Joe Calzaghe Considering Final Career Bout in Cardiff

[TheSurgeonMDMPH]

he didnt beat hopkins

He did beat Hopkins! I hate ***azhe but he clearly beat Hopkins who lacked the conditioning to keep up with the slaps. ***azhe didnt land anything significant and Hopkins landed the harder more effective shots but he also held most of the fight. I c no need for a rematch! Dawson or bust! Pretty sure it will be bust!

[Haglerwins]

He didn't beat Hopkins. Hopkins beat Hopkins.

[boxasmash]

He didn't beat Hopkins. Hopkins beat Hopkins.

yeah ok, lets use that excuse. thats one that gets thrown around often, so how exactly did hopkins "beat himself" ? by not being able to keep up with calzaghe's workrate? doesn't that mean calzaghe beat him? pffft.... YOU people ...

[Southpaw16BF]

Would be a risk, but would be a great send off fight in front of his hometown fans. There are options out there also etc Hopkins 2, Dawson, Glen Johnson, Froch, Taylor. Would be happy with all these opponets really, but would be especailly like the Hopkins rematch or Froch/Dawson.

[Haglerwins]

@boxasmash

He was too defensive, it cost him the fight (along with his mouth). He stated this as exactly why he fought Pavlik offensive minded. That's a big reason why you saw two different fighters in those fights and not just because one was "boxing god Joe Calzaghe." And if you don't believe BHop would fight defensively to his detriment, watch him in there against Eastman and see him in defend mode for no reason at times. A bad habit cost BHop 3 fights that should be wins, and 2 out of the 3 clearly looked like he was jobbed imo.

[KostyaTszyu44]

it better be either dawson or b-hop

[Kesslerfan#1]

Froch in His "last" fight at millenium (before Froch gets KTFO by Taylor or whoever)....The winner of Kessler vs Dawson early 2010...Kelly Pavlik at 168 mid to late 2010...then match Marciano's record with someone in Vegas...TBA!!???...why not...even if he loses.
Maybe even Hopkins after he beats Froch should BHOP have a good win in the meantime.
Yes im dreaming...would be good though!!!!
But in all honesty my pick would Hopkins...if he gives his all it will be a good brawl panning out similar to the Kessler fight...really cant see Hopkins beating him in a good scrap though...hey maybe Joe fights Froch and Hopkins fights Dawson and if the favorites win (Calz/Hop) then they get it on??

[tommy boo boxer]

we know he wont rematch Bhop because he wont be able to showboat like he did with Rjj at the Millemium Stadium... Just retire please Joe, Your not going to the HOF, if there were a top 20 greatest fighters of the 21st century list in 50years time... you would be no.19... sorry... its a mild case of gone but just remembered because of your record for you Joe.


Just too many questions left unanswered in your short storied career in the U.S. (because if you hadnt smashed on Lacy and Manfredo jnr... we wouldn't know of you)

[Ravens Fan]

Joe deserves respect

I truly believe that if Joe was an American fighter everyone would be praising him on a great career. I believe that part of the problem is that most fight fans have a hard time believing that a British fighter could possibly accomplish what Joe has and therefore give him little credit. So, what has Joe accomplished?

In Joe's twenty one Super Middleweight title fights he beat seven former or current alphabet title holders. He also held all four of the major belts with unification fights against Lacy and Kessler. When he unified the title he did something that all boxing fans would like to see happen and yet he still gets little credit. I don't understand why? Joe than moves up in weight and beats, not a alphabet title holder, but the reigning Ring Magazine Light Heavy Champ and than beats another top ten Ring fighter in Jones and still gets little credit. It has also been stated that in his twenty one title defenses Joe fought his share of undeserving challengers and this should discredit his reign. This very well may be true but.........

Many fight fans state that Joe fought his share of stiffs and tomato cans in his twenty one title defenses and therefore deserves little credit. However, I challenge anyone to show me a long reigning world champ who has not fought his share of tomato cans and stiffs during his title reign. With that said I figured that at least one other long title reign from the not so distant past should be examined.

I am a little to young to remember Joe Louis during his long and great record setting career. And even though I am positive that the Brown Bomber fought his share of stiffs in his twenty five title fight reign I decided to focus on a reign that I am a little more familiar with.

Larry Holmes was the Heavyweight champ from 1978 to 1985 and comes in second place behind Louis with twenty successful title defenses. My question to you is how many stiffs do you believe were among Larry's twenty title challengers? The answer is plenty of them.

I clearly remember when Holmes defended the World Heavyweight title against the likes of Scott Franks, Scott Le Doux, Lorenzo Zanon and one Randall "Tex" Cobb, in other words a collections of what some may refer to as bums. If I remember correctly Cobb even commented after his fifteen round shellacking at the hands of Holmes that he really beat up Larry's hands with his face. Also, some of Larry's other opponents records should be scrutinized.

More than one third of Larry's challengers had less then twenty fights when they challenged for the belt. And just for clarification I will list them Trevor Berbick 18-1-1, James Smith 14-1 Ossie Ocasio 13-0, Leon Spinks 10-2-2, Tim Witherspoon 15-0, David Bey 14-0, Carl Williams 16-0. Sure you can pick out some future alphabet title holders out of this lot, and even a former champ in Spinks. However, when they challenged for Larry's title they were far from seasoned veterans and most likely did little else besides showing up to deserve a shot at the heavy weight title. One other thing and I promise to shut up.

Another aspect of long title reigns is the thought that the champ might have won one along the way that he really did not deserve. Back again to Larry Holmes for a moment. In May of 1985 Holmes won a unanimous decision against Carl "The Truth" Williams. The only problem is that the only truth that day was that Carl was robbed. Holmes stood in the ring with a very swollen and battered face and knew he was a beaten fighter yet he got the decision he did not deserve. So you may ask what does this have to do with Calzaghe? I have to say that I have not personally watched everyone of Joe's fights but I am sure somewhere in his career Joe got a close one he may not have deserved. However, in my humble opinion the Hopkins fight was not one of them. Enough said on that.

As far as comparing Joe's reign with Holmes. I would like to state that I simply wanted to compare Calzaghe long reign to another one and that this was in no way meant to be an indictment of Larry Holmes career, if anything I have come to appreciate his career more so now then when he was fighting. With that said.

Larry Holmes had a long and illustrious boxing career and fought his way through a mixture of fringe contenders and others that deserved to fight for the heavyweight belt. With that he earned his way into both the World and International Boxing hall of fame. And whether or not Joe ever decides to fight again I believe he will eventually be afforded the same respect that he so rightly deserves.

In closing I know that some of you may think that I may have a romantic interest in Calzaghe, see previous comments. However, the reality is that I am just an old boxing fan who has watched thousands of fights in my day and knows enough to understand great talent when I see it. With that said. I would like to apologize for being so long winded I just have a hard time expressing myself in the short term.

[nathan_nall]

He didn't beat Hopkins. Hopkins beat Hopkins.

I think Calzaghe was the better man that night, but the Hopkins beating Hopkins is what cost him the first Taylor fight.

Taylor didn't deserve to win so much as Hopkins deserved to lose. It was just a **** performance. When people ask if I really think Taylor won, I say "No, but I think Hopkins lost it"