Great fight for the superb WBO title! Joke was dropped by a big overhand right but recovered, if he was in with a decent opponent then who knows what might have happened. Jim Watt and Ian Darke were really rolling out the propoganda machine all night, trying to talk up the joke fight
Didn't see the interview afterwards so not sure what excuses he made but this was duller than the Starie fight, Salem is a limited dirty journeyman who ruffled Calzaghe who showed no defence whatsoever...Darke and Watt were getting excited at Calzaghe's "flurries" when all they were were pawing slaps on Salem's gloves. Beforehand Calzaghe said "Salem has a good record and deserves his shot at the title" Why does he? What has he ever done to deserve a shot at any title?
Calzaghe is afraid of a challenge and on tonight's evidence Lacy, Mundine, Green, Beyer, Larsen etc are all as good as him despite all the shit he talks...he aint no World champion he is a joke.
Last edited by steve689 on 22 Oct 2004, 19:19, edited 2 times in total.
the golden goose nearly got shot,dont know what everyone else thinks but joe lucked in shit condition and fought a shit fight very flat.he will really have to step it up against someone who can box,i can see this hypetrain coming to the end of the track.very poor
BOLLOCKS19842003 wrote:The knockdown wasn't bad at all, Calslappy was just off balance. According to him anyway.
Of course when your head is spinning you do tend to get knock off balance. I just wish Calzaghe would admit he got floored - it showed a cast iron chin that he got up from that shot, let alone as quickly as he did.
That was about the best thing Calzaghe did in the fight. It was a poor showing, he made Salem look good.
Perhaps it was a ploy to get Glengoffe to fight him in the UK, he was awful though and I think Clinton Woods would stand a chance if that Joe at his best.
Who gives a shite? Calzaghe's career is a joke at the very top line, I won fat cash and it is sad that this is all I give a toss about at this stage of one of the UK's top boxers careers.
Joe, please fight some more also-rans and let's hope Skybet give such generous odds next time out on a points win....
I was indeed a poor fight, far too scrappy at times. Calzaghe should have used his jab to more effect in the early rounds to keep his opponent at bay, maybe doubled up the jab, instead of throwing pawing single ones, followed by the predictable left cross. This just allowsd Salem to keep catching him with that right hand. Last night Calzaghe was a real sucker for a right hand counter and he was very lucky that it wasn't Tarver landing with those shots.
Ok you can't avoid everything in this sport but if Calzaghe is the fighter he keeps telling us he is he should not have allowed Salem to keep catching him with those shots. Calzaghe should have dictated the fight from the start instead of dropping down to his opponents level.
Salem was just a wild, crude and very tough fighter whose skill level was not World class in my opinion. To be fair Enzo seemed as fustrated as hell with his sons poor performance.
After the fight Joe said something along the lines of next time we will see the real Calzaghe, but we hear that after most of his fights, so it means nothing. He also said he would be willing to fight in America, well time will tell.
Calzaghe was in with a fighter he should have boxed rings around for a few rounds and then stopped IMO.
what really annoyed me about the whole thing was how Sky kept going on and on about him being the longest serving champion in British history etc etc. The fact is he's faced a load of shit opponents and never had the courage to go in for the big fights.
Dreadful performance and a better puncher could have beaten him last night.
Wilko wrote:what really annoyed me about the whole thing was how Sky kept going on and on about him being the longest serving champion in British history etc etc.
Agreed.
Also to mention Joe Calzaghe in the same sentance as the great Jimmy Wilde was out of order I thought.
It's QUALITY not QUANTITY that counts, when comparing Boxing records, are you listening SKY?
steve689 wrote:Didn't see the interview afterwards so not sure what excuses he made.
Joe Calzaghe
"I was ring-rusty and over eager band I made it hard for myself, I'm disappointed with my performance. I'm glad I won but Salem came to spoil, he succeeded in making me look bad but I'm going to get better. He caught me off-balance and embarrassed me a bit but I've still got a lot to work on. I'm still looking for that career-defining fight."
Wilko wrote:what really annoyed me about the whole thing was how Sky kept going on and on about him being the longest serving champion in British history etc etc.
Agreed.
Also to mention Joe Calzaghe in the same sentance as the great Jimmy Wilde was out of order I thought.
It's QUALITY not QUANTITY that counts, when comparing Boxing records, are you listening SKY?
Exactly. Which is why the likes of Lloyd Honeygan will always be streets above Calzaghe for me.
So who's next? It's got to be a career defining fight afterall. No doubt it will be someone else we have never heard off and Calazaghe we now try to end his career by leaving a legacy of defences that no one will be able to match - apart from Hatton with his WBU belt.
The whole thing is a joke and Sky really made me sick last night. They have been so spineless recently. Seriously considering cancelling my subscription. They are taking the piss with their rates and PPVs.
I wrote to Sky about 6 months ago complaining about the quality of SN shows and they wrote back to say they would investigate and demand better quality for the fans. Not seen any improvements yet.
Good points Wilko i was also angry with SKY's commentary last night, it was awful propoganda which really gives a totally false impression to the casual viewer. Calzaghe has always been a sucker for the overhand right (see Eubank, Reid, Woodhall, Mitchell etc) and it proved so again by taking a flush right from a none entity and getting dropped. He will NEVER get a "career defining fight", he will retire with this record defences thing and keep living on that IMO.
Sky were kissing calzaghe arse last night. they seemed to forgot that sven ottke made something like 22 defenses of the IBF title. not according to them thou how come smith didnt interview FW on cazlaghe next fight after they spoken to calzaghe interview.
I was no Ottke fan but he fought a better class of opposition than Calzaghe and beat Brewer and Mitchell before Calzaghe got hold of them, he also beat Glen Johnson which looks a good win now and Larsen and Markussen and also Mundine which was probably one of his best victories considering the circumstances.
I was screaming at Calzaghe to jab from about 10 seconds into the fight. Fighting an extremely dirty, perhaps not even fringe world class, opponent, and he fights down to his level, giving him his type of fight? What the fornicate was he thinking? His dad Enzo should have gave him a good slap as soon as he got back to his corner before giving him instructions - which were, surprise surprise, to 'jab'.
In round four, the way Calzaghe was lunging in with his slaps with his chin in the air he was begging to be walloped by that bane of all southpaws, a hard right hand. Believe it or not I actually said out loud 'he's wide open for a right han...' and right when I said hand he got decked. Now, if some nomark like myself watching on TV can see glaring things like that, imagine what one of these young hungry punches at 168 would have done to him? Not to mention Salem could have taken him if he knew how to finish him, which he didn't. Calzaghe was still slightly groggy after the knockdown, which was a hard shot, and I think someone like Green or one of the Danish boys would likely have finished him at that point.
After that knockdown I felt that he lost all his confidence. You could see it had left him, even the way he would smile at Salem during the many separations from clinches. I fear for him if he fights someone young and hungry in the division with good power, as Joe seems to gain, and thenafter give, too much respect to an opponent who fights back and lets him feel their power.
Anyway, believe it or not, I was impressed he got through it and won. Sure, it was the type of fight American forces could use to torture 'prisoners' at Guantanemo Bay into revealing information. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly spectacle, and I wouldn't recommend this fight to anyone overseas who wants to see it. But at the end of the day he got a 36 minute workout and hopefully will be better next time. It would be hard not to be.
steve689 wrote:I was no Ottke fan but he fought a better class of opposition than Calzaghe and beat Brewer and Mitchell before Calzaghe got hold of them, he also beat Glen Johnson which looks a good win now and Larsen and Markussen and also Mundine which was probably one of his best victories considering the circumstances.
Ottke didn't beat Larsen, that was a big time rip off. The worst of the dodgy decisions he got.
Manos de Oro wrote:I was screaming at Calzaghe to jab from about 10 seconds into the fight. Fighting an extremely dirty, perhaps not even fringe world class, opponent, and he fights down to his level, giving him his type of fight? What the fornicate was he thinking? His dad Enzo should have gave him a good slap as soon as he got back to his corner before giving him instructions - which were, surprise surprise, to 'jab'.
In round four, the way Calzaghe was lunging in with his slaps with his chin in the air he was begging to be walloped by that bane of all southpaws, a hard right hand. Believe it or not I actually said out loud 'he's wide open for a right han...' and right when I said hand he got decked. Now, if some nomark like myself watching on TV can see glaring things like that, imagine what one of these young hungry punches at 168 would have done to him? Not to mention Salem could have taken him if he knew how to finish him, which he didn't. Calzaghe was still slightly groggy after the knockdown, which was a hard shot, and I think someone like Green or one of the Danish boys would likely have finished him at that point.
After that knockdown I felt that he lost all his confidence. You could see it had left him, even the way he would smile at Salem during the many separations from clinches. I fear for him if he fights someone young and hungry in the division with good power, as Joe seems to gain, and thenafter give, too much respect to an opponent who fights back and lets him feel their power.
Anyway, believe it or not, I was impressed he got through it and won. Sure, it was the type of fight American forces could use to torture 'prisoners' at Guantanemo Bay into revealing information. It was an ugly, ugly, ugly spectacle, and I wouldn't recommend this fight to anyone overseas who wants to see it. But at the end of the day he got a 36 minute workout and hopefully will be better next time. It would be hard not to be.
Good post.
Calzaghe looks like an amateur when he fights. He tries to have great handspeed but he just looks stupid when he slaps all the time with his arm punches.
I don't even think he can box that well. I've always said Ottke would have beaten him and I stand by that.
And when he was asked about the knockdown "I was just off balance". reminds me of Farnell. Hamed even gave credit to people who knocked him down.
Calzaghe better stay away from punchers. he can get away with what he does against the likes of Toker Pudwill but he'll get launched into orbit by someone like Tarver.
[quote="lirva33"]
Calzaghe looks like an amateur when he fights. He tries to have great handspeed but he just looks stupid when he slaps all the time with his arm punches.
quote]
Exactly. It's faintly embarrasing to hear Ian Darke saying 'Calzaghe's always dangerous with that handspeed' (or something similar) when anyone with eyes can see that Joe has merely succeded in hitting his opponents gloves and arms a load of times.
Saying Calzaghe has amazing handspeed is like saying I can type 200 words a minute: Sure, I can do it, but you'll find I've typed 'gtrui hfdagfd fuagf gfvuehfg ag6rtoig', rather than 'Christ I'm bored with Calzaghe', which was the intention.
believe it or not, i still think calzaghe would give tarver problems. Remember, when joe fought brewer, save for the first round he was very controlled and fought intelligently. he would bring that same performance to a tarver fight and would not get caught like he did against salem. he was just frustrated on friday.
calzaghe is a decent fighter with great workrate and heart. he is no p4p star. but we already knew that.
At least Alex Arthur was on hand to show off some lovely text book
skils.
I gave up on Calzaghe years ago, so as far as this poster goes even if Joe finally lands a credible fight in America and wins it won't be a case of "I told you so", the chance to proclaim that went out the window when the likes of Will McIntyre and Tocker Pudwill were consistently being fed to the long suffering Sky viewers.
how come smith didnt interview FW on cazlaghe next fight after they spoken to calzaghe interview.