.

if you watched the fight only one guy was landing clean punches and it wasn't calzaghe but somehow he won it on energy or some crap like that. obv a bad decision. people complain about pac-marquez but both those guys were actually landing clean punches. hopkins was the only one landing clean shots so how is this fight even debatable.

he made calzaghe miss virtually everything(defense) and when he did get hit it was rarely clean(defense) and in the meantime he would have calzaghe walking into big flush shots(clean punches) then he would do it all over again(ring generalship) calzaghe didn't corner hopkins on the ropes for more than a second in the entire fight he was so ineffective. he kept windmilling and missing and getting turned over and over. almost every time the crowd would go crazy it was actually hopkins landing a clean shot in between calzaghe's windmill misses. it was bad. i felt bad for calzaghe like damn you can't hit him at all?

This is so true.

[LoadedWraps]

Calzaghe is like Floyd -- never beat a great opponent in his prime, his own size. I'm more impressed by Floyd, but still -- boxing is a combat sport. You should be able to hurt the other guy. So I'm not going to give top credit to fighters that aren't really fighting, or who are just winning with style points.

Good way to look at it. Well said.

That said, that was only Floyd at the tail end of his career, in his prime he was pretty vicious at times.

[robertzimmerman]

Great fighters do great things.

Joe never did anything great because he simply was not capable.

The problem with Joe, was that his ambition didn't match his skills. Which was basically the opposite of a guy like Ricky Hatton.

[Prince Madison]

Great fighters do great things.

Joe never did anything great because he simply was not capable.

how come beating kessler counts as great things for ward, but not for calzaghe?