Why do some people hate Joe Calzaghe?

[Kris Silver]

It was a question i didn't know the answer to actually, so i asked the question.

As for Hatton, he went up a weight class, won a world title and lost to a P4P great and made a fortune. Him going to 147 wasn't a disaster that people made out! He's just better at 140.

My bad, yer Joe is pretty good at LHW but I don't think he'd have been as good there back then. In-fact I think he'd have been less effective at moving up a weight than Hatton, so he might do ok but eventually come undone and harm his career even more.

That's even if you paint a clear road for a big fight, which Calzaghe did not have. A guy comes into his division, leaves, and he has to chase after him fighting lesser opponents for a hope at a chance? Not surprising someone wouldn't be so reckless and it wasn't like that for Hatton.

I think we only have to look at the amount of fights that haven't come off this year to get an idea of how many complications there are, look at Pavlik and ODL.

[FUC_U_PAYME]

I think some of the reasons are

* Boxing fans are used to someone building up a reputation slowly. A guy is a prospect, then a champ, then establishes himself with defences, then maybe unification, and around this time people are talking about him being on the P4P list. A good example of this is Dawson, who, having just beaten the next best champion in his division, is borderline top 10 in most people's eyes.

With Calzaghe it's a bit different. To a lot of people, he seemed to suddenly skip to being a P4P guy overnight. Ok, he beat Lacy and Kessler, but are those guys as well known as Tarver? No. So that leaves the casual fans a bit puzzled by how highly Calzaghe is regarded.

Are Lacy and Kessler better than the Tarver of 2008? Many would say no, which explains the skeptics among the hardcore fans.

Another thing is that the fight where he was supposed to answer all the questions about him (vs Hopkins) didn't answer that many questions, because it was an unimpressive performance and a disputed decision.


*Fighting style. It isn't pretty and it isn't impressive to the casual fans, or to many hardcore fans either.

Calzaghe fought Manfredo because he was the most well know B/C level fighter in the division. The plan is that you look spectacular because the guy is nowhere near as good as you, but the casual fans don't dismiss it out of hand because the guy has a minor claim to fame from The Contender. Pretty much like Cotto vs Gomez. The difference is that Cotto destroyed Gomez and looked fantastic, whereas Calzaghe...well, you know...it wasn't that good, was it?


*The fans on here who only post to defend Calzaghe or UK fighters. It annoys people. A lot of posters who aren't that interested in Calzaghe are tired of going to NSB and seeing the same stuff every day. Some pro-Calzaghe threads, some anti-Calzaghe threads, but most of them descending into silly arguments that people find annoying.


*The feeling that Calzaghe was content to just be a WBO belt holder for the prime of his career. Look at Wright-Mosley I. Mosley was offered $12M to fight someone he had already beaten twice. He instead took $3-4M to fight Winky. For his part, Wright accepted a much smaller paycheck ($800,000) in order to make the fight. Why? Because that's what you have to do sometimes in order to achieve as much as possible.

Whatever people say, Calzaghe could've fought someone like Virgil Hill in America. He might have taken a short-term pay cut, but if he had won, it would've paid off, just like it did for Winky Wright.

Winky is a boxer who fought in The US, Africa, South America, France, Luxembourg and the UK. That's what you do when you're desperate to prove that you're the best. Calzaghe did not do that.

great post. IMo I certainly do not hate Joe but I must admit several of his fans annoy me like Clegg said

[Sir Tom Jones]

People on the boxingscene forum hate Joe Calzaghe simply because he has a ten inch member.

[Toller]

I'm from the UK and have followed his career since watching him beat Eubank. I'm not personally a fan as I don't like his uncharismatic arrogance and the bs both he & his father spew out; that and the fact he has been matched poorly so many times. Also, the fact that he can't put the same power into his punches any more is frustrating to watch.

[BigShow7981]

Counter, you're being pretty hypocritical here.

You criticise Americans for hyping one of their own against a foreign fighters, and then calling him a bum after he lost.

But you were one of those who gave Hatton a good chance against beating Mayweather. Then after he lost you made a thread called 'Ricky Hatton is a bum'.

And Hatton has a much better record than Lacy at the moment.

The thing about Lacy is that, on reflection, he wasn't that good. Fair enough, a lot of people didn't see that at the time, but now that they do, you can't blame them for pointing it out.

People's opinions change all the time. Ultimately we'll know how much credit the win over Lacy deserves after Lacy fights J Taylor.

Some excellent posts in here! esp by Tunney, Clegg, Krissilver and Counterpunch all with varied arguments.....i read through all the posts first before coming back to this one...i think Clegg makes an excellent point when he says we will know more after Lacy vs Taylor......to be up front im from the UK and im a Calzaghe fan and i have to say i have asked in about 3 or 4 different posts who has Joe ducked??? you could make the argument that he should have gone to the states sooner but why when he is selling out big fights in the UK... why bother.??......im struggling to remember how many times Mayweather, RJJ and Hopkins have fought outside the US???!! the reason they dont fight outside the US is because they dont have to they are in the main boxing country, they will make more money there and the best fighters will come to them....so that brings me back to Joe.....i dont think people will appreciate how good Joe is until after Lacy vs Taylor (i saw lacy last couple of fights and i thought he was really poor) and after how far Kessler goes in his career i personally didnt see his recent fight but from what i have read he was impressive.......as for B-Hop well he exposed the only fighter who the haters were talking about Joe ducking and that was Kelly Pavlik.....so where does that leave Joe??? certainly in the all time list he falls in the top 25 i like him as a person and a fighter and i certainly dont think he gets the credit for what he has achieved in his career he has beat some good fighters and admittedly he has beat some very poor fighters but that as we should all appreciate is the name of the game! sometimes we do not get the fights we want because of all of the boxing politics!

[The Hammer]

Joe Calzaghe has been receiving a lot of undeserved hate this week in NSB.

[Dan...]

Joe Calzaghe has been receiving a lot of undeserved hate this week in NSB.

No different to any other week I don't think. It is to be expected that there will be more Joe and Roy related threads anyway given that they are fighting this weekend.

[Boxingwizard]

I don't hate him, it's just puzzling that someone who's been unnoticed for 13 years is now considered a hall of famer. I think he's legit and his wins over Eubank, Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins is legit, but you wish he was noticed earlier therefore we could seen more big fights from him.

I predict he will beat RJJ, but the two fighters I think who can beat Calzaghe are Dawson and Kessler. Joe's skills have been slipping and I think Kessler would fight more differently next time and Dawson would be too much for Cazlaghe at this point of his career.

[βetamax]

No different to any other week I don't think. It is to be expected that there will be more Joe and Roy related threads anyway given that they are fighting this weekend.

Yea, really. How many negative threads were there about both Cotto and Margarito during the week leading up to the fight? Hopkins and Pavlik? Almost anytime there is a big fight this happens.

[The Hammer]

The hatred for Joe continues today, with the usual posts from bsrizpac.


What motivates people like bsrizpac?