By Dave Lahr: Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) seems to be seeing things out of focus in choosing to retire now instead of fighting on. It would be difficult to imagine a worse way to retire than to choose to end after beating a washed up Roy Jones Jr. in Calzaghe’s final fight. What makes it such a poor decision is that with other opponents out there like Chad Dawson or Bernard Hopkins, Calzaghe chooses the 40-year-old Jones.
That strikes me, and probably others, as if Calzaghe was merely padding his record, and protecting it from fighters like Dawson – and many others – that would have a decent chance at beating Calzaghe. That’s not to say that they would, because Joe always seemed to find a way to win regardless of who he faces. However, he should have chosen the tougher opponent to end on rather than taking the easy fight – if not boxing fans, then to help keep from tainting his precious legacy.
I mean, what good is a legacy if it’s not built on facing the best fighters? You might as well throw out the window and forget about if it’s bogus, filled with little substance. When Calzaghe recently said that boxing was a dying sport, he should have been the one to help raise it up by seeking out the best possible opponent that taking an easy opponent like the forty-year-old Jones to retire on.
You would think, that with Calzaghe’s awareness that boxing is hurting, he would want to try to help it to the best of his ability by facing the toughest opponent he could find, and not just someone that would give him an extra win for his record and a good payday.
To me, that seems selfish, as if he’s looking out for number one at the expense of others. If you’re on a team that is sinking, you don’t just abandon ship and paddle away without helping the other members of the team. To a degree, I can excuse some of the light opposition that Calzaghe faced during his career.
After all, he beat those that were put in front of him, defeating all of his mandatory challengers for his WBO super middleweight crown like clockwork. But then, he should have made an extra move to try and find better opponents during those years instead of just going with the easy flow.
It’s hard for me to respect a guy that takes the easy road, avoiding tough challenges in order to have smooth sailing. Calzaghe says that he’s accomplished everything he set out to do in the sport, and if he means that, more power to him. I don’t see how he could, though.
There are a lot of fighters that Calzaghe could have and should have fought during his career, starting with Dawson. I’ll ignore the fact that Calzaghe didn’t face Hopkins or Jones earlier in the career while they were in their prime, because it just didn’t happen.
They were, after all, fighting mostly in the United States, whereas Calzaghe was tending his own garden fighting mostly in the UK. But in the circumstances of his last handful of fights before his retirement, that excuse no longer held water, because he was fighting people from the U.S.
Unfortunately, he was going after big money fights against the 43-year-old Hopkins and then near 40-year-old Jones instead of seeking out the best fighters in the super middleweight and light heavyweight division like Froch, Jermain Taylor and Dawson.
Those were the fighters that Calzaghe should have aimed at if he cared about his legacy and wanted something that stands up under scrutiny 10 years from now. I doubt Calzaghe will be thought of fondly by boxing historians, many of who will probably come to the same conclusion that I did about him.
A good fighter, but one who for whatever reason, chose not to fight many of the best fighters in the sport while in their prime, and who got out with two consecutive fights against 40-year-old boxing greats instead of going after younger fighters.
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