What Has Calzaghe Done to be Considered Great?

[Degsy]

De La Hoya would have whooped Calzaghe.

So would Tito, Tarver, Winky.

Erm................Robert Allen, Joe Lipsey....erm.....uh?

Careful with the irony, they might sprain their necks as they watch your comments fly over their heads!!!

It is also the manner in which he beat Lacy. He genuinely pummeled him without help from the ref. Ottke might have beaten Lacy as well. But only because the german ref wouldnt let Lacy hit Ottke.

Lopsided wins against average competition is not impressive. This is the same Lacy that struggled with Peter Manfredo...

[Astarte]

Lopsided wins against average competition is not impressive. This is the same Lacy that struggled with Peter Manfredo...

No, actually the Lacy that fought Manfredo hadn't fought in over a year and was coming off of shoulder surgery. Nice try though.

[FRKO]

Lacy was ruined by Calzaghe. Why is anyone comparing the current Lacy with the one that fought Joe? It's ******ed. Before Joe schooled him, Lacy looked good. The old Lacy wouldn't have struggled against Manfredo, but the fact is he's a damaged fighter, physically, and possibly mentally.

Sure, Lacy may have struggled with Manfredo, but just ask yourself why, then remember March 3rd, 2006.

[SkilledB]

Jeff Lacey in his prime is a B+ fighter, and calzage has made a living of beating those fightetrs,

Bika,Lacey,Kessler, ect.
that division has been weak for awhile, and when he loses to Hopkins, it will be a shot of reality to the nuthuggers of joke

[FRKO]

Everything you just said, we've all heard it before a thousand times.

[Kris Silver]

Some really ignorant comments are said about Calzaghe. What makes up for it, is despite not learning from already pounding whoever the US sent over, he's now coming over to do it. If that's not enough I don't know what is. Whoever remains criticising him after beating Hopkins would be ridiculously flawed and biased imo.

He does have a pretty good record, not brilliant, but good. He's not really ducked anyone, infact he wanted Hopkins in his prime, where was Bernard?

Yet some feel it justified, to make the criticism Joe wasn't wanting big fights. Blame Frank Warren a little maybe, but there's been several opponents many of said people, claimed would batter Joe, and it didn't happen.

Let me ask the doubters this. Let's just take Lacy and Manfredo. These are two fighters many in the US firmly believed would be the next best thing, and beat Calzaghe. Joe gave both of these a boxing lesson, to the extent it was ridiculous. The facts say it's not Joe that's over hyped, quite the opposite.

It's not un reasonable to claim they've been two of Joe's easiest fights. What does that say about his past apparent average fighters who performed better than Lacy or Manfredo? That many logically, would have beaten Lacy and Manfredo too, thus aren't so average. Can't see many accepting that, but hey ho, actions speak louder than words.

Joe just turns already seemingly good but under rated Euro fighters, into lesser known ones further still.

[Clegg]

Of course I'm sincere.

Maybe you think that posting threads like this are a reasonable reaction because some Brits seem too rate Calzaghe so highly. But the fact is that there are many more threads made by people looking to slag him off than by people trying to call him great.

Most of the OTT Calzaghe praise takes place because people go a step too far in trying to defend him against threads like this.

My opinion: Calzaghe dominated a division that wasn't very strong. He's clearly very talented but his career record as it stands is not enough for him to be considered an all time great. He still has one more big fight in him after Hopkins, so let's see how he finishes his career before deciding.

Calzaghe should've gone to America sooner, but this doesn't make him any less of a fighter, because many great fighters never fought abroad. Would Manfredo, Lacy or Mitchell have won had the fights been in the US? No. It would've gotten JC more money and exposure though. Surely you would've hated that, Sin? JC would get more credit, there would be more hype about him, and he'd be richer too. If that was the case, you'd probably lose it completely and post a new thread every 15 seconds until your head exploded.

[hugh grant]

Lopsided wins against average competition is not impressive. This is the same Lacy that struggled with Peter Manfredo...

Dont you get the fact that Lacy didnt struggle with people before he fought JC and that is why he was favoured by many to beat JC. Only after being pummeled by JC had Lacy struggled with people.
If Lacy hadnt fought JC first and fought Manfredo instead Lacy would have destroyed Manfredo. After his loss to JC he struggles with him. Easy equation.

[Degsy]

Dont you get the fact that Lacy didnt struggle with people before he fought JC and that is why he was favoured by many to beat JC. Only after being pummeled by JC had Lacy struggled with people.
If Lacy hadnt fought JC first and fought Manfredo instead Lacy would have destroyed Manfredo. After his loss to JC he struggles with him. Easy equation.

Exactly, Jeff had ****ed up his rotator cuff between Manfredo and Calzaghe which is a potential career ending injury