The best fighter that never realized his own potential....

[fightfan_79]

Joe Calzaghe, one of my favourite fighters he had a great run unified SMW and was champ 10 years against some good almost great fighters, double weight world champ and beat an old but still great Hopkins and a faded Jones.

BUT he didn't come over to America in his physical prime when he had atleast some degree of power, he could have come over earlier faced guys like a Prime RJJ, Hopkins, Toney, Barkley, McCallum, Micahewski (can't spell it), Sturm, Johnson, Woods, Tarver, Hill. The Weight class in and around him were STACKED with the top two P4P fighters their too. Imagine if he had faced and beat them (not saying he would have) his resume would have been 100x greater.

Personally, I blame it to a large degree on Warren.

CO-SIGN....had Clazaghe came over to America and fought fighters in their prime....even if he would've lost...he would've gotten MUCH MORE RESPECT....I've said it before....."Losses" don't count as much if you come back and avenge them against the fighter, or if you at least stepped up and loss to the "better fighter". ALOT of fighters today need to be reminded of that.

[fightfan_79]

I'm going to come out and say Mike Tyson, even though he reached a really good level, I still think he fell short of ATG status. He lacked the mental capacity to deal with the fame, this wasn't helped by the people surrounding him.

Also Zab Judah. Blessed with natural ability and the physique for the game, but he is just not there. His head is not in the game. He lacks the warrior edge as far as I'm concerned.

I would put Tyson in ATG status for his "overall" career.....but its a shame that the last 4-5yrs of his career will overshadow his previous 15+ yrs.

[Dave Rado]

Terry Norris is what I thought too, he had some great offensive boxing skills and was outclassing Jackson until... well you know.

Herol Graham also outclassed Julian Jackson until he got careless and got starched. And he gave a prime Mike McCallum possibly his toughest ever fight, and only lost the fight due to points deducted for low blows. Before that fight he'd been a contender for ages but couldn't get a title shot, probably because the US TV networks didn't like his style. He was Hagler's mandatory for a long time.

He was never the same after the Jackson loss though.

[MANGLER]

Thread's been done to death. Tyson. As good as he was BITD, it was scary that he was so young and conceivably coulda improved even more. If he hadn't fallen off so bad wit jail/Givens/King/new trainer, he woulda been the ****in man.

[FeFist]

He was never the same after the Jackson loss though.

Punches like that scar you. No matter how well you're doing in a fight you'll always be wary of that big punch.

He only has himself to blame. He is a southpaw, the match was going to be stopped after that round, the guy is a notoriously hard hitter. The last thing you do is rush into them especially when they've been throwing big punches trying to connect.

He wanted to finish in a memorable way, well I guess he got his wish.

I would put Tyson in ATG status for his "overall" career.....but its a shame that the last 4-5yrs of his career will overshadow his previous 15+ yrs.

I think he should be a HOF but not an all time great. I personally don't think he did enough, and I think he fell short in what could have been career defining fights ( Hoyfield comes to mind).

[Dave Rado]

Thread's been done to death. Tyson. As good as he was BITD, it was scary that he was so young and conceivably coulda improved even more. If he hadn't fallen off so bad wit jail/Givens/King/new trainer, he woulda been the ****in man.

Tyson and Hamed both had incredibly short primes. Tyson's ended at the age of 22 when he split with Rooney. Hamed's ended at the age of 21 when he beat Steve Robinson. In both cases, they stopped training properly after that and fell in love with their power at the expense of their skills.

[fallenloki]

Is it too early to add James Kirkland?

[Landshark]

1.Judah
2.Santos
3.Sturm

[fightfan_79]

Naseem Hamed.

I don't know why he thought he had to retire after Barrera....he lost to a "complete" fighter...at that time was P4P top 10...no shame. Get up, dust yourself off...get back in the ring....what's he up to nowadays?

[Thread Stealer]

Zab, Jermain, James Toney (most of all, cuz he just so damn awesome to watch), but what u guys think about Meldrick Taylor?

I actually don't think Meldrick would've had that much of a reign at the top of the sport.

People act like he was some sure ATG in the making who left everything in the ring against JCC, but that's really just a tired Legendary Nights myth.

That was the last fight Taylor had at 140 until their rematch 4 and a half years later, when his options were limited and had no other big money fights available. Taylor had weight problems at 140. Taylor won a world title at 147 a year after losing to Chavez, despite never fully recovering his form after that fight, but even if he never fought Chavez, look at the talent level at 147 in the 1991-1994 period. S. Brown, stablemate Whitaker, Quartey, Trinidad. Is he going to be protected from the other top WWs? Espana was a mandatory whom Taylor had to fight. And style-wise, he always would've been problems for the short, stocky Taylor.