Rate The Blow's competition objectively...

[Guest]

... okay, his career could have been better.

Hop priced himself out the first time, he was injured for Glen Johnson, and Roy Jones had already passed through the division when The Blow was just a 14 fight novice.


But I hear about them being a string of tin cans... the question is, were they really THAT bad? Out of his 21 defences, I get eight solid defences:


The Bank - JuyJuy's favourite, even an old Eubank is better than most. A much underrated fighter, while he was in the twilight of his career he was still only 31 and had two hard battles at Cruiserweight after this.

Robin Reid - Not the shot Reid that fought Lacy, this was a 28 (19)-1-1 fighter who had only just lost (on points) his WBC title two fights earlier. Had he not pissed it away with a lacklustre performance, this would have been The Blow's first unification bout.

Omar Sheika - Not a great by any means, but when The Blow fought him he only had one loss on his ledger (to Tony Booth!!!) and had beaten Glencoffe Johnson. Most notably for having a close decision with Lacy and wobbling him.

Richie Woodhall - Two fights earlier Woodhall had lost the WBC Supermiddleweight title to Markus Beyer by a narrow decision. Again, The Blow's chance of a unification bout was thwarted.

Charles Brewer - Okay, this guy wasn't all that, but he WAS a titlist, winning the vacant IBF title and successfully defending it three times before losing it on a SD to Sven Ottke. (which means he really won every round).

Byron Mitchell - This guy was the WBA champ and the fight just before he fought The Blow he was due to unify the WBA and IBF titles against Sven Ottke. While the stoppage here was dubious, Mitchell's legs went, and it's a shame the action wasn't allowed to continue to see a proper stoppage.

Jeff "LOL" Lacy - A 21-0 IBF titlist with 17 KOs who 99% of this forum was saying could crap diamonds and piss lemonade. Only his one-sided beatdown at the hands of The Blow brought out the revisionists.

Mikkel Kessler - A 39-0 (29) fighter with the WBA and WBC belts. No further explanation needed, really.



There are more... Sakio Bika is dangerous, as Contender viewers have seen, and Mario Viet was 30 (18)-0 when he fought The Blow. WTF was he doing fighting Peter Manfedo Jr. though?

With Lacy and Kess I think he's dragged his resume up a couple of notches. Certainly, the concept that Hopkins's resume is miles ahead (when his biggest opponents either beat him or were blown up) is now looking less and less credible.

[medium-deek]

That is a very credible list to me.

It is indeed a shame the Mitchell fight was stopped, but Byrons legs were jelly when he bounced into the rope. But you cant blame the ref. Its a case where it "looked" worse than it really was.

[Guest]

I'd say that one in two of the Blow's opponents were worthwhile.

Probably his worst opponent ironically came at the height of his fame - ie. Manfredo.

[PeROxiDE]

I'd say a good 65% of Calzaghes opposition had earned their name to be put forward as a mandatory, the fact is Joe outclassed them so badly they look a lot worse than they actually were. Kessler is world class, and will remain undefeated for the rest of his career. Lacy, although possibly the biggest hype job ever, still wasnt a bad fighter. Both of these fighters are World Class, but nowhere near Joes class. Does that make them any less world class? It would appear in the case of Joe Calzaghe it does. Beating a quality opponent should boost your own stock, in this case its sad to say all it does is diminish his opponents.

[kayjay]

The Kessler fight moved his competition well past Hopkins's at middleweight, if it wasn't already. But it's a mediocre list.

Let's not forget that Joe Louis defended all those times against lesser competiton. No one wins twenty or more in a row against truly elite competion.

[Knicksman20]

While his resume is far from stellar, it's not nearly as bad as some would say. And with the Kessler win, he's definitely up a few notches.

[-Hyperion-]

goooooooooooooooooooooooooooood ****.................

[Guest]

While his resume is far from stellar, it's not nearly as bad as some would say. And with the Kessler win, he's definitely up a few notches.

As always, Knicksman talks sense.

There's a lot of polemic in NSB, and often his career is either "the best ever" or "just full of bum's, lamo, pwn!"

Like most things, the answer is usually somewhere in between.

[-Antonio-]

It's a solid resume.

[Burnetti]

I agree with the previous post in that is a fair appraisal of Joe's opposition be it good bad or otherwise.

I'd like to see same honesty and fairness applied to Hopkins and in particular his victories over Oscar , Tito and Winky that are citied as his crowning glories, all of whom had to give away major weight but this obvious advantage seems to go unmentioned.