"Calzaghe is past his prime so he doesnt punch as hard" STFU

[hishaam15]

Diego has me on ignore so he won't read this, but his "Calzaghe is the best he ever was right now" is just propaganda, designed to maximise the return he wants to get in the unlikely event of a Calaghe loss.

Anyone can tell you that Calzaghe no longer has the speed, power or reflexes he had in his youth. I think few people have seen much of Calzaghe in his younger days and don't realise how fast his hands actually were. I'd say we've seen this in decline since Kessler and maybe Lacy. Against Hopkins it looked a pale imitation of what it had been, and for the first time his footspeed and reflexes looked to be markedly worse.

Calzaghe has improved as a boxer compared with his early career, but this has been a gradual process. I don't think there is a huge amount of difference in skill between what Calzaghe was capable of doing in the ring between from about 2001 and now. When did the magical 'improvement' take place? Immediately upon facing Lacy?

Finally we come to his hands, they are ****ed, and so is his power. He simply does not punch hard anything like as often as he used too. He also has les power anyway, he has clearly shed muscle since his younger days to make the SMW limit as he aged and to concentrate on his workrate and speed.

So the reality is that today's Calzaghe has slower hands, slower legs, slower reflexes and vastly decreased power compared to his prime years, which I place between 2001 and 2006. He is probably a better boxer than he was in the early part of that period, but not much different than the one in the latter. I would pick the Calzaghe that beat Lacy two years ago to beat today Joe for sure, I'd probably pick the Kessler one too. Based on how he looked against Hopkins I think he's pretty close to the end of the road.

He will however, defeat Roy Jones, and Pavlik too if he fights him. I promise.

Jones has diminished aswel. but has enough left to beat calzaghe

[KJB]

hopkins didnt start to slow down until his last fight. Even against winky wright he looked as good as ever...and he dominated Tarver before that.

Your right that Hopkins did a good job against Winky Wright, and he did absolutely dominate Tarver.
Hopkins, however, started to slow down, and has continued to slow down since the first fight with Jermaine Taylor. He didnt look as good in the first fight with Taylor as the second fight. Didnt look as sharp against Winky as he did against Tarver. Didnt look as sharp as he did against Winky against Calzaghe.
Any athlete in a sport like boxing is going to continue to slow down between the ages of 40-43.

[KJB]

And to those who say Calzaghe is past his prime, he is kinda like Hopkins in the sense that his physical prime, and the prime of his career were at different points.
Both men improved their game with age, so that in there mid thirties, while some of their physical tools started to go, they had the mental and strategic edge to be better than they were when they were younger.