Calzaghe: Does Retiring Undefeated Lose It’s Value In The Case Of Joe?

By Boxing News - 10/09/2008 - Comments

calzaghe2356.jpgBy Michael Lieberman: Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) had made it a personal mission for himself to not only retire on a positive note, but to also to retire undefeated, like Rocky Marciano. The problem I have with that is undefeated records, like the one that Calzaghe has, is pretty much meaningless when you’re not fighting the best opponents available. Compare, for instance, a fighter that has fought nothing but the best opponents for the first 20 fights of their career with someone that has fought largely fluff opponents and has an equally impressive unbeaten record after the same amount of fights.

Should the second fighter, the one that fought mostly scrubs his entire career, feel particularly triumphant if they’ve retired with their unbeaten record intact? If it was me, I’d feel like I cheated myself and the boxing fans by facing less than the best fighters. I suppose it would be okay, at least for the fighter fighting the less than impressive opponents, if he were ignorant of how other’s perceived him. However, that doesn’t take away the fact that he’s still fought mostly lower level opponents, and shouldn’t be raised to a lofty status by boxing fans. It is, perhaps, too easy to get enamored with fighters that have flashy unbeaten records, because for most boxing fans, they see this an naturally assume that it must mean the fighter is great, right?

And without a critical eye, most fans give some fighters a free pass by not questioning who they’ve built up their record on. This is how I feel about Calzaghe. It seems that few fans have given his record a thorough once over to see who Calzaghe has actually fought in his entire 15 year-career. After all, if he’s going to be retiring while saying that he’s accomplished all there is, meaning he has no other top opponents to fight, then the boxing public needs to examine whether that is indeed true. In the case of Calzaghe, I think the vast majority of his opponents have to be discarded altogether and ignored on his career record.

The one exception is Mikkel Kessler, who seems to be genuinely a good fighter, and easily the best in the super middleweight division. The rest of Calzaghe’s opponents, I must say, are pretty average and nothing to write home about. This means that Calzaghe’s record is more like 1-0 instead of the inflated 45-0, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t rationalize fighting low quality fighters and then getting excited about them as if they’re the cream of the crop.

Sorry, I just can’t. I’m too honest for that. And, as for Calzaghe’s scheduled last fight of his career against a 39 year-old, badly faded Roy Jones Jr., I, of course, can’t count that as an actual fight either. I see it as more of an exhibition match like all of his other fights except for the Kessler bout. In essence, Calzaghe’s record is totally without value, one built on nothing but fluff and to be ignored by fans, as far as I’m concerned.

For this writer, the most galling thing about Calzaghe, apart from his overly inflated record, is that he’s chosen to ignore his one real threat –Kelly Pavlik – in order to face the much lesser perceived opponent in Jones, while at the same time saying that Pavlik is unproven. That seems really disingenuous of Calzaghe, because how can anyone in their right mind ignore what Pavlik has accomplished? He’s beaten Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor twice, while also destroying Calzaghe’s stable mate Gary Lockett in three rounds. If Calzaghe didn’t want to face Pavlik for any other reason, he should at least been good enough to do it to get revenge for Lockett. I would have.



Comments are closed.