I think I understand why Joe Calzaghe is still mocked.

[robertzimmerman]

Therefore....not great.

I'm not going to split hairs. In my opinion, he never really did anything great, but I class elite fighters as great fighters. Joe wasn't an ATG, but he was a top P4P fighter before he retired, therefore: to me, he was a great fighter. I understand your point of view though.

He was too good to spend the majority of his career defending a lightly regarded WBO belt in a relatively weak division, when he could have gone to the U.S. and fought at LHW instead.

[Scary]

Stop lying you p*ssy.

Joe was one of the greatest SMW's of all time. Deal with it...

[chirorickyp]

Joe wasn't a light heavyweight, only in his last two fights. He was truly a SMW, with 21 titledefences - nothing to sniff at.

Absolutely. 21 defenses is impressive but it reminds me of Swen. I believe he should have been a Light Heavyweight. He definitely had the frame and size for it, but he would keep himself at 168 instead of 175 by choice. For some reason the Super Middleweight Division just doesn't have the appeal as Light Heavy or Heavyweight or Middleweight for that matter. It's all a part of the too many titles, too many weight classes, too many organizations problem that has hurt boxing. Joe would not have had 21 title defences at Light Heavyweight. His name cannot be mentioned with fighters his size like Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Micheal Spinks, or Bob Foster, but he was one of the top 10 fighters of his generation.

[robertzimmerman]

Absolutely. 21 defenses is impressive but it reminds me of Swen. I believe he should have been a Light Heavyweight. He definitely had the frame and size for it, but he would keep himself at 168 instead of 175 by choice. For some reason the Super Middleweight Division just doesn't have the appeal as Light Heavy or Heavyweight or Middleweight for that matter. It's all a part of the too many titles, too many weight classes, too many organizations problem that has hurt boxing. Joe would not have had 21 title defences at Light Heavyweight. His name cannot be mentioned with fighters his size like Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Micheal Spinks, or Bob Foster, but he was one of the top 10 fighters of his generation.

Joe could have fought at LHW at any point. The most frustrating thing, was when he decided to remain at SMW in the early 00's, even though he knew Ottke wouldn't fight him and there was nothing else on the horizon at the time.

[chirorickyp]

Joe could have fought at LHW at any point. The most frustrating thing, was when he decided to remain at SMW in the early 00's, even though he knew Ottke wouldn't fight him and there was nothing else on the horizon at the time.

Many meaningless defences against fighters who weren't household names for alphabet titles in a division concocted for Ray Leonard in the Eighties. His style was effective and he won, but it left no moments of greatness that we would remember. Andre Ward is an even better fighter with a better resume but he will be remembered as much as a Calzaghe was.
Was Swen Ottke in the Band ABBA? Oh wait I think he was some kind of boxer.

[LetOutTheCage]

The guy humiliated and battered Hopkins, making a mockery of his so called good defence by landing more punches than any man before him, how humiliating for Popkins.

Then he made Roy Jones look like a club fighter who barely knew how to box, bashing him up round after round, was a bit of a joke really.
Bullied and beat those 2 with ease and not to mention beating more americans like Peter Manfredo and beat Jeff Lacy so bad you'd think Joe was his daddy.

Hating is bad people, especially to the americans out there. Give Joe his props and realise hes easily the best fighter of this generation since Floyd should have lost to Castillo.

That never happened, the fight was close and many including myself had Hopkins winning. Calzaghe doesnt get more respect because his resume for the most part is poor, fighting an old Hopkins and a well past his best Jones does not make him an ATG. He gets respect for those wins along with the Kessler and Lacey win but he would get a lot more respect if he had fought Hopkins and Jones in their prime.

[*TonyMontana*]

Honestly I have no problem with people giving it to Hopkins, it was a razor thin and very hard fight to score. I've been changing positions a lot on the fight on who won it. I'm one of the few who actually watched it maybe 4-5 times.

Nah
I owned it on DVD
I paid money haha
First time I scored it for calzaghe
Every other time I had to give it to Hopkins or a draw
It's a crap fight to watch but is good for learning how to score rounds

[Scary]

Nah
I owned it on DVD
I paid money haha
First time I scored it for calzaghe
Every other time I had to give it to Hopkins or a draw
It's a crap fight to watch but is good for learning how to score rounds

That's fair game, but people acting like Hopkins at that point was somewhat spent or over the hill. Hopkins was at his most dangerous when he was in his early 40's imo. It's a very good win, but it could've gone either way and is also a testament to how incredible Hopkins career was.

[hugh grant]

JC beat BH but most thin k BH is higher atg, dont matter that bh lost a few. Floyd beat PAC so most think PAC is higher atg as he's got better resume, don't matter PAC lost a few.
So very similar scenarios. But PAC is considered greater than BH as he's 8 division champ.