-
-
Be sensible, it was down to JC to chase them not the other way around, do you really expect Roy Jones to bring HBO and all his belts to Cardiff? Hatton is a huge draw over here but he wanted to face the best so he had to go to them. I can picture JC and Warren sat together in the late 90's. 'Shall we go to America and get our ass beat by these guys now or wait 10 years when they're old and been ko'd'. What a joke.Comment
-
What did you do, pick the names of some American boxers you know were around Joe's weight class and just say he ducked them? All preferences aside, the facts are these:
1) James Toney was at cruiserweight by 1997
2) Hopkins priced himself out of a fight with Calzaghe in 2001. Calzaghe takes some blame for wanting it in Wales, hence Bernard's demands.
3) Jones - Calzaghe never really could have been made. Calzaghe never did enough to make the shot happen, and even if he had one guy was Showtime, the other HBO, for virtually all of their careers. Calzaghe planned to move up up to LHW for a Johnson fight in 2004, probably assuming Johnson was going to lose to Jones. Johnson beat Jones and everything went out of the window.Comment
-
I watched it, and I still don't like him.Comment
-
My problem is the guy basically wasted the best part of his career by not moving himself/not being allowed to the States, as iv'e said, Hatton was a world champ who could sell out the M.E.N but he knew that by going to America and throwing himself in the mix he had a far greater chance of landing the big fights, sacking Warren and fighting the best fighter in the world is no coincidence eitherComment
-
Both Calzaghe and Warren did want the big fights. It was obvious by about 2000 that Calzaghe was too good for the **** SMW division of the time. The problem was that as the WBO champ Calzaghe was making good money with every defence, and neither the money, nor even very big fights were there for him at LHW. Remember, LHW was not exactly brimming with talent itself, it only became clear Johnson and Tarver were 'big' once they beat a shot Jones. The only reason to go to LHW was Jones and making that fight would have been next to impossible given the TV contracts of the fighters. The only way it could have happened was if Jones himself really wanted it, and lets face it, why would he? Calzaghe carried no profile in the States anyway.
IMO Calzaghe took the only option that was really available to him, when big LHW fights were not on the cards in 2003/ 2004 he committed to clearing up the SMW division and making it happen that way, and to be fair to him it worked, just a little too late to face a prime Jones or Hopkins. In Jones' case though, his prime ended about 5 years ago so the window of opportunity for a Calzaghe - Jones prime for prime fight was very small, say between 2000 and 2003, when in the States, Joe was basically a nobody. With Hopkins the opportunity was there, and they did try to make the fight, but failed.Comment
Tweet
Comment