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After 3 years as a pro he goes after Steve Collins for the WBO belt but Collins ducks Calzaghe and retires instead, the WBO belt becomes vacated and Calzaghe then fights the great Eubank and wins in style.
After winning the belt unification fights with the likes of Ottke never happened because he was content in winning robberies in Germany so Calzaghe had to fight people who should have still been champions if it wasn't for being robbed by Ottke (Reid,Brewer,Mitchell etc).
Finally some Americans hyped up a fighter to become the next Mike Tyson and a lot of fighters ducked him but Calzaghe fought UNDEFEATED Jeff Lacy with a BROKEN WRIST and next to no sparring. After beating Lacy in the way he did Lacy was never the same again so Calzaghe again gets no credit for doing what he did, Calzaghe took his aura of invincibility away from him in the same way Douglas did to Tyson. FINALLY HBO start backing Calzaghe and the 2 fights next were Sakio Bika and Peter Manfredo, both intended to build his name a little in the states as Manfredo was quite famous from his Contender past. Next up was UNDEFEATED Mikkel Kessler 39-0, Calzaghe offered to fight Kessler in DENMARK but due to financial reasons it took place in his own back yard with 50,000 people there all expecting him to win. After this he moved up 7 LBS and fought in the USA for the first time against a man with excuses already made for him should he lose, losing to an "old" man is pressure in itself. Calzaghe beat Hopkins and finally CHOSE to fight in the USA in his final fight against Roy Jones Jr.
Obviously many fighters have took more risks than Joe, I'm not trying to make it sound like he fought everyone under the sun but he did same SOME risks although people will say he didn't. The shame is when HBO started backing him we saw 3 of his biggest fights in his career (Kessler,Hopkins,Jones) all after eachother. If HBO backed him earlier we would have seen even bigger fights from him (Possibly Prime Jones and Prime Hopkins), you can't blame Calzaghe for HBO not backing him and you are seeing this currently with HBO refusing to have Taylor vs Froch the most reasonable fight currently.
After winning the belt unification fights with the likes of Ottke never happened because he was content in winning robberies in Germany so Calzaghe had to fight people who should have still been champions if it wasn't for being robbed by Ottke (Reid,Brewer,Mitchell etc).
Finally some Americans hyped up a fighter to become the next Mike Tyson and a lot of fighters ducked him but Calzaghe fought UNDEFEATED Jeff Lacy with a BROKEN WRIST and next to no sparring. After beating Lacy in the way he did Lacy was never the same again so Calzaghe again gets no credit for doing what he did, Calzaghe took his aura of invincibility away from him in the same way Douglas did to Tyson. FINALLY HBO start backing Calzaghe and the 2 fights next were Sakio Bika and Peter Manfredo, both intended to build his name a little in the states as Manfredo was quite famous from his Contender past. Next up was UNDEFEATED Mikkel Kessler 39-0, Calzaghe offered to fight Kessler in DENMARK but due to financial reasons it took place in his own back yard with 50,000 people there all expecting him to win. After this he moved up 7 LBS and fought in the USA for the first time against a man with excuses already made for him should he lose, losing to an "old" man is pressure in itself. Calzaghe beat Hopkins and finally CHOSE to fight in the USA in his final fight against Roy Jones Jr.
Obviously many fighters have took more risks than Joe, I'm not trying to make it sound like he fought everyone under the sun but he did same SOME risks although people will say he didn't. The shame is when HBO started backing him we saw 3 of his biggest fights in his career (Kessler,Hopkins,Jones) all after eachother. If HBO backed him earlier we would have seen even bigger fights from him (Possibly Prime Jones and Prime Hopkins), you can't blame Calzaghe for HBO not backing him and you are seeing this currently with HBO refusing to have Taylor vs Froch the most reasonable fight currently.
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