Joe Calzaghe

[Autobarn]

There is more excitement in this one round of Benn vs Barkley than in Joe's career.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yoq_keFIpSI

it's true Joe has yet to have a really outstanding, two-way fight because his title reign has been so closely regulated. I suppose he had one great round, when he got up from Byron Mitchell's right hand bomb to drop Mitchell & then stop him.

But even that was a premature British-style stoppage.

[Autobarn]

Autobarn mentions Dean Francis, who (and admittedly I am a fan) could've been *the* SM star for a time. Dean had a fierce presence back then, a real air of menace coming to the ring. Yet his boxing was as classy as I'd witnessed since McCallum was in his prime.

Francis vs. Calzaghe in '97 had Fight of the Year written all over it.

In my mind, Calzaghe's best win was over Mark Delaney. It was clearly one-sided, but showed JC's true colours; a brooding, bullying man of tough intensity and dazzling skill. This fight was the equivalent of Ali vs. Williams.

Joe Calzaghe's golden era should've been the late-'90s. It wasn't.

yep, Francis got to that stage where he had that ring presence about him, similar to what David Haye picked up on his European title fights.

Totally controlled, did have to learn how to pace himself, but needle shrp accuracy and good power. IMO the most well schooled British fighter we've had in a long time.

Some great results that hit at Francis' potential:

TKO6 David Starie: clean, high quality boxing match with a clinical finish. Starie goes on to drag Calzaghe's style down and have a 12 round jogging match with Ottke.

KO9 Frederic Seillier: proving he can deal with a guy deemed good enough to challenge Steve Collins.

TKO7 Cornelius Carr: Carr went 12 rds with Collins in a WBO title fight and Francis' performance was more authoritative than Collins' (though I haven't watched either in a long time).

TKO12 Mark Baker: Terrific fight. Francis sharpshooting at his best over first 5. Baker brawls back into it as Francis tries to get 2nd wind. Francis rallies to score late stoppage with beautiful shots. Many felt Baker was robbed vs Clinton Woods.

So Francis actually outdid 4 "world champs" in performances v common opponents, although obviously Woods would go on to be world class. He made some of Calzaghe and Collins' title defenses look pretty wank to be honest. Granted, Francis did get stopped in his 10th pro fight (vs future world title challenger Ballogou) and did get hurt by Canadian nonentitiy Kit Munroe but that just heighens some of his similarities with Haye, IMO.

I'm hoping Deano can break down Oakey - left hooks to the body will work a treat - in enough style to tempt Clinton Woods into a voluntary title defense if CW is stil champ after next weekend.

[Autobarn]

There is more excitement in this one round of Benn vs Barkley than in Joe's career.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yoq_keFIpSI

it's true Joe has yet to have a really outstanding, two-way fight because his title reign has been so closely regulated. I suppose he had one great round, when he got up from Byron Mitchell's right hand bomb to drop Mitchell & then stop him.

But even that was a premature British-style stoppage.

To be fair he had a few exciting rounds against Brewer, few people get as much excitement into a round as Benn got into that one, it was crazy.

The 3-knockdown rule can be a right pain in the arse, can't we just train the refs better? Excercise a little common sense if the fighter can conitune and stop it if he cannot, be it after one knockdown or three.

there were some good exchanges in Joe-Brewer but I don't see it as a very, very good fight because I had Joe winning about 9 rds. I find that the most exciting moments of Joe's fights can come at the end, as when Brewer, Eubank & Kessler all nailed him in suspenseful 12th rounds.

Woodhall fight was a good one, but again Woodhall was that bit too jaded to win many rds although he landed lots of rights.

[Max Molyneux]

There is more excitement in this one round of Benn vs Barkley than in Joe's career.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yoq_keFIpSI

Benn was good and entertaining but boxing your opponent and being multi dimensional while brutalising the other guy Is way more entertaining.

Benn was exciting because of his recklessness.

Since when Is Joe not exciting? Joe has excited many times the way he brutalises opponents while not getting hurt himself.

it's true Joe has yet to have a really outstanding

[observer1]

i agree that Calzaghe could have fought some big fights to make himself bigger, but he chose not to

[Autobarn]

There is more excitement in this one round of Benn vs Barkley than in Joe's career.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yoq_keFIpSI

Benn was good and entertaining but boxing your opponent and being multi dimensional while brutalising the other guy Is way more entertaining.

Benn was exciting because of his recklessness.

Since when Is Joe not exciting? Joe has excited many times the way he brutalises opponents while not getting hurt himself.

it's true Joe has yet to have a really outstanding

we still don't know 100% if Joe's style is convincing. What if Hopkins manages to fiddle his way to a dull, messy points win, and what if Joe can't stop the rot? We wil probably know then that there is just a missing ingredient.

I know I picked Kessler to beat Joe, but Kessler is only one style, and he just couldn't deal with a fast southpaw. Do we really have the book on Joe until a fter Hopkins? I hope he puts in a great performance but who knows, he may be made to look bad.

He does make tactical errors and Hopkins is going to have to jump on him for the things he does wrong. Hopkins is often more assertive vs southpaws because he has to land a lead right hand to win.

[STP]

Eubank hints at Calzaghe lacking skill?

"That (Dan Schommer) is the only fight I believe I lost despite the decision going my way, and it was wholly down to the technical ability of Mr Schommer. He was always just out of range, so when I struck I missed and he would always counter. If I was scoring the fight, I'd have scored it for him, but the judges there scored it for me because they appreciated my aggression.

"His southpaw stance didn't help, but he was a master of distance. I know he was podgy-looking, but I've never fought anyone as skilful as him! He must have been boxings biggest secret. He hit very hard, too, deceptively. I was completely threw off by this guy, because he did look like the so-be-it 'bum' so to speak at the press conference!"


"If I considered myself the greatest super middleweight or the best super middleweight, it's not for me to say. And it wasn't totally a case of losing a killer instinct after Watson II, I just wasn't gifted enough to be able to go in there and knock a man out in a round I chose. People outside of the boxing fraternity do not realise what complexity is involved in throwing just one single punch. You don't punch from the arm or even from the shoulder. You punch from the foot.

"The wave of movement travels from the toe, through the foot, knee, hip and chest, sears up the arm, forearm, wrist and finally into the knuckles. Then the index knuckle and middle knuckle are the two which need to connect. These two knuckles flow from a direct line straight up your arm. The other knuckles don't have the same support, so if you connect badly with the other two you are likely to hurt your hand.

"Sometimes you connect correctly with the two correct knuckles and 'bingo', the unfortunate person struck is not vertical.

"If that is done correctly, which is hard enough, you then have to complete the proceedure, which involves getting your fist back into the correct position by your chin, your body is pulled back into form and you are ready to go again. If you can do that meticulously, you will have probably taken two or three years to master it - and now you know just one punch!

"Apart from the right hand, there's the left uppercut to the body, the right uppercut to the body, the right hand to the body, the left hook... these punches take thousands of hours to learn."

[Al Savani]

Lacey was his career-defining fight. Before that he had little respect from any quarters,after it he had respect from all quarters,can't get much more 'career-defining' in one fight than that.

[Al Savani]

Eubank hints at Calzaghe lacking skill?

"That (Dan Schommer) is the only fight I believe I lost despite the decision going my way, and it was wholly down to the technical ability of Mr Schommer. He was always just out of range, so when I struck I missed and he would always counter. If I was scoring the fight, I'd have scored it for him, but the judges there scored it for me because they appreciated my aggression.

"His southpaw stance didn't help, but he was a master of distance. I know he was podgy-looking, but I've never fought anyone as skilful as him! He must have been boxings biggest secret. He hit very hard, too, deceptively. I was completely threw off by this guy, because he did look like the so-be-it 'bum' so to speak at the press conference!"


"If I considered myself the greatest super middleweight or the best super middleweight, it's not for me to say. And it wasn't totally a case of losing a killer instinct after Watson II, I just wasn't gifted enough to be able to go in there and knock a man out in a round I chose. People outside of the boxing fraternity do not realise what complexity is involved in throwing just one single punch. You don't punch from the arm or even from the shoulder. You punch from the foot.

"The wave of movement travels from the toe, through the foot, knee, hip and chest, sears up the arm, forearm, wrist and finally into the knuckles. Then the index knuckle and middle knuckle are the two which need to connect. These two knuckles flow from a direct line straight up your arm. The other knuckles don't have the same support, so if you connect badly with the other two you are likely to hurt your hand.

"Sometimes you connect correctly with the two correct knuckles and 'bingo', the unfortunate person struck is not vertical.

"If that is done correctly, which is hard enough, you then have to complete the proceedure, which involves getting your fist back into the correct position by your chin, your body is pulled back into form and you are ready to go again. If you can do that meticulously, you will have probably taken two or three years to master it - and now you know just one punch!

"Apart from the right hand, there's the left uppercut to the body, the right uppercut to the body, the right hand to the body, the left hook... these punches take thousands of hours to learn."

Eubanks just jealous of Calzaghe. The month after the Lacey fight,he released the Watson fight on his website,and told all the papers how great it was,trying to take steam away from Calzaghe. He feels threatened by Calzaghe,like he used to feel threatened by Lennox Lewis and talk about Lennox's 'lack of personality' back in the day.

[Spud]

Lacey was his career-defining fight. Before that he had little respect from any quarters,after it he had respect from all quarters,can't get much more 'career-defining' in one fight than that.

Whilst there is a lot of truth in what you have written:

How can a fight against an over hyped, unproven "fringe" world class fighter be a career defining fight for a fighter that some are calling the greatest British fighter to grace a ring.

What has happened with that Lacy fight is the media and all those who jumped on the Lacy hype wagon - is embaraasment - Lacy was found out on how inept he was!!! - but because of the hype and all the sh*t written and sadi about him - people then had no choice but to say nice things about the result of the fight.

Kessler has been Calzaghes one true test in recent years - I honestly believe it was a bloody good result against one of the very few genuine world class fighters which Calzaghe fought in whilst the opponent was still in his prime!!! - no matter the result against Hopkins - there is no way Hopkins is still in his prime.

[Asterix]

Career defining = The fight versus Jeff Lacy
Best result = The fight versus Kessler

In my opinion, because the Lacy fight changed things for Calzaghe. If he had the Kessler fight beforehand, then that would be the career defining fight.

[Spud]

Career defining = The fight versus Jeff Lacy
Best result = The fight versus Kessler

In my opinion, because the Lacy fight changed things for Calzaghe. If he had the Kessler fight beforehand, then that would be the career defining fight.

I will say again "Asterix" - the Lacy fight is being called the career defining fight because there are far too many so called "boxing experts" who will never admit how much they got Jeff Lacy wrong!!!

What earth shattering things had he done prior to the Calzaghe fight to make him such a magnificent world class fighter?

How many fights had Lacy had prior to the Calzaghe fight - thus leaving a very clear audit trail of world class performances for the American Writers and those British ones intent on grovelling after a certain british promoter to crow from the rooftops and be justified that Lacy was a truly world class fighter.

[Asterix]

Career defining = The fight versus Jeff Lacy
Best result = The fight versus Kessler

In my opinion, because the Lacy fight changed things for Calzaghe. If he had the Kessler fight beforehand, then that would be the career defining fight.

I will say again "Asterix" - the Lacy fight is being called the career defining fight because there are far too many so called "boxing experts" who will never admit how much they got Jeff Lacy wrong!!!

What earth shattering things had he done prior to the Calzaghe fight to make him such a magnificent world class fighter?

How many fights had Lacy had prior to the Calzaghe fight - thus leaving a very clear audit trail of world class performances for the American Writers and those British ones intent on grovelling after a certain british promoter to crow from the rooftops and be justified that Lacy was a truly world class fighter.

It's not about how good, or bad, Lacy was, but the impact the fight had in the media. Just my opinion.