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When I think of Joe Calzaghe I think of an outstanding boxer with brilliant handspeed, tactical sense and fighting heart. A champion for 10 years with 20 something defenses on his resumée. These are numbers that really should speak for themselves.
However his prime-years was less than fulfilling fighting a string of pedestrian opponents in his own backyard. From a financial standpoint it has been great. He has made mega-bucks filling huge arenas despite mediocre opposition. First in the latter stages of his career he (read his management) has been able to lure big-time opponents to share the ring with him (Lacy and Kessler). The point I’m trying to make is that his manager Frank Warren has overprotected a great fighter thereby prohibiting him from showing what his real legacy might have been.
JoeC himself has said that he has 2 more fights before he calls it a career (and I hope he wins them both and keeps his word of retiring). The first fight being a transatlantic showdown with an ageing legend Bernard Hopkins and the last one presumeably also a big money-spinner. IMO it’s a damn shame that JoeC as late as in his mid-thirties gets to fight the big fights that his talent has deserved for at least 5 years.
This all adds up to that when it’s all said and done and we must evaluate his career then it will be: Joe Calzaghe was a great figter but he could have been greater.
However his prime-years was less than fulfilling fighting a string of pedestrian opponents in his own backyard. From a financial standpoint it has been great. He has made mega-bucks filling huge arenas despite mediocre opposition. First in the latter stages of his career he (read his management) has been able to lure big-time opponents to share the ring with him (Lacy and Kessler). The point I’m trying to make is that his manager Frank Warren has overprotected a great fighter thereby prohibiting him from showing what his real legacy might have been.
JoeC himself has said that he has 2 more fights before he calls it a career (and I hope he wins them both and keeps his word of retiring). The first fight being a transatlantic showdown with an ageing legend Bernard Hopkins and the last one presumeably also a big money-spinner. IMO it’s a damn shame that JoeC as late as in his mid-thirties gets to fight the big fights that his talent has deserved for at least 5 years.
This all adds up to that when it’s all said and done and we must evaluate his career then it will be: Joe Calzaghe was a great figter but he could have been greater.
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