What will Calzaghe's legacy be?

[Kobe Bryant]

If he's done after this fight. If he beats Jones, has he done enough to be considered great? Would you be upset (fans) if he walks away from the sport?

[THE REED]

great? no..... very good? yes.... thats if he wins...

if he loses... he wont retire... period.

[Pullcounter]

If he's done after this fight. If he beats Jones, has he done enough to be considered great? Would you be upset (fans) if he walks away from the sport?

1) undefeated against subpar competition (2 date, hopkins is his best "win" cough-cough)
2) record super middleweight defenses against eurobums
3) beating up past their prime legendary boxers

not ATG, but impressive enough by today's boxing standards.

[Truth]

Honestly I've called him great in past threads, but i'm starting to think more like very good. I think great was going too far. Hes had an impressive, memorable career.

[hookoutofhell]

If he's done after this fight. If he beats Jones, has he done enough to be considered great? Would you be upset (fans) if he walks away from the sport?

best SMW ever - when you consider his longitivity and the fact that he unified his division, unifed the belts and beat some good opposition along the way (robin reid, omar sheika, brewer, mitchell) to making a record number of defenses.

also beat some very big names eubank (yes he was old but he was hungry, and motivated so still dangerous), kessler (true potential yet to be discovered but alot of ppl including myself see him as the future LHW and SMW champ despite the competition), lacey (no hes not doing as well as he was but joe was the one who burst that bubble and the lacye he fought as hungry and eager, not the plodding version see these days) and of course hopkins (a fighter who is still dangerous ashe showed with his sytematic dismantling of kelly).

hopefully we'll be adding RJJ to that list.

ultimately though he should be remembered as a HOF - is he an ATG? well as a zaghe fan its hard to say this bit no he isn't. i say that with a tinge of regret as i know that prime JC had it in him to beat johnson and tarver, in fact if we had seen a prime JC take on the big names around his division im pretty confident we would see him as an ATG.

but he didn't and thats down to a number of factors - frank warren, hand injuries, adopting a new style from KO artist to volume puncher, hes welsh so it took a long time for alot of englishmen to warm to him, the fact that hes welsh he doesn't have as a big a draw as hatton/bruno etc despie the fact that hes obviously better than both, he would fall into the high risk and low reward catgeory as well.

i dont think that anyone can argue tht he deserves to be mentioned in the sme breath as other top fighters from his era like hopkins, RJJ, toney, tarver etc.
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Ford tourneo connect picture

[larryx]

at the end of the day i beat lacy,kessler,and hopkins

[Truth]

I think calz is definitley a fighter to remember and a Hall of famer. But great? not so sure on that yet...

[Clegg]

I think terms like 'great' and 'ATG' are used too much. People have different opinions on what exactly they mean. For example Meldrick Taylor was, IMO, a great fighter. He was exceptionally talented and would give anyone a tough fight. But did he achieve greatness? I don't think so.

How many ATGs are there? Most people would have to think about it for a while.

I prefer to talk about whether or not someone is top 10, or top 50, or top 200, or whatever. At least then, everyone knows exactly what you mean.

Personally, I think it's hard to compare people from different eras, but against his modern contempories I would rank Calzaghe like this based upon achievements:

Jones
Hopkins
Toney
Calzaghe
Tarver
Johnson
Taylor
Pavlik

I would not rate him as one of the top 100 boxers of all time based upon achievements, but I would put him inside the top 200. I'm not sure where I would rate him based upon who would beat who throught history, because he did not face enough tough opponents when he was in his prime, so we don't really know how good he was. He probably would not be in the top 100 of that list though, based upon what we do know.

I think that he would lose to Jones and Hopkins prime for prime, and would lose to the best version of James Toney (ie. not weightdrained). I think he would beat Tarver, but I'm not certain of it because Calzaghe has never fought even a B level southpaw, let alone someone like Tarver, who would also be the biggest fighter he had ever fought.

[hookoutofhell]

I think terms like 'great' and 'ATG' are used too much. People have different opinions on what exactly they mean. For example Meldrick Taylor was, IMO, a great fighter. He was exceptionally talented and would give anyone a tough fight. But did he achieve greatness? I don't think so.

How many ATGs are there? Most people would have to think about it for a while.

I prefer to talk about whether or not someone is top 10, or top 50, or top 200, or whatever. At least then, everyone knows exactly what you mean.

Personally, I think it's hard to compare people from different eras, but against his modern contempories I would rank Calzaghe like this based upon achievements:

Jones
Hopkins
Toney
Calzaghe
Tarver
Johnson
Taylor
Pavlik

I would not rate him as one of the top 100 boxers of all time based upon achievements, but I would put him inside the top 200. I'm not sure where I would rate him based upon who would beat who throught history, because he did not face enough tough opponents when he was in his prime, so we don't really know how good he was. He probably would not be in the top 100 of that list though, based upon what we do know.

I think that he would lose to Jones and Hopkins prime for prime, and would lose to the best version of James Toney (ie. not weightdrained). I think he would beat Tarver, but I'm not certain of it because Calzaghe has never fought even a B level southpaw, let alone someone like Tarver, who would also be the biggest fighter he had ever fought.

personally id have it as RJJ, calzaghe, toney and hopkins

if toney didn't test positive for the drugs then imo he would have had to go ahead of calzaghe.

i really font think you can put hopkins ahead of joe, i mean for gods sake he beat up on smaller fighters to secure a legacy - winky, tito, DLH. whenever he came across a real fighter who belonged in the same weight class as himself and someone who was also a top 20 p4p hopkins lost to him (with 2 exceptions). RJJ, taylor x2, zaghe.

but thats my own opinion.
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Simca Aronde

[Clegg]

personally id have it as RJJ, calzaghe, toney and hopkins

if toney didn't test positive for the drugs then imo he would have had to go ahead of calzaghe.

i really font think you can put hopkins ahead of joe, i mean for gods sake he beat up on smaller fighters to secure a legacy - winky, tito, DLH. whenever he came across a real fighter who belonged in the same weight class as himself and someone who was also a top 20 p4p hopkins lost to him (with 2 exceptions). RJJ, taylor x2, zaghe.

but thats my own opinion.

Hopkins has a similar record at MW to Calzaghe's at SMW, however I think he has the advantage because he unified (vs Holmes) in less time than Calzaghe did, and became undisputed in less time than Calzaghe did.

If Kessler goes on to have a great career then obviously that makes it a great win for Calzaghe, but at the moment the Trinidad win is worth more than the Kessler win IMO.

I also think that Hopkins has a better record than Calzaghe at LHW. Beating Tarver and Pavlik so clearly is worth more than beating Hopkins in a controversial manner. The Wright fight is not as valuable because Winky wasn't suited to 170, but it's still a good win.