earl of queensbury wrote:oliverfennell wrote:earl of queensbury wrote:
I think it's a perfectly good criteria for judging a fighter's greatness. I am not really the kind of person who is interested in all that P4P and ATG nonsense, because the criteria applied are not always in line with the act of watching and enjoying a fight. By reversing your argument, one would have to say that Sven Ottke was a 'greater' boxer than Chris Eubank based on his record and ranking - but give me 1 Eubank fight for 10 Ottke fights any day.
And in his own way, Gatti was a great fighter - sure he lost a few, but he was in some legendary wars and therefore deserves the tag 'warrior greatness'. Gatti had his defining fights with Ward - but Calzaghe never had anything approaching them for pure excitement.
OK, you could indeed say someone was a "great warrior", even if their statistical achievements were not great. But no, I don't think entertainment value is a valid criteria in assessing historical standing. Is Carl Thompson "greater" than Sven Ottke? Hell no! But of course, give me a Thompson fight to watch over an Ottke one every time!
"Defining fights" with Ward? Ward never even won a genuine world title. For sure he was great entertainment, but let's be honest, he was a gatekeeper. You're telling me Calzaghe's wins over Lacy, Kessler and Hopkins were less "defining" than Gatti's over Ward??
As for Eubank, are you forgetting he too was in A LOT of stinkers? (And yes, I would rank Ottke over him in terms of achievements)
To be honest, I think that the Ward-Gatti trilogy will be discussed years after any of Calzaghe's fights. Does anyone really discuss any of Joe's big fights (Kessler, Lacy, Hopkins, Jones!!) anymore?
On paper, Joe was a great fighter, but I still am not convinced that this translates into greatness in real terms - he wasn't a KO artist, he had an ugly technique, and he never really went into the trenches. For me, Hamed, Lewis, Benn and Eubank all rank above Joe for greatness - I'd put him on a footing with Johnny Nelson.
I guess we'll just have to disagree with the importance of entertainment value. But let's just say more people will remember Butterbean than Chris Byrd...
To your criticisms: "he wasn't a KO artist" - actually, earlier in his career, he was, but hand damage limited that later. But I guess that doesn't change what you're getting at; that once he reached a certain level, he didn't have those highlight-reel KOs that a lot of greats have.
"Ugly technique" - that's strictly one person's opinion. While I was rarely out of my seat watching him, I also was usually entertained enough. Fast hands, good workrate, aggressive, what's wrong with that package?
"Never went into the trenches" - neither did Roy Jones, and nobody's denying his ATG status because of that. Anyway, I have to disagree. True, there's no Benn-McClellan type fight on his record, but his fights with Eubank, Reid, Brewer, Mitchell and Kessler were all pretty stirring at times.