Had Calzaghe not ducked America

[IST-ra-GLEr2]

Joe fought 2moreatg than Floyd and he is undefeated. Got to respect joe.

[robertzimmerman]

Berry Picker,

Its the same. Dude was sparked out. Roy obviously chose the easiest hw to "make history" with.

It's not even remotely the same.

Ruiz was knocked out at HW when he was young.

Roy was nearly 40, and had suffered three consecutive defeats 3-4 years before he fought Joe. He hadn't won a fight at top level for 5 years. He was finished at the top. Ruiz had a belt.

Joe had no interest in fighting Roy. He said so twice in his autobiography, that was published in 2007, and also in an interview in 2008.

Completely different circumstances.

[robertzimmerman]

No, it's where protected US fighters refuse to leave (with so called stars blatantly roiding up). There's a difference. A fighter can be the best anywhere but he's forced to go to his opponent's backyard when his opponent is too cowardly to leave, even when a good financial deal is on the table. The football analogy doesn't work because there's money both sides of the Atlantic in boxing.

But hey, karma comes in the form of the new wave of European fighters, KO-artists, no judging needed. The future of US boxing is European and Mexican, the next generation of star names and it's just what those arrogant fans who refuse to see boxing as a global sport deserve.

Boxing history proves that the majority of the best fighters were either based in America, or they travelled there.

Go and look at today's top fighters. Bar the odd exception, they're all in America.

Martinez and Manny have moved there. Kovalev has just gone over. Everybody who wants to make it at the top goes over. The biggest promoters are GBP and Arum. The biggest networks are HBO and Showtime. Vegas casinos host the majority of the biggest fights etc. It's the way it is.

[robertzimmerman]

Berry Picker,

Exactly. Dudes want ALL the hometown advantages. Why not meet in a neutral country? american fighters could easily agree to that. But they rarely if ever do.

Boxing is a business. Do you seriously think that the fighters have a big say in who and where they fight? The promoters and the networks discuss where the best place to host the fights will be.

They discuss PR, promotion, merchandise and the PPV and gate splits etc.

It takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make a big fight.

[Vasyl’s dad]

Berry Picker,

Quote:

Its the same. Dude was sparked out. Roy obviously chose the easiest hw to "make history" with.

It's not even remotely the same.

Ruiz was knocked out at HW when he was young.

Roy was nearly 40, and had suffered three consecutive defeats 3-4 years before he fought Joe. He hadn't won a fight at top level for 5 years. He was finished at the top. Ruiz had a belt.

Joe had no interest in fighting Roy. He said so twice in his autobiography, that was published in 2007, and also in an interview in 2008.

Completely different circumstances.

Where was Roys interest in fighting Joe? oh yea, there wasn't.


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[Vasyl’s dad]

Berry Picker,

Quote:

Exactly. Dudes want ALL the hometown advantages. Why not meet in a neutral country? american fighters could easily agree to that. But they rarely if ever do.

Boxing is a business. Do you seriously think that the fighters have a big say in who and where they fight? The promoters and the networks discuss where the best place to host the fights will be.

They discuss PR, promotion, merchandise and the PPV and gate splits etc.

It takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make a big fight.

Go suck a fat one w your biab. Its a sport. Guys that want to fight each other, do. Guys that don't, make excuses.


Posted from Boxingscene.com App for Android

[robertzimmerman]

Berry Picker,

Where was Roys interest in fighting Joe? oh yea, there wasn't.

Roy hardly had any interest in fighting Joe.

But that's not what we're discussing is it?

We're looking from Joe's perspective. We're discussing the fact that Joe didn't pursue the likes of Roy back in the late 90's/early 00's.

Why would the best fighter in the world, who was the unified champ at 175, have shown interest in fighting a European 168, WBO belt holder?

The onus was on Joe to push for the fight.

[robertzimmerman]

Berry Picker,

Go suck a fat one w your biab. Its a sport. Guys that want to fight each other, do. Guys that don't, make excuses.

It would be great if things were that simple. But they're not. Like I keep mentioning, boxing is a business.

There's lots of politics in boxing that prevent fights from happening. It's not just due to the fighters.

[CraigM]

Unlike Joe Calzaghe, when Ricky Hatton reached the pinnacle of his career, he called out the No. 1 pound-for-pound champion who was in a weight division above, moved up in weight & took on a career defining fight against the very best in Mayweather. He also had the courage to take on a vicious looking Pacquiao.

Sure he lost, but as was once said 'in great attempts it is glorious even to fail'.

Calzaghe claimed the vacant title in 1997. It took him NINE years to unify the titles with fights against Lacy & Kessler. The gap speaks for itself. And really, wasn't 168 an ultra weak division anyway?? My point: Roy Jones Jr was available to fight at 175 from the point Calzaghe claimed the WBO strap at 168 in 1997, to the point he was knocked out in 02 by Tarver. Instead of Calzaghe calling Roy Jones Jr out for a superfight at 175, he was interviewed in those years and openly admitted that he did not want to RISK that fight.

I'm of the opinion that if Calzaghe had entered the grand American stage during his plastic reign, he would've tasted defeat like his compatriots in Khan & Hatton. Calzaghe ducked the big fights:

He wanted nothing to do with a prime Jones Jr. There's open transcripts of him admitting that he basically ducked the fight altogether. Then he would only fight Hopkins at 43, and even then he sc****d just a SD with his dad telling him he had lost the fight. If you look at their reactions to the decision, I think it's clear that they knew in many ways it was a gift. A prime Hopkins repeats what he did to Calzaghe in round 1 for the full 12.

It goes on. In the words of Jim Lampley, 'Calzaghe BLATANTLY ducked Glen Johnson'.

He wanted nothing to do with Taylor. Ducked Pavlik to fight a shell of Jones. How about the Tarver negotiations? Ended with NOTHING. Winky Wright negotiations? Ended with NOTHING.

So he retires undefeated.

So did Sven Ottke.

Just sayin'.

interesting that you forgot to mention Hopkins pricing himself out when the fight was fought of years before they got in the ring.

Calzaghe didn't need America, if you can sell over 50000 tickets at home to amazing audiences why travel to sell 20000 to usually quiet ones.

When I went to Vegas for Hopkins fight it kinda proved a point as the British fans still outweighed the Americans about 3:1

Super middle is probably our biggest division so will always make loads of money here. Hattons was better for overseas fights, I'm guessing you think ward should have to travel too?

Nothing stopping people flying to England

[lefthook2daliva]

Easy to say that after the fight,but before he was the unified champion, the mini Tyson and was the favorite to beat Calzaghe..Hind site is 20/20

That it makes use of perspective doesn't make it inaccurate...