Joe Calzaghe - Question Mark

[JamesPhilips]

Calzaghe was definitely overrated.

How? And by who?

[Eolaithe]

Calzaghe was definitely overrated.

How? And by who?

In the context of Joe’s twenty-two 168lbs world title fights, only seven of those opponents were considered by EPSN and The RING as being top-ten world-rated super-middleweights.

Calzaghe was knocked down by: Byron Mitchell, Kabary Salem, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., meaning he was dropped four times over roughly 5½ years.

Calzaghe's wins over Reid and Hopkins were highly-disputed, with credible observers scoring against him, such as the commentators from his home network (i.e. Sky Sports).

Calzaghe refused to grant Reid and Hopkins rematches.

Calzaghe beat ageing versions of Eubank Sr. (with Chris being weight-drained and taking the fight at short notice), the 43-year-old Hopkins and the totally shot Roy Jones Jr.

Jeff Lacy is regarded as one of Joe’s best wins, but the American was preposterously hyped, despite never achieving anything significant during his career (before or after the Calzaghe bout) to justify all the praise that had been lavished upon him.

Calzaghe's ten-year championship reign contained a significant amount of modest opposition, several highly ranked contemporaries went unfought, and his résumé isn't as deep as the raw 46-0/21-defence statistics initially suggest.

During his 168lb reign, numerous long-time top-ten Ring-rated contenders went unfought, such as: Sven Ottke, Frankie Liles, Markus Beyer, Thomas Tate, Antwun Echols, Eric Lucas, Mads Larsen, Manny Siaca, Anthony Mundine, Danny Green and Librado Andrade.

Froch, Pascal, Bute, Inkin and Green also entered the top ten towards the end of Calzaghe's super-middleweight career, but Joe didn’t face those guys either.

In April 2007, Hennessy Sports offered Calzaghe a career-best $3.2m payday (at that point in time) to face Carl Froch, which Joe’s team declined.

[JamesPhilips]

Calzaghe was definitely overrated.

How? And by who?

In the context of Joe’s twenty-two 168lbs world title fights, only seven of those opponents were considered by EPSN and The RING as being top-ten world-rated super-middleweights.

Calzaghe was knocked down by: Byron Mitchell, Kabary Salem, Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., meaning he was dropped four times over roughly 5½ years.

Calzaghe's wins over Reid and Hopkins were highly-disputed, with credible observers scoring against him, such as the commentators from his home network (i.e. Sky Sports).

Calzaghe refused to grant Reid and Hopkins rematches.

Calzaghe beat ageing versions of Eubank Sr. (with Chris being weight-drained and taking the fight at short notice), the 43-year-old Hopkins and the totally shot Roy Jones Jr.

Jeff Lacy is regarded as one of Joe’s best wins, but the American was preposterously hyped, despite never achieving anything significant during his career (before or after the Calzaghe bout) to justify all the praise that had been lavished upon him.

Calzaghe's ten-year championship reign contained a significant amount of modest opposition, several highly ranked contemporaries went unfought, and his résumé isn't as deep as the raw 46-0/21-defence statistics initially suggest.

During his 168lb reign, numerous long-time top-ten Ring-rated contenders went unfought, such as: Sven Ottke, Frankie Liles, Markus Beyer, Thomas Tate, Antwun Echols, Eric Lucas, Mads Larsen, Manny Siaca, Anthony Mundine, Danny Green and Librado Andrade.

Froch, Pascal, Bute, Inkin and Green also entered the top ten towards the end of Calzaghe's super-middleweight career, but Joe didn’t face those guys either.

In April 2007, Hennessy Sports offered Calzaghe a career-best $3.2m payday (at that point in time) to face Carl Froch, which Joe’s team declined.

TLDR

[Grilling Machine]

It's pretty much consensus Calzaghe would've beaten those guys, except maybe Froch at the end of his career and Ottke in Germany.

He could've moved to 175 to face Jones in their mutual primes, but few of us rate him above that version of Roy so it wouldn't have changed much. He couldn't help being a bit too young for the golden era of British middles.

He could definitely have faced better opponents, especially in his Middle Earth phase, but there weren't many fancied to beat him. He's rated fairly here for the generation he belonged to.

[jameswilson]

I was a big Calzaghe critic during his career as I was a Froch fan.

But I’d be a fool to not have Calzaghe either first or second in the p4p all time British boxers.

The spell from when he won the title to when he fought Lacy and Kessler was actually a very dry Super middleweight spell. Would beating Ottke, Green, Mundine and Beyer have really cemented his legacy beyond what it became? And I’m sure Jones and Toney had already moved up by the time he won against Eubank so those two weren’t in the picture. He could have gone to light heavyweight earlier and had he say beaten Clinton Woods and then Glen Johnson before maybe facing Hopkins as he came up to light heavyweight and maybe Jones earlier and Tarver then that possibly could have given him a better legacy. But in saying that we would then say ‘oh hold on he didn’t face Kessler who was the heir apparent’ so basically he couldn’t do both.


As for comparing him to a prime Jones I don’t think anyone has him beating the super middleweight version of Jones and also wasn’t Jones’s reign there quite a lot earlier than when Calzaghe won his first World title? I’ve got an inkling Jones beat British great Mike McCallum at 175 before Calzaghe beat Eubank.

[MightyWarrior]

You’ll hear a lot of top fighters say that Joe Calzaghe was a great fighter, irrespective of his record.
The who’s he names on his record were down to his greedy manager, keeping the hand brakes on and making sure he had all bases covered. In his prime Joe was almost impossible to beat. Almost. Jones probably would’ve outpointed him, and Toney who knows, but those two would be knocking everybody out in any era.
I don’t really pay much attention to the Jones & Hopkins fight, because all three of them were past it by then. Joe’s hands went 10 years before that…imagine what he’d have been like if they hadn’t. The damage was probably done trying to do the impossible and knock out Chris Eubank.

Disclaimer: the content of this post might not be entirely accurate due to the fact I love Joe calzaghe.