By William Mackay: I can’t say I was disappointed in hearing about the retirement of Joe Calzaghe yesterday. He’s done well for himself no doubt. Anyone that retires with a record of 46-0 is doing something right. However, I’m happy he’s gone from boxing and hope that he doesn’t decide on making a comeback anytime soon, preferably never. I didn’t care for many things about the fighter, from his no rematch rule to the way that he seemed to carefully choose opponents, many of the soft and some of them older towards the end of his career.
Overall, I think he was bad for boxing. While there were many good fighters out there for him, he seemed to miss most of them during his career, only fighting Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins late in their careers when they arguably weren’t the same fighters they were in younger days.
I think unbeaten Calzaghe’s record gave him more attention than the caliber of opponents that he faced during his career, and put him ahead of many other fighters that I felt were more deserving because of the quality of opposition that they were facing in comparison to Calzaghe. If a fighter wants an unbeaten record, it’s certainly possible to mimic what Calzaghe accomplished.
First of all, pick a weak division like the super middleweight division, then pick out one of the weaker alphabet organizations and win a belt. Then defend it over and over again without straying out of the division to fight talented fighters from the upper or lower ranks.
You do all that, and there’s a good chance that a fighter – if they have some good talent to begin with – may end up with an unbeaten record. However, to ensure that they retire with an unbeaten record, they must retire when the heat gets too much for them and they’re faced with one or more young lions like Chad Dawson or Carl Froch that are lining up to fight them.
Calzaghe managed not to fight a young Roy Jones Jr. or Bernard Hopkins, instead staying strictly within his weight class fighting generally weak opposition with names that most people have never heard of or remember. I give Calzaghe credit for weaving his way through his career selecting fighters like Mario Veit, Rick Thornberry and Tocker Pudwill rather than taking on a young Jones, Hopkins and other top fighters from around the world.
However, without having any real important wins other than over Mikkel Kessler, I can’t give him much credit for what he’s accomplished in the ring. He could have made a statement at the end of his career but instead went out with a whimper in fighting Roy Jones Jr., who by that time was way past his prime.
Calzaghe did what he had to do, but he played it safe for the most part during his career, taking few chances and sticking to safe fights. He seemed risk aversive through much of his career, and sadly, that didn’t change much as he approached his retirement. Fights against Dawson, Froch or rematches with Hopkins and Kessler were dismissed by Calzaghe, choosing retirement rather than ending his career with a signature, career defining win. He went out much in the same way that he fought his career, playing it safe with a fight against Jones.
Comments are closed.