Joe Calzaghe. Controversial

[MANGLER]

****** article. I don't like him, but he ain't the wrost champ ever.

[bsrizpac]

****** article. I don't like him, but he ain't the wrost champ ever.

Co-sign. He's a douche but this is hyperbole and hate to the fullest.

[roundingace]

Who cares, he's retired. Alot may dislike him, including myself, but you can't deny he had longevity in the pain business and could of easily had an "off" night against his volume of lesser opponents to tarnish his "0". I give him the respect he deserves, but alot if the praise and credit he indeed does receive, he doesn't deserve because of his suspect heart in not challenging the very elite when he had an equal shot too. Aside from that, I give him his due.

[Spiegelo]

Hilarious article. I disagree though, you could maybe argue he's the most overrated, but I'd disagree with that too. He could probably comeback from retirement and destroy anyone from 168-175 with ease, except for maybe Dawson and BHop. I'm glad Johnson and Pav didn't get to fight him, they would have been embarrassed.

[Bobby Shaw]

taken from another site. This is, i guess you'd say, a marmite article.

Thoughts?

Is Calzaghe the Worse Champion Ever?

By Scott Gilfoid:

This is kind of a subjective question, because for some boxing fans Calzaghe’s combination of his glittery unbeaten record and his 10 years of holding the World Boxing Organization super middleweight title is proof that Calzaghe was a good champion. I disagree completely with those people, and look more at the lack of quality fighters on Calzaghe’s record to make my conclusions about his time as a world champion.


There are obviously fighters who have held onto their titles for a much shorter time than Calzaghe, but I’m not referring to time having held a title in judging Calzaghe’s merits as a champion. After all, chances are Calzaghe might have only held onto his WBO super middleweight title for only one fight if he had stepped it up and fought a prime Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Roy Jones Jr., or Bernard Hopkins.

I would be hard-pressed to believe that Calzaghe would have even been competitive with the likes of those fighters, but of course we’ll never know because he never ventured over the pond to fight them.

Instead of taking those fights and having to prove his self against the true best of the world, Calzaghe chose to fight opponents like Mario Veit, Kabary Salem, Evans Ashira, Mger Mrtchyar, Tocker Pudwill, Omar Sheika, Rick Thornberry, Juan Carlos Gimenez, and Luciano Torres.

Believe me, this is just a partial list of the fighters that Calzaghe chose to fight during a 10 year period. I haven’t even heard of most of those fighters and I’m astounded that Calzaghe chose to fight them. With talented fighters like Jones and Hopkins just across the sea, it would seem logical that Calzaghe would have raised a fuss and gone after both of them.

He didn’t, at least not until both were near or over 40-years of age. By then, the once blazing speed and incredible boxing skills had slowed down and eroded for both fighters. Hopkins aged much better than Jones Jr., but few people who believe that Hopkins as 43, the age in which Calzaghe fought him, was the same fighter he was when he was in his early 30s or late 20s.

As Calzaghe approached the end of his career, he finally stepped it up and fought several good fighters in Mikkel Kessler and Jeff Lacy, both decent opponents but not comparable to the fighter that Calzaghe should have been fighting earlier in his career.

In the final two years as a WBO super middleweight champion, Calzaghe had the opportunity to fight Carl Froch, easily the best super middleweight – besides Calzaghe – in the entire UK. But, instead of fighting Froch, which seems like the most obvious fight out there, Calzaghe chooses to fight Peter Manfredo Jr., a good 2nd tier super middleweight.

So even though Calzaghe held the WBO super middleweight title for 10 years or so, he fought precious few fighters I would consider talented and worthy of a title fight. That pretty much puts him in the class of being the worst champion ever as far as I’m concerned.

Calzaghe had his chance to be big, someone important, a fighter that could have achieved greatness by fighting Jones, Chad Dawson, Kelly Pavlik, Hopkins, Jackson and McClellan, but instead we saw Pudwill, Veit, Salem and many others like them. For me, that puts Calzaghe as the worst champion ever.

Why didn’t Calzaghe fight Dawson and those other talented fighters? Good question, but only he knows why not.

Calzaghe is a nobody.Only imbeciles hold him as a great.How cananyone ever explain why he fought Manfredo when there were better opponents out there?Him and Warren are two big a s s h o l e s who cheated people.

[Pullcounter]

i think calz is a pretty good boxer, but he's no where near as good as some calz stans think he is.... the *****y resume says it all

[ButlerBoxing]

taken from another site. This is, i guess you'd say, a marmite article.

Thoughts?

Is Calzaghe the Worse Champion Ever?

By Scott Gilfoid:

This is kind of a subjective question, because for some boxing fans Calzaghe’s combination of his glittery unbeaten record and his 10 years of holding the World Boxing Organization super middleweight title is proof that Calzaghe was a good champion. I disagree completely with those people, and look more at the lack of quality fighters on Calzaghe’s record to make my conclusions about his time as a world champion.


There are obviously fighters who have held onto their titles for a much shorter time than Calzaghe, but I’m not referring to time having held a title in judging Calzaghe’s merits as a champion. After all, chances are Calzaghe might have only held onto his WBO super middleweight title for only one fight if he had stepped it up and fought a prime Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Roy Jones Jr., or Bernard Hopkins.

I would be hard-pressed to believe that Calzaghe would have even been competitive with the likes of those fighters, but of course we’ll never know because he never ventured over the pond to fight them.

Instead of taking those fights and having to prove his self against the true best of the world, Calzaghe chose to fight opponents like Mario Veit, Kabary Salem, Evans Ashira, Mger Mrtchyar, Tocker Pudwill, Omar Sheika, Rick Thornberry, Juan Carlos Gimenez, and Luciano Torres.

Believe me, this is just a partial list of the fighters that Calzaghe chose to fight during a 10 year period. I haven’t even heard of most of those fighters and I’m astounded that Calzaghe chose to fight them. With talented fighters like Jones and Hopkins just across the sea, it would seem logical that Calzaghe would have raised a fuss and gone after both of them.

He didn’t, at least not until both were near or over 40-years of age. By then, the once blazing speed and incredible boxing skills had slowed down and eroded for both fighters. Hopkins aged much better than Jones Jr., but few people who believe that Hopkins as 43, the age in which Calzaghe fought him, was the same fighter he was when he was in his early 30s or late 20s.

As Calzaghe approached the end of his career, he finally stepped it up and fought several good fighters in Mikkel Kessler and Jeff Lacy, both decent opponents but not comparable to the fighter that Calzaghe should have been fighting earlier in his career.

In the final two years as a WBO super middleweight champion, Calzaghe had the opportunity to fight Carl Froch, easily the best super middleweight – besides Calzaghe – in the entire UK. But, instead of fighting Froch, which seems like the most obvious fight out there, Calzaghe chooses to fight Peter Manfredo Jr., a good 2nd tier super middleweight.

So even though Calzaghe held the WBO super middleweight title for 10 years or so, he fought precious few fighters I would consider talented and worthy of a title fight. That pretty much puts him in the class of being the worst champion ever as far as I’m concerned.

Calzaghe had his chance to be big, someone important, a fighter that could have achieved greatness by fighting Jones, Chad Dawson, Kelly Pavlik, Hopkins, Jackson and McClellan, but instead we saw Pudwill, Veit, Salem and many others like them. For me, that puts Calzaghe as the worst champion ever.

Why didn’t Calzaghe fight Dawson and those other talented fighters? Good question, but only he knows why not.

if calzaghe had fought froch and beaten him (which he would) he would be getting abuse for taking on someone with relatively little experience and little markability. He cant win

[Technical_Skill]

i think calz is a pretty good boxer, but he's no where near as good as some calz stans think he is.... the *****y resume says it all

That's it in a nutshell to anyone with a +90 IQ.

[theghost#1]

Not worth the read

[mines a pasty]

the article is from boxing news 24 dot com (sorry, but it seems not to like it if i post the link). anyway, the guy who wrote SERIOUSLY dislikes British fighters, but he saves most of his Venom for Calzaghe and Hatton. You should check the archives and read some of his articles, him and another fella Chris Williams - man these two guys have some big, BIG hate for the UK.

It's a **** of a boxing site, and they really wind me up with what they say (im telling you, they HATE Calzaghe and Hatton) but i always read it haha

silly ****s have no idea.