By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KO’s) turns 42-years-old today, and I guess it’s pretty clear at this point that Calzaghe will never return to the ring to fight ever again despite the big money he could get for a clash against someone like Carl Froch, Adonis Stevenson, Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward, or Sergey Kovalev. Calzaghe retired 6 years ago when he was still more or less in his prime of his career, but also the timing of his retirement came about right at the same time as the emergence of Andre Ward.
Some boxing fans think Calzaghe chose to retire at that time due to what would likely have been mounting pressure for him to face Ward. Had Calzaghe continued his career, he would have had to fight Ward otherwise fans would have seen him as a ducker and questioned his entire legacy. As it is, Calzaghe’s career has a major question mark over it because he really only fought arguably two good fighters during his career in Bernard Hopkins and Mikkel Kessler, and Hopkins was 42-years-old at the time.
A lot of fans still think Hopkins beat Calzaghe in that fight. Some fans see Calzaghe as the British version of Sven Ottke, a fighter who held the IBF and WBA super middleweight titles and who retired undefeated as a champion. Like Ottke, Calzaghe reigned over the super middleweight division during a dead period for the division where there were pretty no one that you could call a good fighter, at least he Ottke never fought any of the real quality guys.
Calzaghe had wins over guys like Byron Mitchell, Jeff Lacy, Peter Manfredo Jr, Sakio Bika, a past his prime Roy Jones Jr, Hopkins, Evans Ashira and Kessler.
It’s too bad that Calzaghe didn’t stick around to fight Ward, because that was the one fight that Calzaghe needed to prove that his legacy was for real. His win over Hopkins was questionable, and there wasn’t anyone else good enough for you do say that Calzaghe was a really good fighter. I have a feeling that Ward would have badly exposed Calzaghe and clowned him in beating him with ease.
The fact that Calzaghe retired just at the same time that Ward was being recognized as the best of the top fighters is kind of suspicious, because it gives one the impression that Calzaghe played it same in hanging up the gloves. I think Ward would have probably dominated Calzaghe and taken over his thrown proper. It’s too bad that Calzaghe didn’t let Ward get the fight with him so that he could pass the baton the way it’s supposed to be done with the young lion tearing apart the old one.
I rate Calzaghe better than Froch and Lucian Bute. But guys like Ward, Adonis Stevenson, Andre Dirrell and Sergey Kovalev would have likely been too much for Calzaghe to deal with. All that power in the case of Stevenson and Kovalev, and the slickness from Ward and Dirrell. It likely be too much for Calzaghe.
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