By Scott Gilfoid: Okay, Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) has somehow stayed unbeaten his entire career up until now, that’s something we all can agree on right off the bat. But what Calzaghe do to surpass boxing greats like Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., if at all possible at this late stage in Calzaghe’s career. For me, I don’t that it’s possible now. The biggest problem for Calzaghe is that he has a large gap between 1993 and 1997 where he fought exclusively mediocre opponents.
At that point, Calzaghe fought Chris Eubank, a former champion who was at the very end of his once great career and had little left. After beating him, Calzaghe went through a long nine year period where he fought mostly soft opposition with little talent and hardly threat to him. I call those the ‘lost years’ of Calzaghe’s career. As Gertrude Stein once said, “there is no there there.”
Finally, after that nine year period, Calzaghe fought Jeff Lacy, beating him by a 12-round decision. Calzaghe then added wins over Sakio Bika, Peter Manfredo Jr., Mikkel Kessler, Bernard Hopkins and then Roy Jones Jr. That pretty sums up his career. Frankly, it’s a disappointing waste of a career as far as I can tell.
In Hopkins’ case, after he lost his first fight of his career, a four-round unanimous decision to Clinton Mitchell in 1988, Hopkins stayed unbeaten until losing a 12-round decision to Jones in 1993. Hopkins would then fight to a 12-round draw with Segundo Mercado in 1994, getting knocked down twice in the process. In the next 14 years, Hopkins would beat quality fighters like John David Jackson , Felix Trinidad, William Joppy, Oscar De La Hoya, Howard Eastman and Winky Wright, among many others while losing twice to Jermain Taylor and once to Calzaghe. The losses came after Hopkins had turned 40.
Jones was unbeaten for the first eight years of his career starting in 1989 and ending in 1997 when he lost by a 9th round disqualification to Montell Griffin. During that stretch of Jones’ career, he beat excellent fighters like Thomas Tate, James Toney, Vinny Pazienza, Tony Thornton, Eric Lucas and Mike McCallum. From 1997 until the present, Jones beat Virgil Hill, Lou Del Valle, Otis Grant, Reggie Johnson, Richard Hall, Eric Harding, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Glen Kelly, Glen Kelly, Clinton Woods, John Ruiz and Antonio Tarver.
As you can see, Calzaghe’s ring record comes up far short for both fighters when compared. Calzaghe comes closest to Hopkins, but even Bernard’s record looks incredible compared to the largely mediocre fighters that Calzaghe has fought for most of his career. So what can Calzaghe do to surpass Jones’ and Hopkins record?
Well, he clearly doesn’t have a chance of surpassing Jones, not unless Calzaghe wants to start his career over and fight mainly good fighters from the start instead of the easy ones that he did fight. If Calzaghe had fought Jones, Hopkins, Nigel Benn, Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Reggie Johnson, Harding and others in the early part of his career and somehow stayed unbeaten, then I could see him as surpassing Jones. However, that’s not possible now. What’s done is done. Calzaghe should have thought about that long ago and stepped up the plate and fought these guys.
But I do think Calzaghe has a good chance of beating Hopkin’s legacy. It won’t be easy, though. For that to happen, Calzaghe is going to have to stick around for two more years and fight Chad Dawson, Carl Froch, Lucian Bute, Allan Green, Jean Pascal, a rematch with Hopkins, Librado Andrade, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor and Zsolt Erdei. If he beats all those guys, then I can see Calzaghe surpassing Hopkins’ legacy.
That’s the only way I can see him doing it, though. Calzaghe has wasted too much time in his career fighting nobodies, so unfortunately he would have to work extra hard in the latter part of his career to undo the damage and put some real names on his record.
The chances of Calzaghe beating all those guys are slim and none, about the same chances that he would have in beating a prime Jones and Hopkins.
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