Has Joe Calzaghe tarnished the reputation of British boxing beyond repair?
October 23rd, 2009
By Liam Santiago: Over the past few decades Britain has been placed firmly on the map, as one of the greatest countries for producing quality boxer’s, by legends such as Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Ricky Hatton, Randy Turpin and Ken Buchanan. Each of them has cemented Britain into the idea that this is the land where brave warriors are produced. However, this worldwide idea, which had developed over many decades, recently began to crumble. Enter, Joe Calzaghe.
The USA, and much of the worldwide boxing community, now see’s Britain as the fighter’s who do not wish to take on the big challenges. It is so sad that the reputation preserved and constructed by so many all time greats has been smashed. Obviously, the likes of Ricky Hatton is on a mission to get it back, constantly seeking the hardest fights available.
Joe Calzaghe hit the superstar stage when he out pointed the much over rated Jeff Lacy, who has recently been stopped by Roy Jones Jnr, 16 years past his best. This was the ”career defining” fight for Calzaghe. Make or break. Calzaghe almost pulled out of the bout with Lacy. But, looking at that win now, does it mean anything whatsoever?
58 Responses to “Has Joe Calzaghe tarnished the reputation of British boxing beyond repair?”
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Its true, Nigel Ben, Ken Buchanan, Ricky Hatton, Chirs Eubank, Naseem Hamed and others proved they were great fighters, just don’t forget that a lot of
the great american fighers ducked Joe Calzage when he wanted to fight them.
What a stupid f**king article …. yeah yeah; Calzaghe has ruined British boxing …. what a pathetic thing to say.
The trouble is we’ll never know just how good JC could have been and that’s the problem. He protected that 0 on his record without really ever putting it at risk.
When Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran etc retired did anyone question their skills, courage or legendary status even though they had lost fights? No, because they fought the top fighters.
I wish he’d fought Jones etc earlier on but clinging onto that pointless WBO title (not a recognised title in the US)and only fighting in the UK cost him dear.
in my opinoion james watt and ken bucanan are the best british boxers that i have seen. this other fighter dont even belong in this catogory yes bucanan lost to duran one of the trully greats of all time there is no shame in that.
i find the word great being used to much to describe fighters who at best i would describe as good or decent champions but not great.
What?? Write about something you understand
why even bother writing articles you loser….
Lacy went downhill and was dangerous before Joe…Joe ruined Lacy… and EVERYONE knows that…some of the top boxing people rated Joe over that win, and to be fair you aint exactly an expert… far from it in fact
I wanted to see him fight Jones Jr…remember Joe wanted Jones a long time ago…
You can blame promoters for the fights Joe had as well… either way he won and that can never be taken away from him
46 and 0 actually. Only two of which were big fights.
If that is the real Ken Buchanan commenting on Joe calzaghe…Get the same respect as Joe has and fight fans in general have for you…Just coz you got smacked in the bollocks by duran and lost don’t disrespect a great UNBEATEN fighter from our shores!! Envy is the root of all evil 47 and 0 says it all
Calzaghe is a winner and a boxing legend with an unbeaten record, despite having brittle hands.
You forget that Lacey was very highly respected until Joe destroyed him (the pre fight hype reminded me of Benn v McClellan) and that the likes of Jones and Hopkins didn’t want to take on Calzaghe for years before the fights actually took place.
The beating Calzaghe gave Lacey meant that Lacey would never be the same fighter again which ultimately would tarnish Calzaghe’s punch perfect performance against Lacey.
calzaghe is the one of the best british boxers ever. he didnt tarnish but revaluate the reputation of british boxing. to have dominated roy jones jr is a really great accomplishment even though jones clearly was past his best. i would like to see joe come back for 1 more victory either over dawson or the super 6 winner. although joes legacy already is a great one this would put his name pretty close to hopkins and even jones the alltime rankings.
how can someone undefeated be overrated??? he beat everyone put in front of him. why stay around and fight dawson, etc they were not big name fights and lets be honest who has dawson beat?? JC was avoided and Hopkins in his prime wanted more money at the last minute to fight him. its pointless debating this, people who watched him know he will go down as one of the greatest european boxers.
lol ive tried writing on this article but its blacklisted yet nothing bad is written inmy reply
I agree Ken, he embarresed Roy! Show boating and all sorts
Yes, but there is so many fights he chose not to take. I would rather he fought a joutneyman rather than jones.
Lets not forget folks “Boxing is a Business” first and foremost………and all about timing too…(meaning The RIGHT time)
“No Ordinary Joe”..his book is called….Joe even mentions in it that “Roy Jones Jr is washed up, is a has-been, a shot fighter, and was his Idol years ago” REMEMBER FOLKS THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN almost 18mths before Joe beat him.
No-One can deny Joe was supremly fit, which is why he could throw so so many punches and often out worked his opponents…”but he came along at the right time”, in my opinion. In his book (and to date) he claims Chris Eubank gave him his hardest fight, now This was a “rapidly declining” Eubank, who took the fight very late and had been in that “life-changing” fight with Watson much before meeting Joe, Eubank wasnt Eubank after that as we all know…Still it was a very close call. Put it this way would Joe had beaten a PRIME Duran..Marvellous…Jones Jnr..Eubank…..mmmm. He is undeafeated tho, so that alone deserves a lil ‘espect
When Joe fought Roy Jones it was a man at hes best versus a man past his best, Im afraid calzaghe would never even lived with a peak Roy Jones thats the fact. As far a the rest go even hopkins at hes best Joe would of beat him, so that makes calzaghe one of the best in HISTORY.
Thanks for adding my name to the list!
I agree Calzaghe is nothing. Who cares about him.
Lol, yes i am. Ur right. Enzo says he is p4p best ever, so why didnt he prove it. beating lacy and kessler doesnt prove that. He is just average.
to Lowell Boxing;
Are you really from Lowell ?
Or maybe you just like my name..lol
Sorry but Calzaghe was overrated !! Not because he is British. That has nothing to do with it !! I would say that about him no-matter where he was from. I’ve never liked his style, lack of quality opponents, suspect chin, or his totally unrealistic self-imposed label.. “The greatest of all time”. (enzo) He had great success with what he did ….. Can’t take that from him…. But like it or not, He’s just an average “Joe”….
HAHAHA. Don’t write articles you have no idea what your talking about. Joe was the one of the best we have ever produced. He could adapt he had fast hands and a great chin. Earlier in his career he could punch as well. You obviously love ricky hatton and as much as i do he was no joe calzaghe.
Possibly the first time I have ever agreed with the the idea behind a Liam Santiago article. None the less I must say this piece was written with typical structure and general competance … kudos Liam, really.
calzaghe is the best ever british fighter!
Calzaghe was overated and never fought a real opponent tha was in there prime
how comes if your from the usa and u comment on this site u have a brain the size of a penut the man be hopkins and he still the best u got to offer end of
More people ran from Calzaghe than people know, he wasnt the biggest name in America in his hey day but within the boxing world was accepted as dangerous.
So he wasnt offered many oppertunities, he was offered awful and disrespectful contracts and nobody would come to the UK to fight him.
I was a big Calzaghe fan in the ring, i never liked what he had to say out of it. but he was what the expert said he was not what people who write on third rate websites like this said he was.
well ….as i said before Joe Calzaghe is the most overrated fighter in the history of boxing…im glad to see more people waking up from the brainwash
JOE CAAAAAALZAGHEEEEY!!! Go On My Son!!
Love him, Glad he waited untill that silly dancing contest to take one on the chin.
well said delilah, and i totally agree
It wouldn’t matter who Joe Calzaghe fought. Some people can never be satisfied, and have to belittle others to make themselves seem important. Joe Calzaghe was great. He would have beat Pavlik, Froch, Dawson, Wright, and Taylor. He has nothing to prove to the disbelievers. I wish someone would put up the 10 million dollars Joe said he would return to the ring for. After the Super Six is over he could box the winner and still retire undefeated. If he did that, people would still say whoever the winner of the super six was, wasn’t any good and Joe fought another loser. The man just can’t win with the people who don’t like him and never will like him.
He has no credible fighters on his record,most of them were english bums.Great article its about time someone points out that calzaghe had a pitty pat career.OVERRATED
who said that andreazz, GEORGE BUSH?
there’s an old saying, ” u can fool some of the people all if the time OR all of the people some of the time, but you cant fool all of the peple al of the time” if calzaghe was not the rel deal he wouldnt have innialated 46 foghters one by one. his record speaks for itself
Calzaghe needs to fight andre ward to end all the rumours
How can you say hatton is a great and joe is not. Hatton built his record on poor fighters or over the hill fighters. Then takes on the likes of mayweather or pacman because of the money. Joe fought and beat the best there was and that was all he could do. Hopkins might have been old but he would beat froch easy and has already destroyed winky and pavlik. Hopkins was a hardy fight than any of the guys this pillork mentions and joe won. He fought top ten oppenents in countless fights in the super middleweight division and countless world champions. Hatton is a fraud if any brittish boxer he ruins the sport. Take his recent comments about fighting floyd again who wants to see that its all about money everyone knows mayweather will ko him again.
I wish these yanks would just stop writing biases crap everyday.
ER liam…he took on a Roy Jones that went on to destory Jeff Lacy! and a Bernard Hopkins that beat Kelly Pavlik. You cant blame him for retiring at the age of 36! Give Joe credit, your articles are so awful! your far too bias to give a good acount of anything
i’m a brit and i agree calzaghe didnt want to fight the best because he knew he would lose. a past his prime rjj and b hop both floored him imagine what they would of done to him in there prime.and as for slapping hard when was his last ko? he hit lacy over a thousand times and couldnt stop him.
rich, forget the flag-waving.
This website’s about something far more important. Boxing!
Reptile.
se16, Why such a heated reaction? Deep down we all know it’s cos the truth hurts….
G’ night yourself, pillock.
anthony go back 2 bed pillock
Nobody will question Jones or Hopkins career ever, so what would be their respective motivations to leave the USA at any point to fight Calzaghe?
If Calzaghe was so good, he would have been over in the USA challenging the best at Middleweight and Light Heavyweight, not fighting those he was carefully matched against with equally inflated records.
Calzaghe would have beaten Froch for sure. So what? The fact that we’re even talking about Carl Froch is symptomatic of the fact that boxing is, in 2009, and for whatever reason, a pale shadow of the great sport it once was.
Calzaghe never beat a truly good fighter in his prime. More significantly still, he never tried!
Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry chararcter once said,
‘A man’s got to know his limitations…’ Jo, and I suspect his handlers, certainly did.
Long live Boxing, Reptile.
thats cus eubank was very shot then
Kool, he slaps? He slapped eubank to the mat! Benn couldn’t do that. Nor could carl thompson at cruiserweight. He slapped pretty hard.
what about mayweather not fighting cotto, margarito, williams,
well at heavyweight
jones jr was fighting heavyweights and would of never come down to supermiddle weight, hopkins was fightins at middleweight against nobodys and small welterweights. he did offer hopkins a fight but he wanted an extra 4 million and that ended that, he would of beaten them all, he would of always been critised whoever he beat and fought.
calzaghe=overrated. didnt really prove ne thing in his career except that he can slap pple. at the end of the day RJ and BHOP still had the better career than calslappy.
calzaghe fought the fighters that were there and would take the fight he tryed to get the jones jnr fight twice 4 and the jones camp always made excuses until they needed joe unbeaten in his career great fighter did britain and the sport proud !!
CALZAGHE WOULD HAVE BEATEN THEM ALL WITHOUT A DOUBT. NO ONE WOULD FIGHT HIM BECAUSE HE WAS DANGEROUS. ALL THE NAMES CAME OUT THE WOOD WORK WHEN HE WAS COMING TO THE END OF HIS CAREER. HOPKINS COULDNT FIGHT HIM TOE TO TOE BECAUSE HE WOULD OF HAS HIS HEAD KICKED IN. LOOK AT THE WAY HE TOOK IT TO PAVLIK BECAUSE HE COULD, BUT NOT AGAINST JOE.
hattons only looking a payday! but i do agree calzaghe didnt fight the best and what fights they woulda been if he had of went for them. him nd jones jr 2001 would be a battle and a half
Well rjj and Hopkins in their prime wouldn’t leave the states to fight joe. Did they tarnish american boxing?
Calzaghe didn’t get any interest statside until lacy. Much likehow kessler hasn’t. Not his fault really, if the big bad American fighters are too scared to fight them, what can they do?
Calzaghes big issue was that for a long time there wasn’t good competition. If he’d beaten froch and Dawson people would have said he had to fight ward, dirrell, etc.
Not every fighter can keep going into their late 30′s at the highest level.
Calzaghe had a good career stop hatin
im a calzaghe fan but u i have to admit u do have a point.i would hav liked to c him fight taylor,pavlik,wright,dawson and especially froch.i think he shouldnt hav retired at the time he did and be fighting in the super 6 tourney
leave the man alone u pillock
Joe was a great fighter who didnt have too many great fights.