Why Was Calzaghe Unable to Establish Himself With American Boxing Fans?
May 13th, 2009
By Scott Gilfoid: Near the end of his career, the unbeaten WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe fought twice in the U.S., fighting first Bernard Hopkins and then Roy Jones Jr. in 2008. However, neither fight was hugely successful in terms of ratings or PPV buys with boxing fans, and it made me wonder what the difference was between the UK audiences, which would have lapped up this fight like hungry dogs, and the U.S. audiences which could care less about seeing Calzaghe fight two 40-year-old boxing stars.
How is it that the UK boxing fans were able to stomach these fights without turning their backs on Calzaghe the way that the American public did when Calzaghe came to the U.S. with his inflated 44-0 record to fight the aged Jones and Hopkins. Maybe it was because Calzaghe came over with a reputation of having a padded record? Could that be it?
Or maybe the U.S. audiences didn’t see it as an interesting fight to see Calzaghe fighting Hopkins and Jones near the end of their careers. It also could be that the fans were wondering why Calzaghe was facing older fighters rather than a young, top flight fighter like Chad Dawson or Kelly Pavlik.
Back then, Pavlik had yet to be beaten by Hopkins, but in watching him Pavlik sure looked like the real deal at the time, and the American public was interested in seeing Calzaghe fight Pavlik.
But Calzaghe didn’t, and went after the 43-year-old Hopkins first and then the 39 about to turn 40, Roy Jones Jr. Maybe if Calzaghe had fought Dawson and Pavlik, the American public would have been interested in watching Calzaghe fight and would have possibly purchased his PPV bouts with them. But Calzaghe didn’t fight them.
I wonder why? In Calzaghe’s fight with Hopkins, Calzaghe was knocked down in the first round and tagged often by Hopkins. It sure looked like Hopkins won. He ended up losing by a 12-round split decision, but I had Bernard winning easily by two to three rounds based on the more effective punching.
While Hopkins was drilling Calzaghe all night with hard right hands, Calzaghe could only fire back with a lot of slaps. Calzaghe could have helped make himself a star in America by giving Hopkins a rematch, but he didn’t. I wonder why?
Calzaghe sure should have, since the decision was an unpopular one because many boxing fans and writers felt that Hopkins had won. That was a mistake for Calzaghe to not give Hopkins a rematch. I know Calzaghe doesn’t give rematches, right?
At least he doesn’t give fighters a rematch unless it’s someone like Mario Veit. So with talented fighters like Dawson and Pavlik available, Calzaghe chose to fight a couple of older American fighters and then retire. Calzaghe blew it by not facing Dawson or Pavlik, because he would have earned some respect from American fans if he would have won.
Tags: 14 Responses to “Why Was Calzaghe Unable to Establish Himself With American Boxing Fans?”
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Joe is the best super middle of all time bhop is the best fight spoilor of all time and he done a ok job with joe but what a boring fight he made it bhop should be ashamed of himself saying he beat joe what a joker.
He had to fight Viet didnt he because he got to the mandatory spot twice?
Completely agree with barak, I’m personally not the biggest Calzaghe fan at all but you completely ignore so many facts that your articles bias becomes almost laughable.
Some MORE points that you also fail to include Scott, are:
1) How can you justify Calzaghe fighting Dawson when he only managed to sell just over 2000 tickets for his second fight against Tarver?
2) You also say that Dawson hits hard, he’s only stopped 19 opponents.
3) This ‘legend’ Dawson’s best wins are against Glen Johnson and Tarver, they’re hardly spring chickens.
4) You base your articles on Calzaghe fighting lower class opposition, you find me one world champion that has fought elite level fighters for their entire reign as a world champion. Joe Louis and Bernard Hopkins’ reigns hardly contained an elite level fighter every defence.
You know many people are crittical of Hatton in that his boxing style is one Dimentianal and predicatable…
The same could be said for scott’s wrighting. Is any one actually on Calzaghe count for this “writer” and have any of them been balanced of fair.. The thing ill give scott is that he has replied in here to comments before so i have some questions…
1) Was Lacy considerd a big deal before Joe beat him?
2) Would you consider hoppkins past his best despite his beating of pavlik?
3) Givent the previouse do you think you may have been incorrect suggesting that pavlik would beat Calzaghe in the past. As Joe has a higher work rate than hopkin and is actually more ellsuive.
4) Why is it that you ignore that Joe is in the same genneration as Roy Jones and hopkins there for in theory should he not be as “shot” as them.
5) Finaly, why did the top Ammericans Duck Calzaghe for so long, this is matter of fact as he chased Hopkins posseivly for some time and deal was almost in place but it was Hopkins that pulled out..
There just questions and i would be interested in your answers. I think part of being a good writer is to be able to equaly evaluate with an open mind the story as it unfolds, some times this goes against the grain but such is the responsibility… i can say with cirtanty that this article does not reflect that
end if the day you say he picked the easy opponents to face, well since europe has more world champs than the US dont that make it a better boxing nation, therefore i dont think his record is inflated one bit.
Yes a prime jones and B-hop would of been better on his record if only they would of as u put it man up and faced joe in his prime rather than duck him saying he was’nt a big enough name.
And lets not forget Calzaghe was past his prime years ago, his hands have been damaged for some time and thats why he does not spar in training, a prime Joe would of been able to dish out alot more power shots instead of his so called slaps, how else could he of put eubank down in round one of there fight, not even the hard hitting Benn could do that, think about it!!!
Sugar Ray Leonard, Dan Birmingham (Lacy’s trainer) and Marvvin Hagler are three american boxing experts who have all complemented Calzaghes performances and achievements.
The term ‘boxing expert’ though makes your opinion void Scott Gilfoid.
The reason he didn’t get the credit he deserved?
BECAUSE HE’S BRITISH.
If he was American, he would be loved.
Anyone who retires unbeaten and on top of the p4p rankings will always become a hall of famer!FACT. the only ones who can dispute joes class are those too ignorant to follow his years of success. No doubt americans (mainly) will question joes ability as they are brought up ignorantly thinking fights outside their homeland are of inferior quality hence joe was unheard of till his later career! America, other countries have decent fighters too!
Calzaghe will neva be a legend!!! he was beaten by B-hop!!! and he beat a badly washed up RJ,dats not impressive!!
What? i take it your a yank! For a start B-Hop is still a great fighter and proved that buy beating pavlik easily so its not like he picked an easy fight in B-hop, and yeh he easly beat B-hop as all B-hop did was score the knock down and ran for 12 rounds. Wer Calzhage came to fight.
If calzhage would of thought Dawson what would you have said then? He thought a nobody because thats all he is! He beaten a over the hill Tarver and thats it, he’s yet to be tested.
And you forgot to mention a few other names on calzhage record eubank, mitchell, lacy, kessler, Calzhage beat every one put in front of him.
Im not a Calzaghe fan but their wasnt much competition for him to fight.
Calzaghe was unknown so no Big Star would risk fighting him for little cash. But when he finally gets a legacy, all the fighters in the world wannabe the “one to give him the one loss” to increase their market potential and career highlight.
Calzhage won’t make Hall of Fame, it’s far too late for him and he’s too old and retired.
he was made to give veit a rematch after he knocked him out in the 1st round, pudwill was a late replacement, the likes of mrqthetkchn were fights waiting for taylor etc, but he wanted way too much mopney, hopkins pulled out of fight with calzaghe in 2003 cos he wantd an extra 4 million, and hes even admitted that himself, so why does calzaghe need to give him another big payday when he hasnt helped calzahge at all? i think u need to accept that joes a legend and A GREAT!!!
Scott,you just wish Joe Calzaghe was american,the man beat 2hall of famers at 37,Pavlik and Dawson are nobodies by comparison and history will show this,and for the record joe beat both Hopkins and jones jnr COMFORTABLY despite the formers spoiling tactics.Make this your last article on Calzaghe,even you dont beleive what you write.