BoxRec

I was watching a Calzaghe DVD last night and was reminded of how amazingly quickly he could recover from being hurt. Byron Mitchell scored a hellacious knockdown over him, his eyes were all over the place and his legs stiff, but he recovered in seconds and forced the stoppage later the same round. The knockdowns against Jones and Hopkins were also hard, but Calzaghe recovered very quickly. Reid, Kessler and Eubank hit him with shots that would have KO'd a lot of fighters, and while clearly Calzaghe was troubled by them, the effects each time lasted but seconds, and he would even come back firing hard.

I don't wish this to become another dissection of the merits (or otherwise) of Calzaghe's record, merely to appreciate this formidable part of his armoury.

Which top-notch finishers he faced hurt him, though? They say the same thing about Larry Holmes, but my question applies there, as well.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Which top-notch finishers he faced hurt him, though? They say the same thing about Larry Holmes, but my question applies there, as well.

Well Larry fought Mike Tyson, and well...

Larry survived Shavers best, not many got off the hook once he had them there.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Which top-notch finishers he faced hurt him, though? They say the same thing about Larry Holmes, but my question applies there, as well.

Fair question, but the point is even the best of finishers might only have had a 3-5 second window of opportunity to capitalise.

surely it's down to his fitness/cardio?

One thing you can't knock Calzaghe for is that he was chinny. He was never floored as an amateur and went 35 fights as a pro before being floored. Even the 4 knockdowns he suffered he was straight back up on his feet.

I do wonder how much better JC would have been if he didn't have fragile hands though. If his hands were solid he would have been even better.

Controversial wrote:One thing you can't knock Calzaghe for is that he was chinny. He was never floored as an amateur and went 35 fights as a pro before being floored. Even the 4 knockdowns he suffered he was straight back up on his feet.

I do wonder how much better JC would have been if he didn't have fragile hands though. If his hands were solid he would have been even better.

Yes, another thing I noticed on the DVD was how much harder he punched in the early part of his reign, and how often his punch power was referred to. He had some very solid single shots in his armory; punches that could floor a guy from nowhere. In the later stages he relied on volume over power, with a prime example being the Manfredo fight. He overwhelmed Manfredo, and it was a fair stoppage in that Manfredo didn't know what to do with himself, but he wasn't really hurt, and Calzaghe's punches were actually very scrappy in terms of their delivery.

oliverfennell wrote:

Controversial wrote:One thing you can't knock Calzaghe for is that he was chinny. He was never floored as an amateur and went 35 fights as a pro before being floored. Even the 4 knockdowns he suffered he was straight back up on his feet.

I do wonder how much better JC would have been if he didn't have fragile hands though. If his hands were solid he would have been even better.

Yes, another thing I noticed on the DVD was how much harder he punched in the early part of his reign, and how often his punch power was referred to. He had some very solid single shots in his armory; punches that could floor a guy from nowhere. In the later stages he relied on volume over power, with a prime example being the Manfredo fight. He overwhelmed Manfredo, and it was a fair stoppage in that Manfredo didn't know what to do with himself, but he wasn't really hurt, and Calzaghe's punches were actually very scrappy in terms of their delivery.

yeah i remember him being refered to as a KO artist of sorts by a few comentators but when his hand troubles started he started throwing the "slaps" more and lost a lot of his KO power but became more of a volume puncher

Well to be honest, I always thought those "slaps" had a lot more power on them when he was given credit for. Manfredo didn't just back himself into a corner, he was stunned by a left cross before he went into full on defense mode at the sight of that speedy volume.

Adamj1987 wrote:

oliverfennell wrote:
Yes, another thing I noticed on the DVD was how much harder he punched in the early part of his reign, and how often his punch power was referred to. He had some very solid single shots in his armory; punches that could floor a guy from nowhere. In the later stages he relied on volume over power, with a prime example being the Manfredo fight. He overwhelmed Manfredo, and it was a fair stoppage in that Manfredo didn't know what to do with himself, but he wasn't really hurt, and Calzaghe's punches were actually very scrappy in terms of their delivery.

yeah i remember him being refered to as a KO artist of sorts by a few comentators but when his hand troubles started he started throwing the "slaps" more and lost a lot of his KO power but became more of a volume puncher

JC was 22-0 (21 kos) when he fought Eubank, a sign he could bang. Plus he floored Eubank who had a very good chin.

His hands were a huge problem for JC. Many fights were delayed due to his hand problems. He broke his hand in the 3rd round against Evans Ashira and fought the remaining 9 rounds using one hand, and still won every round.

didn't Smyth floor him, winning the Welsh ABAs in the process?

his hands turned to biscuit quite early on, he had to resort to throwing punches in bunches and throwing only one or two hard shots out of 7-8, he admitted this much himself after retiring.

calzaghe never fought a fighter who was great and anywhere near his prime

his padded record is just a disgrace , his first title defence like many a farce , branco sobat , rick thornberry , tucket pudwell to name just 3 were not even top 100

calzaghes best win is against kessler who is nowhere near great , hopkins beat him but got jobbed and an old and 5 years shot jones jnr knocked calzone down.

calzaghe vs jones and hopkins 10 years ago ends in a brutal knock out with out winning a round vs jones and a wide decision loss by hopkins

overated untested waste

Not a fan then?

Controversial wrote:

Adamj1987 wrote:

oliverfennell wrote:
Yes, another thing I noticed on the DVD was how much harder he punched in the early part of his reign, and how often his punch power was referred to. He had some very solid single shots in his armory; punches that could floor a guy from nowhere. In the later stages he relied on volume over power, with a prime example being the Manfredo fight. He overwhelmed Manfredo, and it was a fair stoppage in that Manfredo didn't know what to do with himself, but he wasn't really hurt, and Calzaghe's punches were actually very scrappy in terms of their delivery.

yeah i remember him being refered to as a KO artist of sorts by a few comentators but when his hand troubles started he started throwing the "slaps" more and lost a lot of his KO power but became more of a volume puncher

JC was 22-0 (21 kos) when he fought Eubank, a sign he could bang. Plus he floored Eubank who had a very good chin.

His hands were a huge problem for JC. Many fights were delayed due to his hand problems. He broke his hand in the 3rd round against Evans Ashira and fought the remaining 9 rounds using one hand, and still won every round.

i remember watching teh ashira fight unimpressed until i learned his hand went in round 3

orbtastic wrote:Not a fan then?

He's sort of on the fence at the moment.

amazing cardio bro

boxerbob wrote:calzaghe never fought a fighter who was great and anywhere near his prime

his padded record is just a disgrace , his first title defence like many a farce , branco sobat , rick thornberry , tucket pudwell to name just 3 were not even top 100

calzaghes best win is against kessler who is nowhere near great , hopkins beat him but got jobbed and an old and 5 years shot jones jnr knocked calzone down.

calzaghe vs jones and hopkins 10 years ago ends in a brutal knock out with out winning a round vs jones and a wide decision loss by hopkins

overated untested waste

I did say this wasn't a thread for discussing Calzaghe's opposition, but there ya go...

(not because I don't think it's a meritous discussion, but we've had it about a million times already)

Yep Calzaghe could take a shot up there with the best of him - you can't go so long undefeated in that game without being able to take shots well.

Fair play to Joe he sure could take shots - maybe towards the end though his ability to take a shot was dwindling (Hopkins and Jones both has him down).

Calzaghe had a very good chin but I definitely wouldn't compare him to Holmes. Larry faced some monster hitters.

What big knockout punchers did Calzaghe face? A 40 year old Jones and Hopkins don't really qualify. Kessler, Lacy, Mitchell had decent power but nothing spectacular.

I'm not a Calzaghe 'hater' like some and think he was one of the best fighters of the past 15 years. But I think if he was floored by the likes of Hopkins and Mitchell vs some of the great power hitters at 160-175 through history he would've had some big problems.