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Floyd i like the way he fights. Maybe boring to some..for me its not...Its highly technical and shows versatility in different situations.He is for me a great fighter.And he gets the job done.
John Ruiz wins but he wins in a snooze fest.
For me its not how you win, the questions is did the fans get their money's worth and was satisfied by your performance? You are a pro and you are being paid to please people.Well the thing is satisfaction for people come in different packages.What maybe satisfying for you may not be satisfying for me and vice versa..
Thats why i think Joe's antics (which is annoying to some including me, but pleasing to other's) coupled with him being a brit is the reason for all this negative writeups. It's not his flaws or style as a boxer.Comment
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Let me tell you about my personal experience with watching Joe.
I had heard and seen highlights of what he did to Lacey.. Never seen him fight before.
Not until later did I watch that fight. But the first time I ever got a chance to watch Joe was against Sakio Bika on HBO BAD. The first thing I could remember thinking was
it's a good fight but man this guy is sloppy!
The next fight came about and I thought maybe he was gonna fight somebody good.. he chose Peter Manfredo Jr. I was like not a good opponent but OK cool.. let's see what he does to the guy! And not only was the fight sloppy but it was horrible because of the stoppage.. not to mention the way Calzaghe was punching and hitting nothing but gloves.
Mikkel Kessler was a good opponent, he made up for the Manfredo fight. I give Joe props for schooling him but by this time the slapping sloppy style had got old.
I want to see action in a fight but skilled action.. To me Calzaghe doesn't provide that.
You add the fact that the two fights after that he has fought two old fighters and I can say I'm not a fan.
I don't hate or dislike Calzaghe.. I'm just simply not a fan.
He just simply got off on the wrong foot with Americans and stayed there. It's not some crazy conspiracy vs the Brits.
There are many Americans on this boxing board that like Lennox Lewis.
I haven't had much interest in the heavyweight division since he left.Comment
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well hes welsh so even ome brits are quick to criticize him. alot of my mates turn around and say "he has crappy style" or "he should have gone to the US earlier" but then quickly add hes a pretty good champ.
i can see why alot of US fans might not like him, his style, him not wanting to come over to the US earlier but mainly because he isn't a colourful person like hatton, haye, maywetaher or even b-hop. hes just an ordinary guy with an extraordinary talent.Comment
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Yes, I said this after the RJJ fight and I'm a huge Calzaghe fan.
He acted like a petulant child in the RJJ fight, he was clearly dominating him and continued with all that clowning and taunting bull****, people would have had much more respect for him if he fought the same way he did against Lacy or Kessler.Comment
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I'm British, but i don't like him as a boxer.
unlike some idiots on this board, i dont look at race, but skills.
Calzaghe could have got respect like any boxer does. Go around to fight the best.
Calzaghe had his chance to fight Prime RJJ, Prime Hopkins, He could have fought guys like Tarver, Winky etc.
Instead, the best bouts he has had are Kessler and Lacy. Two boxers who, even in the boxing world, are not considered anything special.
The fact is, Calzaghe would have got respect anyway, but the fact that he is talented, yet dodged big fights against is pathetic.
His acting like an idiot to RJJ did him no favours. He was already getting critisized for fighting a 40 year old RJJ, that was incredibly passed it, that was 3-3 in his last 6 fights. If that was a prime RJJ, then fair enough, but not against old men.Comment
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I could live with that bro..Its your opinion..
As for his sloppyness, Im thinking of the parallelism of Roy's career with Joe...
Some called his style sloppy, no technique just pure TALENT...
He also toyed and mocked with many of his lesser skilled opponents.
He also had so called "patsies" in his resume.
But I like Roy. One of my all time favorites and probabaly ATG in the future...
Why? Because he is exciting....
I also find Joe's style sloppy....
But as for me he is also exciting....
To some maybe he is not but to some he is....
And I'm a fan....
I just dont understand all these threads and post saying he is not a great or even good fighter...
and most of them are coming from biased ROY's fans or B HOP or without sounding racist pardon me, US fans...
Its just not right...
I started this thread to give credit to where credit is due...to Joe..
All these post calling him a B+ fighter and Calslappy is not giving him the proper respect he should be accorded....
Maybe as i said it is because of his own fault. (rather unintentionally) Coupled with slight racism towards a rival countries' fighters is making all these fuss.
I respect posters like you who based themselves being a fan of a fighter because of the fighter's style or achievements not because of his origins or race or his shortcomings as a fighter.I just posted in another thread that I wish manny Pac should fight younger fresh guys in their prime (and I'm a big fan of his.)
Bottomline is RESPECT...Last edited by burglar; 01-04-2009, 08:33 AM.Comment
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I think that's quite a common story of why a lot of people aren't fans. There's particularly a lot of dislike, or at least some of the least respect for, Calzaghe in the states. Reasons for this include some of the things you mentioned and that others did. These include the real competitiveness love hate relationship between the US and the UK generally. A lot of Brit's take pride in their country and see it as a slight insult the notion a fighter must go to the US, further still a lot, to be big in boxing.
I personally think it's a mix, but a lot of Americans do criticise Calzaghe for not going to the states earlier and more. Hatton and Lennox are respected far more for instance, and they fought their a lot more, and were brutal in doing so in the ring, so it's undeniable and entertaining.
Calzaghe's not so there is an assumption, well then he can't be that good. Suddenly he is, and people don't accept that so easily. But he has been one of the top guys at SMW for a long time, so what happened to the common saying of go to the champion. Well a lot did, more than any nationality Americans, all of them lost. That's a good way to begin being disliked for starters, beating guys whom a lot of people are supporting, at least somewhat.
This connects into his exposure at least on big networks like HBO, and when such showings did increase it was as you experienced, unfortunately for some of Calzaghe's less big or impressive fights. If you watched some earlier fights say Mitchell or Veit you'd see he slapped less and hit harder. A lot of his issues are due to severely fragile hands that break a lot. So he doesn't KO anymore really, which actually is more impressive when you consider he's still gone unbeaten without that weapon he once had and used a lot.
Lacy was an absolute master class and I'd be curious as to whether you found this performance impressive or enjoyable, because if you don't that to me is odd. This was one of the biggest schoolings of the decade, for a significant underdog most saw Lacy winning. Kessler was also a master class and Kessler is widely regarded as the best SMW out there now, even over Taylor which speaks volumes. These two guys were also hurt by Calzaghe, which takes some amount of power, and skill. Sorry, it just has to. You don't manage to hit boxers that much in a fight, win so many rounds, not get hit much, and hurt the guys by not being skill full or impressive.
As for Hopkins, well Calzaghe wanted to fight but had to settle for chasing and just scoring. That win was written off, but then proven Hopkins was not shot suddenly not so. This also speaks volumes, it shows an un willingness to give credit. Roy Jones was past it, but not as much as made out, he also was dominated and hurt. These are all impressive things. Yet in a sentence or two mostly of ignorance and inbred dislike for a guy, you can undermine any boxers career.
In short, yes Calzaghe is disliked but quite a few because he's British, further still Welsh, didn't travel to the US earlier, didn't chase the legends as much as some make out folk should, does slap at times, doesn't KO much which simply put a lot do want for entertainment. He's seemingly fairly arrogant, show boats, has beaten lots of guys people were somewhat supporting, and hasn't humbled himself to some folk for some of these reasons plus a common way of doing so, by losing.Last edited by Kris Silver; 01-04-2009, 08:38 AM.Comment
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