Why Do People Say Calzaghe Was A Slapper or Featherfisted?

[Ray*]

He does slap his punches later on in his career, it is also well knows that he has terrible hands. His speed and ring generalship were his best attribute.

[Madison Boxing]

because all these years later, joe calzaghe beating lacy, hopkins and jones jr still causes some of these posters to wake up in a cold sweat at night shivering. they have to spread some sort of hate to address their own insecurities.

[DreamFighter]

he is FF.

his best attributes are longevity, awesome fitness, being sold well to the welsh crowds, and being southpaw along with picking weakened opposition

[TheBigLug]

He has an above average KO ratio of 70% with 32 out of 46. Where did this rumour come from? His fast flurries looked like they grazed opponents but watch some of them in slow motion and you'll see they weren't merely slaps, but were actually pretty vicious that took thier toll on opponents.

Brittle hands.

He was a good puncher in his early years. Even Eubank said he had good power in their fight and Eubank had a great chin. He put Eubank down in the first round with a good shot.

He definitely wasn't feather fisted though. Nobody was able to walk through him.

[sunny31]

He did have a slapping flawed technique when it came to his punch delivery. But him being featherfisted is one of the biggest misconceptions in boxing history, and its mostly thrown around by American boxing fans (sorry to say).

He was actually heavy handed, and anyone that has spent time around British boxing gyms whilst Calzaghe was active would tell you the same. He had absolutely shovels for hands, and there are a number of people who have sparred and fought him that have said as much.

He did have problems later in his career due to hand damage, which I think was partially a result of his sometimes poor technique. He was also never really a sit down on his punches type guy, although he would when needed.

But even then he did still hurt or stagger a lot of fighters even later in his career. He wobbled Lacy numerous times, he wobbled Bika in the first round, he hurt Kessler to the body in a big way.

[DreamFighter]

Bro Manfredo could've been killed had the ref not jumped in.

lol pretty much says it all. byron mitchell walking through joe springs to mind, until he slipped and the welsh ref stepped in to save joe.

pretty much all of his stoppages early in his career are similar to the manfredo one, created by the ref and a compliant opponent.

Joe was still world class though - he proved it with Lacy and Kessler

[DreamFighter]

to be fair, its poor punch technique that has ruined his hands rather than argue he had poor punch technique DUE to damaged hands.

[W1LL]

Smokin' Joe Calzaghe, threw flurries so fast the naked eye couldn't pick them up.

[IronDanHamza]

He completely changed his style gradually over 10 years due to incredibly brittle hands. Going into the Eubank fight he was known as a pure power puncher, punching guys clean off their feet with one left hand etc.

In the last 5 or 6 years of his career he couldn't hit the bag or even spar. Ever. His hands would just go. So he threw lighter faster volume of shots.

Never, ever was Calzaghe considered a "pure power puncher"

[DreamFighter]

yeh why on earth box on for 5 or 6 years if your hands "would just go". Its an obvious lie, fits in well with the rest of Joes repertoire.