JOE Calzaghe has revealed boxing left him ‘crippled’ at the age of 43.
The former world champ, dubbed The Prince of Wales, retired undefeated in 2009.
But the 2007 BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner has paid a heavy price for his ring career.
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All of you complaining about how much he slapped, he still compiled a 46-0 records, that's a big slap in our faces. Very few fighters came close to retire undefeated.
I feel bad for the guy. I hope he tries MSM....it is great for athletic people like myself and for older people as well. Gets rid of joint pain. 5 capsules a day does the trick.
I thought Hopkins beat him too, but a win is a win. I still understood why he won, but in lieu of BHop's knockdown I disagreed with the decision. Joe was a volume puncher and that's exactly how he won that fight.
You also have to respect the version of Mikkel Kessler that Calzaghe beat, that was back when Kessler was undefeated and Joe was the first fighter to make him look robotic.
He exposed Jeff Lacy as an utter hype job during a time when Showtime was investing and bringing him up for PPV star treatment. I don't think very many people in the US even knew about Calzaghe until the Lacy fight, which was a disaster for Showtime at the time.
Chris Eubank was probably his break out win, maybe someone from the UK can correct me on that? I didn't actually follow that one.
Please believe that I don't appreciate being put in a position to sound like a Joe Calzaghe apologist, because I am not a fan of that dude. But I'm not unreasonable either. The Kessler win was when I finally gave in that he was for real and good at his game.
He's not on any of my best fighter lists. He could have fought Roy Jones a solid 10 years sooner than he did.
yes he won it because he threw more. did he land more? no. did he land cleanly? no. people still use completely dis proven compubox to try and say he won. they just don't care about accuracy. did cotto beat canelo because he thew more volume as well. why do we have these standards that are constantly changing to suit who we like? the rules say clean punching, defense, etc...calzaghe did none of that so he didn't deserve to win. we can make up scoring criteria but that's not really the point of scoring is it?
lacy was never a good fighter. watch his fights before he fought calzaghe. first of all he only beat 1 top 10 fighter so that is extremely suspect and second he was being outboxed by guys like syd vanderpool and omar sheika. hype is all he was.
kessler was a good win. kessler is far from great though. i had him losing to froch twice, calzaghe, and ward(although he was scewed) if that's calzaghe's best legit win how can calzaghe be great because the rest of his resume is quite bad. a guy like froch has more losses but also a lot more quality wins. froch tested himself against a bunch of good fighters and won more than he lost. calzaghe tested himself a couple times and got lucky not to lose even though i had him losing to hopkins and reid. it shows how deceiving records can be. froch could have 1 loss and calzaghe 2 but because of judging that at times doesn't follow any rhyme or reason froch has 2 losses and calzaghe 3. yet fans want to latch onto that same judging that has no rhyme or reason when their "fav fighter" benefits from it.
eubank was at the end of his career, hadn't been ranked in years, and never won another fight. a tough guy for sure but not a great win. its similar to canelo's win over mosley. good learning experience but nothing great about beating an over the hill fighter.
also slapping with the inside of the glove that caused him so many hand problems is clearly illegal under the rules of boxing yet he was allowed to do this constantly. his "hand speed" is nothing more than breaking the rules. its much easier to go side to side then forward and back. example this video: notice the straight left he throws is quite slow, then he reels off a bunch of fast slaps in combo because he's going side to side.
this never gets mentioned because calzaghe has the reputation as a warrior and honest fighter. shows you how far reputation can go and how it can make people overlook reality.
Joe did slap, but in his early days he threw punches with force. However I do feel his constant fractures caused him to box or slap more... he couldn't even do proper hand press ups I read...
where do people get this from? joecalzaghepropaganda.com or some sh-it? it's simply not true. we have debunked this time and time again but yet people keep saying it. watch some vids of calzaghe's early career. there are dozens of these. he had hand problems because he slapped. he didn't slap because he had hand problems.
where and who are these great wins? i certainly don't see a collection of them. one robbery against hopkins where hopkins landed all the clean punches(boxing) but besides that what?
I thought Hopkins beat him too, but a win is a win. I still understood why he won, but in lieu of BHop's knockdown I disagreed with the decision. Joe was a volume puncher and that's exactly how he won that fight.
You also have to respect the version of Mikkel Kessler that Calzaghe beat, that was back when Kessler was undefeated and Joe was the first fighter to make him look robotic.
He exposed Jeff Lacy as an utter hype job during a time when Showtime was investing and bringing him up for PPV star treatment. I don't think very many people in the US even knew about Calzaghe until the Lacy fight, which was a disaster for Showtime at the time.
Chris Eubank was probably his break out win, maybe someone from the UK can correct me on that? I didn't actually follow that one.
Please believe that I don't appreciate being put in a position to sound like a Joe Calzaghe apologist, because I am not a fan of that dude. But I'm not unreasonable either. The Kessler win was when I finally gave in that he was for real and good at his game.
He's not on any of my best fighter lists. He could have fought Roy Jones a solid 10 years sooner than he did.
Joe did slap, but in his early days he threw punches with force. However I do feel his constant fractures caused him to box or slap more... he couldn't even do proper hand press ups I read...
The man is a straight up warrior. He's the toughest fighter that I have ever seen. Calzaghe is without a doubt the greatest fighter since Ray Robinson. He was never knocked down or even close to being defeated.
i'm glad we have boxing historians like you that give us accurate info
I was never a huge Calzaghe fan but he's got a big collection of great wins and he basically threw 1000 punches per fight. Wish him and his fam the best.
They've got good drugs these days for the aches and pains of a rich fella like him. :boxing:
where and who are these great wins? i certainly don't see a collection of them. one robbery against hopkins where hopkins landed all the clean punches(boxing) but besides that what?
That guy fought for a decade and a half and had almost 50 professional fights with about half of them being somewhere at the world class level. I'm sorry he's in pain but I am not surprised.
what happened now? just because he had a belt does not mean his fights were at the world class level. he was fighting nobodies for almost his entire career.
The man is a straight up warrior. He's the toughest fighter that I have ever seen. Calzaghe is without a doubt the greatest fighter since Ray Robinson. He was never knocked down or even close to being defeated.
Never knocked down? You trolling?
The man is a straight up warrior. He's the toughest fighter that I have ever seen. Calzaghe is without a doubt the greatest fighter since Ray Robinson. He was never knocked down or even close to being defeated.
Yeah it has nothing to do with all the cocaine. What an ass hole. Jocaine Calzaghe is nothing but a Vulture who feasted on the corpses of a few big named fighters then ran off with his little "0" like a bigger version of Fraud Pedcheater Jr. Piss off, Joke Alzaghe.
I feel bad for him. I'm not even a Calzaghe fan at all, but he gave a lot of himself to the sport.
It shows you, that a fighter may be undefeated and retire as a champion, but it doesn't mean he never lost.