Did Calzaghe do enough in his career to be considered great?

By Boxing News - 04/25/2011 - Comments

By Saqib Khan: When a boxer retires we always look back at the memorable fights the boxer had. When i think of Joe Calzaghe I can’t think of many.

Obviously Calzaghe fans will state Jeff lacy, no disrespect to Jeff lacy but he wasn’t nothing special, he was hyped up by the ITV media to get viewers for Calzaghe as he was struggling to get ratings at the time. Jeff lacy was hardly a fighter with great movement speed or any defence, all he possessed was a left hook which was very nonexistent. For a fighter good as Calzaghe to fight an opponent as weak as Jeff lacy in unification fight, in his 41st fight was embarrassing and a disgrace by him and his promoter.

That was the annoying with Calzaghe, he was good boxer I believe he would have beaten most of the superstar Americans not all for e.g., Glen Johnson; he would have made a massive name for himself in the US at the time. But in boxing you have to go by facts, and when you look at his record you have to say which legend has he beaten in their prime, had any wars like Morales/Barrera or Dela Hoya/ Vargas etc

I think Calzaghe and his dad Enzo were very clever men, they knew what they were doing in and out of the ring, boxing is a business and the o in his record meant he could get easy match ups with Bernard and Jones later on, that resulted in good pay days. After the lacy fight he fought Sakio Bika and Peter Manfredo Jr. no disrespect to them two hardly pound for pound calibre opponents in your 42nd plus fights.

The only highlight of Joe career was when he fought Mikkel Kessler which was to give credit to Joe was good fight but the fight was in Wales, had Calzaghe fought against him in Denmark like Carl Froch or Vegas would Calzaghe would have won ? I don’t think so.

Calzaghe last two opponents two living legends of the game, the great Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jnr. Victory over them two was nothing special as they were not in their prime, Even though in both fights Calzaghe hit the canvass. What do you think a prime Roy Jones or Bernard would do to Calzaghe? That thought is scary.

I class Calzaghe as a good boxer with good fast hands and good foot work. Who can forget the Byron Mitchell fight Calzaghe showed a lot of heart in that fight but in that fight he was badly hurt. Apart from his protected record he always be labelled as a “what if fighter” what if Calzaghe went over the US and fought the like of glen Johnson, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones Jnr “what if Joe didn’t retire and he fought André ward or Froch. Carl Froch probably the most annoying man on the planet but credit to him he will fight anyone anywhere whether he wins or loses, one can argue did Calzaghe duck him. Even Ricky Hatton and Prince Naseem Ahmed fought the best at their time they may have failed but they got both boxing fans appreciation for it.

I know Amir Khan is not everyone’s cup of tea but even he fought the best puncher in his division in Marcos Maidana and now in his 26th fight he will unify the division by fighting the best at his weight class which is Tim Bradley.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Joe but when I look through his record I do not see any opponents that are pound for pound champions or massive super fights where the contest was a pickem fight, maybe with Joe we will never know how good of a boxer he really was.



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