lillywhite14 wrote:
I always find those struggling to put forward a case for Joe to "easily have the better record" always resort to an entirely different question...
'Yeah but what would happen if Carl and Joe fought prime for prime'
Joe would win. Thing is, I only think one of the two would be bang up for making the fight happen!
Joe was supremely talented, more so than Froch. As mentioned above though, there are still questions left regarding how good he actually was. Its a shame. He should have sought out the big names and top, top fighters back when he was in his pomp. Joe should have been a big name in boxing stateside years before the Hopkins fight.
One word springs to mind when talking Joe Calzaghe... ( no, not 'fanboys' ) unfulfilled.

I don't think that's fair. Joe didn't put his foot down with Warren over a steady stream of poor opponents, but he never avoided anyone. Wilfried Sauerland refused to go near him with Otke, Hopkins agreed to the fight when he was a middleweight and then backed off. Who else was there for him to fight?
During the 11 years Calzaghe was WBO champion, this is a list of other super-middleweight champions: Robin Reid, Sugarboy Malinga, Richie Woodhall, Markus Beyer, Glenn Catley, Dingaan Thobela, Davey Hilton, Eric Lucas, Danny Green, Cristian Sanavia, Mikkel Kessler, Frankie Liles, Byron Mitchell, Bruno Girard, Anthony Mundine, Manny Siaca, Sven Otke, Charles Brewer, Jeff Lacy, Alejandro Berrio.
Which of that lot would have improved his legacy?
Facing a guy like Jones in his prime will have meant moving up a division, going to America for peanuts and giving up 4 options. That was never going to happen with Warren in charge. Jones was also on HBO, while Calzaghe/Warren was on Showtime. But that was the curse of the WBO title - it was easy for others to ignore.