Why Didn’t Calzaghe Fight Dawson?
February 7th, 2009
By Chris Williams: You know, after watching Joe Calzaghe ride out on the sunset this week calling it quits to his boxing career rather than continuing on against the one big challenge that he had on his plate (Chad Dawson), I wonder if maybe Calzaghe might have been perhaps afraid to fight him and thought it might be best to retire rather than taking a hard fight that could very well end up with him losing to Chad. There’s no shame in retiring or being reluctant to face an opponent.
How Calzaghe could overlook Dawson is beyond me, and leaves me wondering about his motives for retiring. Who knows, maybe Calzaghe believes in what he says when he points out that he has no other goals, but it seems odd and more than a little discombobulated way of thinking when you see him take a fight against someone like Peter Manfredo Jr., Roy Jones Jr., Bernard Hopkins and Sakio Bika instead of facing Dawson.
I hate to be the one to break this to him, but Dawson would likely mop the deck with these guys, easily beating them and probably by knockout. How, then, could Calzaghe choose them instead of Dawson? I mean, maybe if I saw this threw the mind a huge fan of his I could somehow see his reasoning for fighting them instead of Dawson, but I doubt it.
At the end of the day, though, in retiring after facing these guys instead of Dawson, it leaves me with the impression that Calzaghe couldn’t take the heat and decided to get out of the kitchen before he ended up losing badly and thus tarnishing his unbeaten record. I certainly don’t mind a fighter padding their record at the end of the career to make a little extra money with some easy fights, but only if they had fought an entire career against a lot of talented fighters.
Unfortunately, Calzaghe has faced few fighters that I would consider talented or anywhere close to the level of a young Hopkins, Jones or a Dawson. This is why I can’t see a reason for Calzaghe bypassing a fight with Dawson, saying that he’s accomplished all his goals. Leaving a fighter like Dawson out there without a fight, it strikes me as Calzaghe dodging him and getting out now rather than staying on and being pressured to fight him.
Indeed, if Calzaghe had stayed on for a fight or two, he would have likely faced steady, unrelenting pressure to fight Dawson, especially if Calzaghe did something strange like giving Jones a rematch or facing a lesser opponent in the light heavyweight or super middleweight divisions.
I would excuse him if he fought a talented fighter like Carl Froch, because that guy brings it every time and is a true blue collar fighter, but I would still expect Calzaghe to face Dawson before retiring, because you can’t ignore a fighter that people consider to be the top fighter in the light heavyweight division, can you?
Tags: 22 Responses to “Why Didn’t Calzaghe Fight Dawson?”
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chad who ?? why does he deserve a shot at joe calzaghe? at the end of the day if joes desire and hunger for boxing has gone , whats he got left to fight for? bitter americans make me laugh
dawson showed us all humility with his great anaology of joe,he gets why calzaghe retired and so should you bitter yanks!!adam seems to think the best you americans have to offer are taylor [sparked by palick,who in turn was dominated by b-hop who had been beaten by you got it calzaghe!!and dawson is still not ppv standard so fighting him would prove jack at this point!!!!
chad dawson has done nothing to deserve it. Simple
dawson is not ivan drago
Its simple, if he takes a fight it would be to improve his wallet and his legacy, unfortunatly this fight would offer neither
If he wins…so what..dawsons just overhyped like people are (somewhat unfairly) now calling pavlik…even if he beat dawson and dawson then became an undisputed great people would then just say Calzaghe got lucky that he caught Dawson so early
lose and he’s lost his 0 and gives the haters the ammo they want.
fighting Dawson would be a no win situation, its a shame but there we go
Would people stop harping on about the knockdown it was a forearm not a glove there is a big difference. Joe got back up and won the fight convincingly. If you clutch your straws any tighter your going to break them =)
oh yeah and lets not forget Tarver was 39 and Johnson was 40 when Dawson beat them so we cant really complain about joes record if that the casJ
calzaghe has fought top contenders like Dawson all the way through hi carrer he probably diddnt want to fight him because when he beat him you yanks would probably say Dawson was over hyped like yous did with Lacey and therfore diddnt think that it would be a carrer defining fight for him, so I can see why he went for the guys with the more impressive cv aka jones ,hopkins. Dawson has a hell of a long way to go before he acheives what calzaghe has done and when he gets beaten in the near future all you writers will have egg in your face. I cant beleive how much yous go on about this dawson he is GOOD but not even in the same bracket as joe at this moment in time.
Roy Jones Jnrs record when fighting Calzaghe was 52W-4L winning his last 3 before facing Calzaghe, wins against Felix Trinidad, a good veteran, an undefeated youngster at the time for the vacant International Boxing Council light heavyweight title called Anthony Hanshaw and another up and coming fighter for the WBO NABO light heavyweight title called Prince Badi Ajamu. Losing 3 times previous to these wins against Tarver twice and Johnson in between the Tarver fights, hardly a bad record considering his age and that Dawson is after Johnson again after defeating him back in April last year. But because Calzaghe fought him, hes past it.
Hopkins was 48W-4L-1D when Joe faced him, Hopkins was coming off the back of 2 wins against Ronald Wright and Tarver, again hardly a terrible record, since his defeat by Calzaghe, he has thumped Pavlik. But because Calzaghe fought him he has become past it.
Manfredo was a bit of a joke, he had only fought little known opponents after the Contender series before facing Joe but as Baz said, it wasnt his choice. Since facing Joe, he has lost 2 of 7 fights against Lacy and Bika!!
Sakio Bika had only 1 defeat on his record when he faced Calzaghe, other than that his record was similar to Lacy, and Lacy was deemed good enough at the time he faced Calzaghe!!! Funny that isnt it.
With the exception of Tarver and Johnson, Dawson hasnt fought any career defining fights to give him the status he carries with the writers on this site, Johnson was 40 when he faced Chad with 11 defeats on his record, but Chads a hero for winning, and Joes a chump for beating a 40 year old Jones who incidently holds a better record than Johnson.
Calzaghe isnt getting the respect he deserves purely because he is a British fighter, if Dawson was to face the guys mentioned he wouldnt get half the stick
Nice one Baz.. Well put mate..
M
It’s simple why he wont fight Dawson. Money.
Dawson couldnt sell more than 300 tickets for his fight with Tarver. 300!!.
And thats against a big American name who just starred in a Rocky Movie.
Calzaghe cant command a PPv on his own, he couldnt even do great numbers with Roy and Hop. Only desperate people think he ducked Chad.
As for Manfredo, that was HBO’s choice. They demanded he vacate his IBF and fight the American known Manfredo, to build ip his forthcoming fight with Kessler.
All the facts are out there, but why let facts ruin a good yarn.
Well. After Hopkins beat Pavlik, who did Hopkins wanna fight? Dawson or Calzaghe. I mean Hopkins always wants the best fights and he wanted Calzaghe. To quote him when asked about Dawson he said ‘I have bigger fish to fry’. Dawson doesn’t deserve the respect he gets yet. He shouldn’t be considered above someone like Calzaghe and I very much doubt Calzaghe was scared. Calzaghe wanted to retire when he did, there will always be the next guy wanting his turn and its got to end some time and Americans are bitter that Calzaghe stopped. He didnt stop because he was scared, i don’t remember seeing the interview where he said ‘I’m retiring because I’m scared of Chad Dawson, he retired because he felt he had achieved what he wanted and had clearly lost motivation for the sport. Americans need to get that chip off there shoulder.
^It makes me laugh how the americans love the average british fighters like Froch, Woods & Witter as they arent much threat. Yet they spend all their time trying to demean the great ones.
Adam what exactly qualifies jermaine Taylor as the best you have to offer? It doesn’t say much for the state of american boxing does it after two one sided losses to Pavlik and a points win over a Jeff Lacy who looks like a shell of himself since the Calzaghe fight.
Hopkins is the p4p number 4 right now and was even at 44 the best challenge out there.
I would actually put money on him knocking Dawson out and I rarely gamble.
Im not saying the Jones victory was meaningful but Jones was ducking him for years and then when Calzaghe is on top Jones actuall texted him personally after the Hopkins fight to ask for a match.
He could hardly refuse could he.
None of you seem to actually be able to give me an answer to why Dawsons win over Tarver is so meaningful when Calzaghe’s over Jones isn’t.
And Calzaghe couldn’t ever win this argument. Even if he did a Lacy to Dawson you would find a way to demean it saying he wasn’t that good. It isn’t that long ago you were all hailing Lacy as the second coming of Tyson, and then there was Pavlik…..
Carl Froch talented? I don’t understand where you got that from. He is a one dimensional fighter with a strong chin. That’s all he isn’t bringing anything original to the table. He just a banger. Sure bangers are fun to watch but there is no talent there.
Calzaghe on the other hand is naturally talented and boxes like a jazz musician plays his instrument. His skill set and ability are lost on people who don’t understand the complexities of boxing. The guy is the boxing equivalent of Jimi Hendrix.
Froch is like Steve Jones out of the sex pistrols. Exciting to watch but absolutely no talent, class or natural flair whatsoever.
Sorry Im american and even i know our boxing scene is dead!! dawson just lost to johnson so hat could he do to calzaghe. hopkins would beat up dawson and will be ezposed sooner or later i wish im wrong but im not.
what a melt…
Chris you are a xenophobic moron. People have to retire sometime, the man is 37, do you want him to go on to be a punch bag for younger fighters like Roy Jones has. Is that what it takes to be a legend in your eyes?
He beat Lacy, Hopkins beat Pavlik and Dawson would have lost to both Calzaghe and Hopkins. There will always be a ‘next big thing’ but when they get found out then you move on to the next one.
Old fighters don’t have an obligation to fight on indefinitely risking their health until one day a young up and coming fighter beats them.
Tarver and Jones have made that mistake. Incidentally I don’t think Dawson would have lasted 5 rounds with the Tarver of 5 years ago.
I don’t think anyone would rate Chad Dawson higher than B-Hop. At least Hopkins goes for the best not for the $$$
Roy Jones,Hopkins,and Manfredo are not the best we have to offer.Jermaine Taylor and Dawson are what we have to offer and Calzaghe ducked them like Lennox ducked the Vitali rematch.Whats up with these Brits running for their lives.Calzaghe has lost alot of respect these last couple months,even from his own countrymen.Froch sees it.Calzaghe faught a bunch of washed up has beens.
I find the American view points on Calzaghe and basically any fighter who is not American verging on distasteful. What benefit would it be to Calzaghe if he was to fight on? he has beaten the best America has had to offer, he has beaten young dangerous unbeaten fighters and old tried and tested hall of famers, he has proven his greatness and retired unbeaten, it seems to me this type of sour and bitter opinion is unfortunately typical of America’s arrogance. Calzaghe is a great fighter, end of story, America should acknowledge greatness wherever it may come from.
ive said before but the americans dont get it, DAWSON IS NOT THE BEST OPPONENT OUT THERE. It would be similar to CALZAGHE V LACY (one-sided) wherea against froch it would be similar to CALZAGHE V KESSLER, a far better match.
It’s all about the money, fighting Jones Jnr and Hopkins is alot more lucrative than fighting the likes of Dawson. As for fighting Manfredo, I have no clue why the hell he choose to fight him, no excuses there.