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Rather than hop from thread to thread and post identical posts in each one, I figured I'd just make my own little thread about my thoughts on tonight's fight between Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr.
If you wish to comment, be my guest.
Joe Calzaghe
Tonight Joe Calzaghe earned somewhat of a degree of my respect. It's no secret to those who know me here that I hate the guy. Not because of where he's from, or that he got a SD over my favorite fighter, or any of that. But because of his style.
Here you have a guy that does everything backwards. On paper it should spell disaster but in reality it works for him. He's certainly one of the more unique guys I've seen in my lifetime. Still, I find it hard to watch him fight most times because of the way he fights.
His fighting stance reminds me of a jaded Amateur, his legs are always at a wide base, which helps facilitate a knockdown when he's caught off guard as seen tonight against Jones and in April against Hopkins. He throws slaps rather than punches, something that makes my stomach turn over in it's lining. And he drops his hands constantly just to showboat and do a little dance.
I never liked Floyd Mayweather for the same kind of ****y fighting style, that same type of style always turned me off to a prime Roy Jones Jr, and the same is true with Calzaghe.
The two best things about Joe I can honestly say I respect are his world class chin, and his insanely high stamina rate. In a perfect world I'd like to set Joe up against Antonio Margarito is a high intensity workout discipline to see which guy would gas out first.
But tonight Joe earned an ounce of my respect (which puts him at 1 ounce if you're counting), by fighting Roy the way Roy would've fought Roy when he had him hurt. As the ****face Max Kellerman pointed out, Joe out-Jones'd Jones, even if it was a far cry from the Roy Jones of yesteryear, it deserves some recognition.
Roy Jones
I gotta say I was never really a big fan of Roy, even in his prime. I've always been a Hopkins diehard, and throughout much of their careers they were sworn enemies. It was East Coast/West Coast, with boxers. I would watch Roy in his prime and be highly entertained but I just couldn't force myself to like the guy, I didn't hate him either, I was just indifferent to him.
I really only started to genuinely like Roy after Tarver knocked him the hell out and most of his dip**** nuthuggers abandoned him.
Tonight Roy Jones showed me something as well, the heart of a lion. Aside from the first round, Roy got beat up tonight, badly at that. Hopkins vs. Calzaghe was certainly a much closer, more debatable fight. But even with his eye swollen shut and a vicious gash bleeding profusely between and during rounds Roy never gave in.
Towards the end of the fight I actually found myself feeling bad for Roy. It's hard to watching a legend age in this sport and it's even harder to take when you see one clearly years beyond his prime beaten up the way Roy was tonight. For the last half of the fight Roy seemed content to let Joe drive him to the ropes and desperately try to cover up from punches to the head.
Roy's got nothing left to prove, I hope he retires and calls it a day before something bad happens to him. He's too nice of a guy and too well respected a man to risk his health for the sake of one final victory.
Conclusion
So that's it in a nutshell. Joe earns a nod of my head in acknowledgement of his performance tonight, though I still think Hopkins would take him in a rematch, and I think comparisons to Lennox Lewis are bending reality a little bit. Roy, thanks for the memories.
If you wish to comment, be my guest.
Joe Calzaghe
Tonight Joe Calzaghe earned somewhat of a degree of my respect. It's no secret to those who know me here that I hate the guy. Not because of where he's from, or that he got a SD over my favorite fighter, or any of that. But because of his style.
Here you have a guy that does everything backwards. On paper it should spell disaster but in reality it works for him. He's certainly one of the more unique guys I've seen in my lifetime. Still, I find it hard to watch him fight most times because of the way he fights.
His fighting stance reminds me of a jaded Amateur, his legs are always at a wide base, which helps facilitate a knockdown when he's caught off guard as seen tonight against Jones and in April against Hopkins. He throws slaps rather than punches, something that makes my stomach turn over in it's lining. And he drops his hands constantly just to showboat and do a little dance.
I never liked Floyd Mayweather for the same kind of ****y fighting style, that same type of style always turned me off to a prime Roy Jones Jr, and the same is true with Calzaghe.
The two best things about Joe I can honestly say I respect are his world class chin, and his insanely high stamina rate. In a perfect world I'd like to set Joe up against Antonio Margarito is a high intensity workout discipline to see which guy would gas out first.
But tonight Joe earned an ounce of my respect (which puts him at 1 ounce if you're counting), by fighting Roy the way Roy would've fought Roy when he had him hurt. As the ****face Max Kellerman pointed out, Joe out-Jones'd Jones, even if it was a far cry from the Roy Jones of yesteryear, it deserves some recognition.
Roy Jones
I gotta say I was never really a big fan of Roy, even in his prime. I've always been a Hopkins diehard, and throughout much of their careers they were sworn enemies. It was East Coast/West Coast, with boxers. I would watch Roy in his prime and be highly entertained but I just couldn't force myself to like the guy, I didn't hate him either, I was just indifferent to him.
I really only started to genuinely like Roy after Tarver knocked him the hell out and most of his dip**** nuthuggers abandoned him.
Tonight Roy Jones showed me something as well, the heart of a lion. Aside from the first round, Roy got beat up tonight, badly at that. Hopkins vs. Calzaghe was certainly a much closer, more debatable fight. But even with his eye swollen shut and a vicious gash bleeding profusely between and during rounds Roy never gave in.
Towards the end of the fight I actually found myself feeling bad for Roy. It's hard to watching a legend age in this sport and it's even harder to take when you see one clearly years beyond his prime beaten up the way Roy was tonight. For the last half of the fight Roy seemed content to let Joe drive him to the ropes and desperately try to cover up from punches to the head.
Roy's got nothing left to prove, I hope he retires and calls it a day before something bad happens to him. He's too nice of a guy and too well respected a man to risk his health for the sake of one final victory.
Conclusion
So that's it in a nutshell. Joe earns a nod of my head in acknowledgement of his performance tonight, though I still think Hopkins would take him in a rematch, and I think comparisons to Lennox Lewis are bending reality a little bit. Roy, thanks for the memories.
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