Was Calzaghe really as good as his record would suggest?
June 15th, 2011
By Byron Wallin: When reading articles on this site concerning Joe Calzaghe (46-0 32 KO’s) the common themes seem to comprise whether Calzaghe really was as good as his record would suggest, or whether infact he was nothing more than a carefully matched fighter who fought in a weak division in a poor era.
For most of his career Calzaghe was a revered puncher stopping many opponents early in fights. It could be argued that he did not possess the one punch knockout power of a prime Roy Jones Jr, however his quick two fisted attacks were ferocious, and in his prime Calzaghe was an incredibly aggressive fighter, often overwhelming opponents. Evidence of this can be seen in his first round knockdown of the great former champion and granite chinned Chis Eubank, who later told reporters it was the hardest he had ever been hit (baring in mind this is a man who had tasted the power of Nigel ‘the dark destroyer’ Benn). Further examples can be seen in Calzaghe’s demolition of the previously undefeated and highly rated Mario Veit, as well as his heroic coming off the canvass knockout of American hope Byron Mitchell.
There were reports circling in the media even during these high achieving prime years that Calzaghe was suffering with breaks in his hands, even resulting in him pulling out of fights in order for them to heal properly. Brittle hands can be a career ending injury for a fighter as their ability to punch can be so severely diminished that are rendered unable to compete. In the opinion of the author the first real evidence that Calzaghe’s punching power was on a steep decline, was showcased in one of the standout performances of his career against the great American hope that was Jeff Lacy. Coming into this fight few pundits or sports writers gave Joe a chance against this supposed ‘new Tyson’ who was expected to destroy Calzaghe and dominate the division. However, what transpired that night was a boxing clinic, with calzaghe schooling his young challenger in every round to win a shutout decision. It was reported that Lacy was hit with no fewer than one thousand punches during the fight. Well many seemed to revel in this statistic I found it to be a cause for concern that with all these punches landing home the fight still went the distance, and while lacy may have been bewildered at times, resulting in him hitting the canvas once, he was never seriously hurt by a punch.
After an entertaining tear up with Sakio Bika, Calzaghe fought Danish star Mikkel Kessler to become the Undisputed Super Middlewight Champion of the World. In this fight it appeared Calzaghe’s punching power has declined yet further with Kessler landing what were clearly the harder shots throughout the fight. Only Calzaghe’s superb skills and well preserved speed allowed him to outbox Kessler to a relatively easy decision win. Calzaghe now appeared to have the world at his feet, however i feared for Joe and at the time sensed he would not fight on for much longer. Although he still possessed nearly every attribute to dominate the division for another five years his power was almost certainly gone.
The last two fights of Calzaghe’s career came against the men he will forever be compared against: Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. Calzaghe was able to scrape a controversial split decision win against Hopkins in a messy fight. Again it was Hopkins who landed the harder shots and it appeared Calzaghe was able to sway two of the three judges with his still outstanding work rate and little else. Calzaghe at this point seemed barely able to punch at all, merely slapping Hopkins with the inside of his gloves in short flurries. This was not the same Calzaghe whose stunning two fisted attacks used to strike fear into opponents hearts. This was a man whose hands had given out on him leaving him almost unable to defend himself in the ring with any sort of offence.
The Jones Jr fight was little more than a farce. Jones was a shell of his former self, and despite a promising first round knockdown of Calzaghe, he offered little else in the fight. By the later rounds the fight seemed to have transgressed into nothing more than a circus event with both men showboating and neither doing much significant punching. Much like the Hopkins fight Calzaghe was only able to offer flurries of slaps, never able to turn a punch over and hurt Jones Jr. When Calzaghe announced his retirement shortly after the fight it came as no surprise as i felt he had little choice.
If Calzaghe had decided to fight on for a few more years I have no doubt he would of beaten, possibly by a Carl Froch type fighter, a man who could simply walk through Calzaghe’s now powerless punches to land his own. When a fighter advances in age their speed and reflexes diminish, leaving their punching power more vital than ever. Without this is believe Calzaghe would have failed to keep the younger lions of his division at bay resulting in his defeat. It is with this thought in mind that I conclude Calzaghe retired at the perfect time as to carry on would have been doing his legacy and himself an injustice. In his prime men like Froch, Ward and Dawson would not have lived with him. He would have overwhelmed and easily beaten all of them without a doubt. I cannot say the same for a prime Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones Jr, these men are/were also very special, and i feel in my heart of hearts that a prime Jones Jr would dominate any Super Middleweight division in any era. One thing i am sure of is that we will never see Calzaghe grace the boxing ring again, as in his heart of hearts he knows his hands are as shot as Roy Jones’ reflexes, and he would not want to walk the same sad path that Jones is treading.
Tags: 61 Responses to “Was Calzaghe really as good as his record would suggest?”
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joe calzaghe is an undefeated boxer just face it
Yes….Look at the Kessler and Biki fights. That should be enough.
Calzaghe was always overrated to me. But he was a solid fighter.
Bearcat and WardRock!! Have you 2 finished shagging each other yet??
Complete idiots who know nothing about boxing!!
to even compare joe, to the likes of Hopkins and Roy Jones is laughable. only brits would even attempt to try.
bernard hopkins fought bums most of his career and so did jones calzaghe is a legend.
Good article with plenty of food for thought there.I am a big Joe fan and have seen all his fights, did he lose his punch power or was it that he was facing the best the world had to offer at tis time which is still the very top level now, so will leave you with this. 1.Kessler is looking amazing again and has never been stopped really. 2 Sakio Beaker gave Ward lots of problems and 3. b.Hopkins is light heavy weight champion ? Joe Calzaghe beat them all
Joe Calzaghe waz a fuc*** JOKE! Bearcat is RIGHT when he say Calzaghe s***!!! He beat WHOO??? Old B-Hop??? Old RJJ??? Prime OVERATED Kessler!!! oh oh oh wait wait Kessler WIN over FROCH WOOOOOOOOOOWWW Congrulation motherfuc*** Kessler LOOSE to WARD like Apollo creed over Yvan Drago!!!!
Be sure Ward is NUMBER ONE of 168 LBS NO ONE!! I SAID no ONE!! Can beat him!!!(close match with Lucian Bute but…)
he was better than his record suggests. he stared out as a boxer puncher, but had to modify his style because of frail hands. he had numerous fractions. to work with that handicap and still accomplish what he did is amazing….
Ward= number one
By the time Joe fought Lacy he was already past his prime by a couple of years yer still beat Kessler and bhop. Joes hands were shot and the power he had when he was young all but disappeared. He retired at the right time and fought what was available. Ward, dirrel, froch would never be able to match Joe. Give the guy a break it’s not always who, but how you win. Bhops record ain’t great yet everybody bangs on about it. Roy jones although great fought mostly poor fighters.
Roy jones is still suspect in my opinion he was caught for taking drugs so he might have bein doing them in his prime. Joe retired because there was no one left to beat he beat everybody there was at the time.
if jc was american everyone would be raving about him!how can the author say that jc did not hurt roy jj,look at the pictures of his face after the final bell.so what if he was’nt the hardest puncher,there were plenty of fighters in the heavyweight division that could punch harder than ali but it still made no difference.at the end of the day jc could only beat what was in front of him!
Thanks very much for all the comments guys. This was my first attempt at an article and I greatly appreciate all the feedback.
@ bearcat
I’m proud of you
the fight that bernard hopkins had with joe was the only time ive seen hopkins look what he is an old man. he looked like a tired old man in that fight who couldnt belive the presher that he was under and by the end of the fight he was f**k*d thats how good calzaghe was nobody does that to hopkins and the only judge who give it to b hop was the philly judge from bernards home town for me apart from the knock down a didnt score one round for hopkins not one and if it hadnt have been for the knock down he would have taken the first to the man is a legend better then any boxer america has ever produced. sorry but that just the way it is.
calzaghe will remain as he is, outside of britain, nobody knows about him, and not becaus he is some over looked talent, because he never really faced any body good, the majority of his wins were against mediocre euro fighters, hence, calzaghe remains mediocre.
roy jones and b hop refused to fight calzaghe
All I seem to hear is a prime Jones Jr would destroy Calzaghe and that maybe true but we will never know and legacy should be based on facts not could have, should have and would have, to everyone that thinks Bernard Hopkins was over the hill when Joe fought him answer me this:
Who is better than BHOP right now at 46 years of age?
calzaghe was actually better than his record suggests. there are a lot of unheralded fighters on his resume who were doing well at the time but don’t look as good in retrospect, as well as absolutely top quality wins that people write off for whatever reason…& add in all the guys who simply wouldn’t get in the ring with him due him being considered high-risk-low reward he was for much of his career.
he is actually (very unfairly) under-rated.
about this article; if it was that easy to “walk through” his punches towards the end of his career…b-hop would have done it. he was (& is) no slouch.
Bearcat you bellend ! You say about JC only fighting at home, then say he is not in RJJ’s calss, how many fights outside of the US has RJJ fought ?????
JC was a quality fighter, beat everyone put in front of him and that’s all you can be asked to do.
fairycat,you only lost 1 fight in 46.i heard you never turned up for the other 45
if sugar ray gives his approval of joe then im pretty sure bearcats opinion is really treasured. NOT!!!
i.m a fan of the fab 4.but you can only beat wots in front of you and calzaghe fought who ever was put in front of him he beat them ease.46 0 that takes some doing all boxers have bad days and get beat but calzaghe never.any era calzaghe would of held his own.
@catbear
There is no use in trying to get ANY knowledge to catbear as he is only on here to annoy people! LOL
Anyone should be able to tell he knows very little about boxing! LOL
FAIRYCAT, you no all about boxing so who is the best supermiddle
Bearcat!!
You are the biggest idiot to ever post comments on this site!!
Complete muppet!!
@bearcat. i think u will find that both hopkins and jones avoided fighting calazaghe in their primes. they didnt want to take the chance of getting embarrased by the man from wales
Yes! He fought everyone he could fight in his weight division, its not his fault there was knowone better around, what more can you say
@catbear
With your comments you are the cement head!
Man I would love to spar a few rounds with you!
Lets all repeat this children,Bhop lost to Joe fair and square,enough said! lol
Man I still here Bhop and his “fans” whining about a fight that was a little close but Joe won hands down!
On with the next complaint!
TO EVERYONE TALKING THIS YANK B***S***! IM AMERICAN AND CONSIDER CALZAGHE THE GREATEST SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT OF ALL TIME. HE HAD IT ALL AND COULD ADJUST TO ANY SITUATION. ALSO DIDN’T NEED STEROIDS TO DO IT. (RJJ)
i seem too remember about ten years ago , hopkins was offered $2 million dollars to fight joe , he fought joppy for $250 ,000 instead what does that say ,jones did not want to know either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blarr blarr open ended statement Cherocka. Back it up son.
@ Bearcat!
Do you have any idea about boxing at all? Calzaghe was the best of his era and without doubt the best Super Middleweight of all time!
Even fighters like Nigel Benn said that he would have come out on top during the golden era of the greats including himself, Eubank, Collins and Michael Watson!!
To say Kessler is soft is a joke. You only have to look at his war with Carl Froch to know he is a warrior!
Hopkins is now the Ring Magazine/WBC Light Heavyweight Champion and looks better than ever, yet Calzaghe beat him 3 years ago in a fight that Hopkins was trying to hold and spoil all night long!!
He came off the floor from a bad knockdown to beat Byron Mitchell in the same round and survived a forearm smash to the face against Roy Jones Jnr before winning every round from the 2nd onwards! The only reason Calzaghe didn’t take out Jones was purely out of respect!!
You really are a low educated muppet!!
Calzaghe LEGEND!!!
he stopped over 30 fighters so he could punch ! just had bad hands in the end! and he unified a division ! people still think kessler is a excellent fighter and joe beat his when kessler was in his prime!
He had to go into Bhops backyard to beat him as Bhop refused a £6 million offer years before to come to Wales. Bhop avoided Joe for years then got beat in America. RJJ avoided everyone. He has a record full of no names except Hopkins an overrated Toney and got beat by Joe again in America. Joe was a great fighter and always found a way to win,, did we see the best of him.?? maybe not.
Oh!,c,mon. He fought kessler and beat him as bad as Ward did,except without the headbutting.he totaly outboxed Jeff Lacey in a shutout performance.He beat Roy Jones and B Hop.The BHop being close but he did win.He lived up to his billing as a very good undefeated fighter,and never lost.Now what was the foolish question?
White people are so lame, you guys dont even stick up for your own race ! lol
just to add calzaghe was deadly after all u can only fight whats in front of u and he smashed them all
all talk of rjj beating calzaghe in his prime when rjj was in his prime he ducked a fight againts steve collins who was coming towards the end of his career collins flew to america a knocked on rjj door and offered bing money to fight him and u,s call him a legend just like mayweather ducking pacman and just for good measure collins smashed eubank twice. eubank was also over rated
he was a great boxer but a bit over rated if you ask me, i loved watching him fight though i just wish he had fought some better opposition.
For these arguments to be received, same has to go to your boy Floyd.
Otherwise, show your true colors and write an article about how non-american boxers are/were overrated because of their non americanness .
Calzaghe was good, he dismantled lacy! And easily beat a prime kessler! Neither of them have been the same since
he was to carefull there was no excitment in his fights he just boxed and that was it and it was clear bernard hopkins beat him thats why he didnt want a rematch look at hopkins naw thats a real legend
In one word No! Calzaghe is certainly one of the most overrated fighters in history. He was beaten by Hopkins and would have lost to a prime Roy Jones or Chris Eubank.
sounds like too many americans replying to this article. joe would have done to rjj – prime or not – exactly what he did to lacy, apart from his fercious attack in his early years he also had a amazing chin and heart. believe what u like but ur wrong
I have a lot of respect for Calzaghe but your right he wouldnt let alone anyone would have lived with roy jones in his prime,aand if he did carry on no doubt he would eventually lose.
He allready said he will fight if the money is right. At this point, he says F the legacy, thats for kids, I want money…
@G-Dog
joe calzaghe refused to fight the best
who was the so called best joe calzaghe refused to fight?…..
Joe Calslappy would of been dismantled by a Prime Roy Jones Jr.
A prime Hopkins?
One word………NO
who did calzaghe refuse to fight?
bell end!
Calzaghe won fights based on three factors, primarily, his being a southpaw, secondly, his speed and workrate and thirdly his agression. He was a sloppy puncher whose best punch was his right jab but he used his talents well and did what good fighters do, neutralise his opponents strengths. Personally, I didn’t think he was as good as he thought he was but then southpaws are just awkward to fight especially fast southpaws – Pacquiao is another, like Calzaghe, he’s not the most skillfull technician but his footwork and speed combined with the southpaw advantage have taken him to victory over countless better boxers.
This article is by Byron Wallin, the man called that, on this website
Well thought out and written article…..I commend thee
Calzaghe is the best white boy in this weight division ever.He did Kessler & B-Hop.Joe Calzaghe & Ward are the only super middle weights that would win against Bute in my view.We need to see if Bute could survive against Froch & Kessler these match ups must be made.If only for the fans entertainment.
Great article mate. I agree Calzaghe would have no doubt got beat if he kept going. He’s the best British boxer i’ve seen in my 26 years and he got out at the right time. He’ll always have his critics (usually from accross the pond) but he’ll always be a hero to many.
y compare chavez jr with calzaghe and mayweather ? pipe down son you know nothing about boxing
Got away with a lot of slapping because he fought so much in his backyard. Nobody else came close. Very quick hands though, regardless.