Calzaghe not great: Eubank

Searched for the last news on big Joe and found this posted 13 minutes ago Former WBO super-middleweight champ Chris Eubank claims that current WBO super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe is not a great fighter. "Joe Calzaghe I'd consider great champion," said the Brighton bombast. "In that he takes on all-comers and throws everything. Thomas Hearns is another I'd consider great champion. "You certainly couldn't consider me great champion, for example. I tried to get away with doing bare minimum and for a long time I did - I mastered boxing. "Naseem Hamed I don't consider great champion for other reasons, in that he got hit and quit. Joe Calzaghe on the other hand gets hit and comes back. "So what we have is lots of evidence to suggest that Joe Calzaghe is great champion. However, we have zero to suggest that Joe Calzaghe is a great fighter, absolutely zilch." Eubank feels that a fighter cannot be considered 'great' until he's tasted defeat and won again. "It's how one responds to defeat that determines ones greatness," he said. "I was undefeated in 43 fights, and fought far better opponents than Joe has - I beat great fighters like Benn and Watson, great fighters in that they came back from losses to do great things, I beat a southpaw in Germany who was a former and future world champion - say if Joe loses his next fight, that's when we'll see what he's made of as far as greatness is concerned. "You get me?" Eubank also makes it clear that, in his opinion, you have to wait until someone has completed his career before labelling him. "What I've learned is that you have to wait until a fighters career in finished before you determine his status. You cannot determine a status during a fighters career - only in the most special cases. "Taking me for example, I got rave reviews in my early professional fights in the States and I got rave reviews in my early days on Screensport. It was good, it made me feel like the Second Coming! "But when I was on top, both the media and fans kicked me to pieces. It wasn't until my last three fights that I got the respect I always craved - taking my beatings like a man while trying my heart out to win, and then losing gracefully with dignity intact... instead of winning arrogantly with peacock strut in full flow! "I get lasting respect from the people because I stayed the course. I go beyond being remembered, because I stayed the course. "If I went beyond that though, coming back again then my dignity would be in question and I would not have left that respect in the minds of the people. "If Evander Holyfield got out after the Tyson fights, he would have left an awesome memory in the minds of the people. But he's lost respect from me since in all honesty. "Naseem is probably the greatest example I can give. Nigel would be another one - rave reviews at the start, respect throughout but then hissed out in his last fight. "With Naseem though, even when he was a young kid just starting out it was as if he was already the greatest British boxer for all-times, like it was a full-gone conclusion. "He was even being described as the best boxer people had ever seen in the time he was a novice pro! "But when push came to shove, and when his career had ended as it has now, he made good champion and nothing more. "With Joe, we are positive that he is great champion in this moment in time. But what if he lost a fight, went AWOL and fading into oblivion? He might not be remembered as great champion let alone a great fighter, if he was remembered at all." He then goes on to compare boxing legacies with reality TV shows. "Look at the Big Brother contestants each year, this is just an example I'm giving you. At the time they get all this attention, the ones who stay in the house long or make an impression you think are going to be in the public eye forever. Yet where are they now? There's only Jade Goody. "You probably can't even remember, you'd need to see clips of the past shows to be reminded. Yet at the time they are at the forefront, where you can't consider them vaporizing - at the time, you understand?"