After having just watched Calzaghe fight...

[Silencers]

Calzaghe was VERY unimpressive in the Salem, Veit, Ashira, Bika, Manfredo and Kessler fights. But against Jeff Lacy - albeit Jeff Lacy, who walked into the MEN Arena holding his girlfriend's hand - he showed off his speed punching and combination ability and natural talent on the backfoot, as Lacy - very visibly tight around the shoulders at the weigh-in - jumped in head-first all night.

His claim to fame is still knocking down Eubank in 15 seconds with a shot that Chris didn't see coming.

Unimpressive against Kessler? I thought it was a very good performance from him.

[blacksky]

I expected a lot more watching him. I mean, just wow. I'd be 100% certain in putting my life savings on Kelly Pavlik beating Calzaghe at 168.

get your cardboard box ready

[squealpiggy]

I think it's fair to say that Calzaghe is not the best technical boxer. I would rate Ricky Hatton's pure boxing ability higher than Calzaghe's for sure. But where Joe has advantages is in his workrate and stamina, his incredible speed and reflexes and his great footwork. Calzaghe is extremely unorthodox but he makes it work for him, in much the same way as RJJ used to but Joe has yet to lose that half a step that spelled doom for Roy.

[blacksky]

I think it's fair to say that Calzaghe is not the best technical boxer. I would rate Ricky Hatton's pure boxing ability higher than Calzaghe's for sure. .

no offence, but that is the most ridiculous thing i have ever read on here.

Calzaghe is a great technical boxer, has excellent timing, range, footwork, quick hands, a good jab and can throw hard straight punches, looping punches. He can box on the inside (see the lacy fight) or on the outside like against Kessler.

Hatton is a one dimensional pressure fighter who has no jab and who's most impressive wins come as a result of bullying his opponents and turning the fight into a dog fight, like Kostya Tsyzu.

Calzaghe's boxing ability > Hattons

[pins0099]

Calzaghe was VERY unimpressive in the Salem, Veit, Ashira, Bika, Manfredo and Kessler fights. But against Jeff Lacy - albeit Jeff Lacy, who walked into the MEN Arena holding his girlfriend's hand - he showed off his speed punching and combination ability and natural talent on the backfoot, as Lacy - very visibly tight around the shoulders at the weigh-in - jumped in head-first all night.

His claim to fame is still knocking down Eubank in 15 seconds with a shot that Chris didn't see coming.

No his claim to fame is being undefeated for over 10 years and being up there with the best SMW's of all time! Your nearly as bad as the thread starter belittling his career as the only decent win he's had is against Lacy.

How can you say he was unimpressive against Manfredo and Kessler, for a start Manfredo, what more could he have done but overwhelm the out-of-his depth Manfredo, the referee stopped (albeit prematurely) an almost certain knock victory, he made it look like man against boy.

And as for Kessler he won by 4 clear rounds on most people cards against a very talented, young hungry fighter, got caught with an uppercut that could've floored almost anyone in SMW and LH div, changed his tactics mid-fight an won out.

Ashira, he had damaged his hand and won all 12 rounds.

Veit, first time knocked him out round 1, second time bided his time on Veit's home turf to knock him out again, unimpressive why?

Bika and Salem tried every dirty trick in the book, dirty fighters who knew they were in with a superior boxer. He won clearly in both cases.

His flaws if any are not going to America sooner to face a prime Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins (both were possibly out of his control anyway) but you cant just write off the rest of his career on the strength on that.

[sparked_85]

Calzaghe would beat Hatton worse than Mayweather pound for pound.

[blacksky]

Hatton isn`t even in the same league as Calzaghe, that was obvious even before the Mayweather fight.

Calzaghe has boxing intelligence.

[squealpiggy]

no offence, but that is the most ridiculous thing i have ever read on here.

Calzaghe is a great technical boxer, has excellent timing, range, footwork, quick hands, a good jab and can throw hard straight punches, looping punches. He can box on the inside (see the lacy fight) or on the outside like against Kessler.

Hatton is a one dimensional pressure fighter who has no jab and who's most impressive wins come as a result of bullying his opponents and turning the fight into a dog fight, like Kostya Tsyzu.

Calzaghe's boxing ability > Hattons

I'm talking about stepping with the jab and keeping his hands up. Joe don't do that classical boxer stuff while Hatton does on occasion. I would suspect from your comments that you haven't seen much of Hatton pre-Kostya, particularly in the Stewart, Tackie and Oliviera fights. Against second tier opponents Hatton boxes brilliantly, whereas against the same level of opposition Calzaghe tends not to. And as both guys were Warren fighters for most of their careers it's the second tier opponents that we can judge them both against.

[pins0099]

I'm talking about stepping with the jab and keeping his hands up. Joe don't do that classical boxer stuff while Hatton does on occasion. .

Bit like Roy Jones Jnr. one of the best boxers of this generation! Unorthadox fighters if they are really good or really quick as in Joes case can win out against textbook fighters, not all the time as Naz found out, but then again he was never in same league as Joe C.

[sparked_85]

Calzaghe can box brilliantly on the back foot, has superior handspeed, better reflexes, and is super awkward punches from crazy angles.

Ricky is talented, but he has limitations. In that he is always the bull against top opposition! bar fights against Tackie, and Urango who was just so freakin slow even if he did hit very hard eh hasn't tended to baffle people with his technical skill, mainly because it would be detrimental. Joe is the bull and the matador at the same time. Throwing a hundred punches and not allowing a fighter to get anything off is the best defence surely?