Calzaghe - the numbers don't lie

[I Love Jesus!]

It's precisely this kind of piety which prevents me from taking fans of Calzaghe as real, knowledgable boxing followers. I mean seriously, to say Jones Jr was a legend at 40-years-old when he was coming back from multiple and devastating back-to-back knockouts is an insult.

Calzaghe won his vacant title in 97. Jones was in his absolute prime, and available to fight between 97 and say 02/03. Look at Calzaghe's response below to the proposition of taking on a prime Jones Jr in the lions den. Compare that with Hatton and his approach to secure a superfight with Maywether.

The onus was on Calzaghe. Frank Warren was able to protect him through his suspect relationship with the WBO. That way Calzaghe could fight anyone in the top 50 of the grimy WBO rankings in low risk high reward fights. The life of me can't even understand how 35,000 people would pay to watch him fight Peter Manfredo!

If there is one Calzaghe fan on earth that will swear on there mothers life that they think Joe Calzaghe could beat Roy Jones or James Toney the night they fought each other I would eat my underwear. Anyone who thinks that either never saw them fight or is lying through their teeth. Calzaghes never done anything to make me think he could even make it out of the 1st round against those two REAL super middleweights. It would never happen. He would never even take the fight. Even he knows he would get flattened and most likley decapitated

[I Love Jesus!]

Calzaghe is underrated. Being a champion for that long is a very hard thing to do.

But amazingly it gets easier when u never fight a number one contender or have a real championship to begin with. Plus getting stoppages without landing punches helps quite a bit to.

[egodfather]

Excellent post that only touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the patheticness of Calzaghes so called "hall of fame" career. Hey U got to respect a guy for getting in the ring but having said that Calzaghe did not earn the respect of being considered an all time great by any means. Nobody fought more soft touches defending a practically meaningless WBO crap strap. At the time that WBO "belt" was about equal to an NABF or state title now.

Lets talk about the bogus stoppages and how sven ottke some how has the same exact world record as him even though they fought at the exact same time in the exact same division. How does that work? And Jones Hopkins? Come on Hopkins crushed him as old as he was just by landing punches and Calzaghes girl slaps NEVER, NEVER looked more pathetic then they did in that fight. Just God awful. Thank god calslappy had stamina because he had nothing else going for him. And to top it off Both of them dropped Calzaghe in the first round as old as they were. Hopkins while still a great fighter has absolutely no power and we all know how shot Jones is

I hate long drawn out posts but Calslappy sucks so bad

He is supposedly the best 168 pounder ever? Really? Can anyone imagine him on his best day lasting more then 30 seconds against the Roy Jones or James Toney that fought each other? Seriously? Don't make me laugh he would get creamed. Prob defecate himself during the ring walk

You sir have concluded this thread.

[I Love Jesus!]

Hopkins fans love that one. It somehow excuses their man ducking out of a Calzaghe fight for $3m. Hopkins was more interested in other fighters.

After beating the formidable Morrrade Hakkar, Hopkins defiantly shouted to the TV screen...... "What's up Fernando Vargas??!"

Legendary.

Yeah OK Hopkins has fought everyone out there but nobody with even half a brain cell can say the same for Calzaghe. Anyone who can call Hopkins a cherry picker then turn around and praise Calzaghe should be eradicated from the gene pool because they are clearly of no use to society.

[Ray Corso]

One of the biggest hype jobs in the history of boxing as far as being a "great fighter"! As for the best between 160 and 175 thats a joke, I doubt he cracks the top forty or fifty!! Heres why.......the guy can't PUNCH!
Anyone who thinks he can run against the great middleweights from the past is crazy!!! How is going to keep them off him??? The guy can't Punch!
All the so-called names he fought were far beyond their best. Calzaghe fans always mention Lacy as if he was a great fighter, he was just another guy with the first 20 or so bouts being "marks"!
Calzaghe and Sergio Martiez are very good athletes who learned the defensive skills in boxing and parlayed the boxer moves into a winning formate against opponents that were "Ordinary" to "Good" no one was GREAT!

Just picture this guy in with the best!! How does he hold them off? Running all night?? Slapping at them???

Calzaghe did a great job with his career and he got to where he wanted to be and theres alot of people who think he's an ATG fighter and thats OK because theres more than one delusional fan base club!!

No one can dispute that .............."the Guy Can't Punch"!!!!! HA!!
Ray.

[sunny31]

Joe Calzaghe was a great fighter period. I will take the opinion of professional fighters and experienced trainers such as Manny Steward and my opinion over anyone here. I have had indepth conversations about Calzaghe with ex world champs who spoke extremely highly of him and explained the reasons why.

His resume doesn't live up to his talent IMO, but I feel he was a tremendous fighter. Clearly he is not in the same league as a prime Hopkins or Jones, but that's hardly anything to s****** at, both of those guys are extremely solid ATG's. Trying to undermine all 3 of them is dumb, which is exactly what's going on here. I think if you put a prime Calzaghe in with any MW-LHW in history and they have a long night in front of them, even prime Roy.

Americans need to get over it, and in particular his undefeated record. There are plenty of knowledgeable boxing fans like myself who realise he wasn't the second coming of Jesus, but a genuinely great fighter in his own right. Anyone who can beat a Mikkel Kessler with relative ease is not your normal world champion. I would also say at that point in Joe's career he was also physically well past his prime, although probably a smarter more experienced fighter by that stage

[sunny31]

One of the biggest hype jobs in the history of boxing as far as being a "great fighter"! As for the best between 160 and 175 thats a joke, I doubt he cracks the top forty or fifty!! Heres why.......the guy can't PUNCH!
Anyone who thinks he can run against the great middleweights from the past is crazy!!! How is going to keep them off him??? The guy can't Punch!
All the so-called names he fought were far beyond their best. Calzaghe fans always mention Lacy as if he was a great fighter, he was just another guy with the first 20 or so bouts being "marks"!
Calzaghe and Sergio Martiez are very good athletes who learned the defensive skills in boxing and parlayed the boxer moves into a winning formate against opponents that were "Ordinary" to "Good" no one was GREAT!

Just picture this guy in with the best!! How does he hold them off? Running all night?? Slapping at them???

Calzaghe did a great job with his career and he got to where he wanted to be and theres alot of people who think he's an ATG fighter and thats OK because theres more than one delusional fan base club!!

No one can dispute that .............."the Guy Can't Punch"!!!!! HA!!
Ray.

I'm sorry I respect your opinion, and I see quite a lot of knowledgeable posts from you, but I have spoken to a few fighters who have been in with Joe (sparring) and the one thing which repeatedly came up was they were surprised at how heavy handed he was. Chris Eubank described being hit by him, "like being hit with a stone". Now clearly Joe was no KO puncher and his punching technique was sloppy but I think there is a reason why lots of fighters didnt rush him, and why he got the respect of them early on. Even Sakio Bika, who has an iron chin got steadied up by Calzaghe in the first round of that fight, watch it!

He adapted his style to protect his hands in his career post 30's.

[Kagami Taiga]

Alot of people dont like calzahge but i like the guy...

yes he may have had an easier schedule and was protected alot in his career,,

But when it was go-time, joe never backed down...

If he was a paper champ, a guy like Lacy or kessler would have beat him and Joe beat them down, especially lacy, he was never the same after joe beat him up..

People say kessler was green but that is bullcrap.. Kessler had 2 belts at the time and had roughly 40 fights....

Joe also beat hopkins which is not an easy task to do...

In the end the guy retired as a two weight class lineal champ....
with wins over eubanks, kessler, lacy, hopkins, bika and jones.....
Not to shabby...
And i have respect for him because he didnt blow all his money and stayed retired...

not too many fighters have ever become lineal champ in 2 divisions.....

lol, same guy who criticizes floyds resume. at least stay consistent. ifu think floyds resume is crap, then joes is nonexistent.

[I Love Jesus!]

One of the biggest hype jobs in the history of boxing as far as being a "great fighter"! As for the best between 160 and 175 thats a joke, I doubt he cracks the top forty or fifty!! Heres why.......the guy can't PUNCH!
Anyone who thinks he can run against the great middleweights from the past is crazy!!! How is going to keep them off him??? The guy can't Punch!
All the so-called names he fought were far beyond their best. Calzaghe fans always mention Lacy as if he was a great fighter, he was just another guy with the first 20 or so bouts being "marks"!
Calzaghe and Sergio Martiez are very good athletes who learned the defensive skills in boxing and parlayed the boxer moves into a winning formate against opponents that were "Ordinary" to "Good" no one was GREAT!

Just picture this guy in with the best!! How does he hold them off? Running all night?? Slapping at them???

Calzaghe did a great job with his career and he got to where he wanted to be and theres alot of people who think he's an ATG fighter and thats OK because theres more than one delusional fan base club!!

No one can dispute that .............."the Guy Can't Punch"!!!!! HA!!
Ray.

Well I take back all the bad things I ever said about you. Great post!

[Ray Corso]

Sorry but this is Boxing not Slapping! The opponents were casrefully picked from start to finish!
If his fans need to call him great thats fine I'm not here to "change anyones mind" but also refer to him as a Boxer not a Fighter and rarely fought!
He doesn't stack up to the ATG at all! Take a look back at the outstanding fellows from 155 to 175 and he just doesn't show up!! Simply moving well and quick combos doesn't get it done against true fighters with boxing skills!
His "post 30s" are his prime moments! Another thing unless your hands are injured during a fight any fighter with cronic hands doesn't feel the pain or discomfort until the fights over. Theres lots of carefull wrapping and depending what country and/or state your in theres specific amounts of gause to be applied! I had very bad knuckles when I fought from bare fist training and I didn't feel them at all during a fight! I've handled and wrapped figfhters hands that needed some special attentions.
I don't buy the "bad hands" at all! He was a poor technique "forearm" guy who never stepped in and stayed in. Like Sergio and Mayweather these fellows were not about exchanging they were about get off minimally and get on the bike! Good boxer lots of skills but a lousey unwilling fighter who would get hurt against great fighters!!! Ray.

davis; keep them, couldn't care less about it!!!