Joe Calzaghe's career - is it me or is just highly puzzling?

[ИATAS]

How can you criticise Joe and then mention Hopkins........who refused to fight Joe when they were both closer to their primes?

Strange

When Joe was a nobody that hardly anyone in the UK even knew about. Suuuuuuuure.

Prime Hopkins beats Calzaghe, that should be common sense. I mean 42 year old hopkins nearly beat him.

Besides, my point was about risk taking. Calzaghe took very little risks, hopkins (and plenty of other fighters) took many.

[BattlingNelson]

For every article you post, I can bring one up. Please note in Tim Smith's NY Daily News article posted in 2002, he noted that - due to Square Ring's inability to negotiate a deal with Universum - HBO stepped in to work out something. And note that they found Kohl's terms unagreeable. Michalchewski was a pretty good fighter in his day but I think to argue Jones ducked him is as simple as arguing Michalchewski ducked Jones. Now Vasily Jirov on the other hand...

Whether it was a duck is obviously a matter of definition. Of course by NSB standard it was a gigantic one.

What's with the Jirov duck?

[IMDAZED]

Whether it was a duck is obviously a matter of definition. Of course by NSB standard it was a gigantic one.

What's with the Jirov duck?

Yeah, the Michalchewski stuff is crap. I watched Dariusz well and would've loved to have seen it. But Jones ducked him? I could make a better case Michalchewski ducked Jones and - aside from Virgil Hill - fought his leftovers and looked a lot worse doing it (Richard Hall? Yikes).

As for Jirov, I do remember Jones had a very sweet offer from HBO (yes!) to fight him and he outright refused, fighting Clinton Woods instead. I forgot his excuse but I didn't care either. Maybe he thought it wasn't worth the risk as he prepared to move up to heavyweight but I really wanted to see that fight. Jones vs. a prime Jirov would've been fireworks.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

When Joe was a nobody that hardly anyone in the UK even knew about. Suuuuuuuure.

Prime Hopkins beats Calzaghe, that should be common sense. I mean 42 year old hopkins nearly beat him.

Besides, my point was about risk taking. Calzaghe took very little risks, hopkins (and plenty of other fighters) took many.

If Joe was a nobody, why did Hopkins not want to risk fighting him?

Odd

[Jordee-G]

Great post!

[IMDAZED]

If Joe was a nobody, why did Hopkins not want to risk fighting him?

Odd

Why do you believe he didn't want to risk it? Was that his argument?

[BirdSong]

Another article among many out there giving calzaghes view of things

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3383051.stm

Its sounds like to me thats hes always been desperate for the big fights and the big stage. The only criticism i think he should get is he sat in wales for too long and just tried to get guys to come to him, when he should have made more of an effort to go to them. Fair play to lacy for doing that, he gets a lot of stick but he showed guts in going over to wales for a belt. Its a pity his talent didnt end up matching his ambition.

[BirdSong]

Some more quotes from calzaghe

"Hopkins is a bit of a fruitcake so it's difficult trying to organise anything with him." LOL, this is from 2003

"I've been after Ottke for years but unfortunately he's not interested because he knows he's going to get beat," Calzaghe told BBC Sport Wales.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/3313805.stm

[Adamantium]

My question are

- why is Calzaghe viewed as such a fighter?

- was Calzaghe a highly 'protected' fighter?

- why did he not fight any of his mandatories?

- can he be accused of taking on past physical prime fighters to make his "not so great" career look brilliant?

Feel free to comment. Please note that this is not a know on JC, I just want answers.

Walterson.

In order to hold a belt from one of the sanctioning bodies you have to fulfill the following criteria:
1: You have to fight your no 1 mandatory challenger per year.
2: You give them 2% of your purse per defence.

The fact that he was never stripped means he was fighting his mandatories. You are confusing ring ratings with WBO's rankings

If you are a belt holder you cannot be the no 1 mandatory for another sanctioning belt. So Ottke could never be Calzaghes mandatory and vice versa.

It was Hopkins who stopped the Calzaghe fight from happening, by pricing himself out. Neither Hopkins or Jones are legends.
Legends dont start at lhw, move down to smw have 20 fights there, then move down again to mw. While at mw you call out the smaller guys from jmw.
Legends also dont fight postman and cab drivers while there are legit opponents in the same division as themselves.

Can I now assume you are going to do threads about the puzzling things about Hopkins and Jones resume?

[The_Demon]

still upset that he beat hopkins?
get over it walt