By Manuel Perez: Normally, good fighters don’t retire at their peak. That’s what makes Joe Calzaghe’s decision to retire today seem so strange. With victories over Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. in the past year, it would seem logical that Calzaghe would want to continue further and seek better opponents or at least a rematch with Hopkins, since their fight ended up so controversial with Calzaghe winning a 12-round split decision that many boxing fans felt should have gone to Hopkins instead.
In taking the easy way out and choosing retirement rather than bigger challenges ahead of him, it leaves many people questioning Calzaghe’s thinking. Some might agree with him feeling that he has accomplished all that he needs to having held onto the WBO super middleweight strap for 10 years, but then there are others who see him without a true career defining fight.
He can’t exactly point to either his wins over the 40ish Hopkins and Jones as being career defining because it seemed hardly unfair for him to seek them out at this late stage of their careers. Yes, I’m well aware that Hopkins beat Pavlik recently, but I still feel that Hopkins was a much better fighter with a better work rate in the 90s in comparison to now. That version of Hopkins would have had a good chance of beating Calzaghe.
In getting out now, Calzaghe has hardly made a case for greatness because of his lower quality opposition throughout his career. After facing many subpar fighters through most of his career, he got his act together somewhat with fights against Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler and Hopkins, but the way that he avoided taking on other fighters like Chad Dawson, Kelly Pavlik and many others seemed as if he was only intent on getting as much money as possible with the least amount of risk involved.
For me, a fighter should only be considered great when they take the biggest risks, face the best opposition and win in a conclusive manner. Sadly, I don’t see that with Calzaghe. He could have fought Pavlik, Dawson, Lucian Bute or Froch and proved something at the tail end of his career, but he didn’t.
Rather, he seemed to gloat in the media after beating a faded Jones, “I’ve got nothing left to prove,” as if he was not quite in touch with the reality of what he had just accomplished in fighting and beating a faded 39-year-old Jones rather than taking on a young, dangerous Dawson, Froch, Pavlik or Bute.
If Calzaghe was really a great fighter like many people say, he should have taken the steps to prove it by fighting the best fighters in the division instead of the ones that would give him a big payday without the least amount of effort. When Calzaghe faced Hopkins, few people gave Bernard much of a chance because he had lost two out of his last four fights and seemed to have a lot of problems against the speedy Jermain Taylor.
In taking the fight, it didn’t seem nearly as brave a thing to do as it would be now that Hopkins has beaten Pavlik. With Dawson breathing down Calzaghe’s neck, he would have had to have fought him if he stuck around the sport. With his retirement, it makes Calzaghe look as if he’s running from Dawson and Froch instead of showing some courage and facing them. Somehow, I think much less of Calzaghe due to him not facing those guys before bowing out of the sport.
Many people in the media were really hoping he’d stand up and take on Dawson and show people something. Given that he’s still in his peak, if he was really a great fighter then he should have been able to beat Dawson. But in retiring without facing him or Froch, it leaves me with the impression that he didn’t have the inner workings to be a truly great fighter. You got to have courage as well as talent, because one without the other doesn’t make a fighter great.
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