Joe Calzaghe- one of the greatest of all time?

[Kigali]

whooped the best america had to offer, your golden boy jeff lacy, and two legends- hopkins and jones jr

Jeff Lacey was our golden boy??



This guy has some serious insecurity issues...not to mention truth issues.

I'm sure you're posting this nonsense in America.

Hopkins and Jones were already beaten before Scary Joe found the stones to fight them.

You make it seem like Joe was the 1st to beat them.

[-2 Scrappy-]

The only really good win Joe has is Hopkins and it's a debatable one. He gets absolutely no credit for beating Roy who's been shot since 2004. And Jeff Lacey never did nothing before or after Calzaghe so its hard to give him a lot of credit for that either. One of the best super middleweights of all time I guess even though that division has very little history as it is but he definitely isn't that good pound for pound wise.

[b00g13man]

[LetOutTheCage]

Lol no his name should not be uttered with the true greats.

[hugh grant]

The only really good win Joe has is Hopkins and it's a debatable one. He gets absolutely no credit for beating Roy who's been shot since 2004. And Jeff Lacey never did nothing before or after Calzaghe so its hard to give him a lot of credit for that either. One of the best super middleweights of all time I guess even though that division has very little history as it is but he definitely isn't that good pound for pound wise.

The BH win was very good win it was in america. Jeff lacy was favourite so you can't knoicjk JC for dominating him. People knew exactly whgat lkacy did befoire fighting JC so its hard to knick the win too much.
The Kessler win was great as well. And Kessler said JC was the best.

[robertzimmerman]

46-0. 21 title defences at super middle, an era of dominance. THe ring champ at super middle and light heavy, retiring as the longest continual champion in the sport. Wins against lacy, kessler, hopkins, eubank, roy jones and he took on all comers and never ducked a fighter. To me this is the credentials of an all time great, yet when people talk about all time greats his name isnt mentioned? WHat more could joe really have done in his career than what he did? So why do people not rate him that highly? Did his career fly under the radar for msot of it due to him fighting in britain? Or was it his inability to secure the blockbuster fights when he was younger? That seems harsh to me when it was clear he was avoided. Please discuss

Joe was a great fighter, but he wasn't overly ambitious.

What more could he have done?

He struggled to make weight to fight in a relatively weak division, where he defended a lightly regarded title 21 times.

The answer to your question is obvious:

He could and should have moved up to LHW much earlier where he could have tried to have fought the more recognisable names in the sport.

To be fair, he had awful injuries and personal issues that hampered his career. It was very stop-start in the early 00's. But he should never have been fighting the Kabary Salem's of the world when he was in his 30's.

He was more dismissed than avoided.

He brought absolutely nothing to the table.

The majority of the U.S. fans didn't really know who he was until he'd beaten Lacy in 2006.

[robertzimmerman]

trust me joe was avoided, read his autobiography many times. joe was desperate for that breakout fight when he was younger but he was seen as too risky at the time for jones etc to fight

A guy who was desperate to fight the best, wouldn't have defended the lightly regarded WBO belt 21 times.

He only fought 5-6 mandatories out of those 21 defences. And we know that he was proud of his number of defences. So he was more than happy doing what he was doing.

Don't be fooled.

[robertzimmerman]

hbo offered hopkins a lot of money earlier to fight calzaghe and he said no. Im pretty sure joe offered roy the fight in wales but roy didnt want to leave america. At the end of the day joe fought them both, beat hopkins comfortably (lederman had it 116-11 even with a knockdown). Compubox had joe landing almost double the shots hopkins did, the highest amount of shots ever landed on hopkins. And joe wiped the floor with roy jones, when they were both old

Frank Warren held brief talks with Roy's promoter in 2001. But the whole thing was farcical.

Frank challenged Roy to fight for Joe's belt on Showtime. Yet Roy had just recently signed a contract extension with HBO, and Roy had zero interest in fighting a relatively unknown fighter for a worthless belt, in a division that he'd moved out of years earlier. As if the world's best fighter and unified LHW champ was going to go to Wales to fight Joe. How ridiculous does that sound?

I don't know why you keep referring to their 2008 fight.

You've said earlier that you've read Joe's autobiography. Well if that's the case, you'll have read where Joe said that Roy was shot in 2004, which is the only reason Tarver and Johnson were able to beat him. You'll also note that the book was released in 2007, and he said a fight with Roy would be pointless.

[stefjonno1]

trust me joe was avoided, read his autobiography many times.

Damn you must have a lot of time on your hands.



IMO Joe should have went to America in his twenties and we wouldn't be having these discussions about how good he was. His own fault.

[robertzimmerman]

whooped the best america had to offer, your golden boy jeff lacy, and two legends- hopkins and jones jr

He didn't whoop Bernard, and again, Roy had already lost 3 back to back fights, 3-4 years earlier.