Joe Calzaghe Is Most Underrated Champion

[max baer]

Do you reckon joe was one of the greatest underrated champions. i was a huge fan years ago i loved his style and attitude. do americans underate the welshman to this day.
how great do you americans rate the italian/welsh champion. is my hero worship misguided or is he a greatest champion like i feel he is. joe trained so hard and his dad was his trainer. watch the doc i linked to it is really good.

[billeau2]

I never liked Calzighe, felt he fought underwhelming comp, etc... BUT, the fact that a fellow poster who has displayed an appreciation for the topics put fourth here consistently, and with a depth of insight and understanding favors Joe... makes me want to open my mind and take another look at Calzighe. Also, I think my dyslexia and his name, specifically spelling it... might have influenced my opinion on him and who's fault is that!? Not Joe's.

Seriously one has to admire how he took apart Lacy. It is one of those things that seems to happen constantly... People have 20/20 hindsight about how Lacy was lacking, but at the time Lacy was considered a murderous puncher coming up the food chain. Joe never had any doubts...

Welsh fighters always have seemingly given a good account of themselves! Joe is part of a venerable tradition. Tommy Farr is a guy who I enjoy watching tape of.

[IronDanHamza]

He fought a grand total of three Top 5 ranked fighters throughout his entire career.

Not a great fighter.

[max baer]

He fought a grand total of three Top 5 ranked fighters throughout his entire career.

Not a great fighter.

you know iron dan, one thing i am not up to speed at when i discuss boxers are the rankings of those they fought. i am getting a little better now at looking at these factors but i don't base my opinions on top ranking opponents but rather on what they did to the guys they did fight. joe seemed to rise to the occasion every time and had stamina that was just unbelievable to me. i always admired him in his private life and how he conducted himself. he was at his peak at the time i was becoming a personal trainer and my fitness was unbelievable too i could just run, swim and keep going like a madman and joe was inspiring me with his incredible stamina. i am also of middleweight build never huge muscles but rather slim middleweight but with great great stamina. this made me especially a fan of that weight class.
i come at this forum as a fan rather than an expert and i just feel joe had some amazing wins in the states and he really inspired me in my fitness training back then.

"On 5 February 2009, Joe Calzaghe announced his retirement from professional boxing. He finished his career with a record of 46 wins and no losses, and becoming one of only fifteen world champions (to date) to retire as an undefeated world champion." wikipedia.

[IronDanHamza]

you know iron dan, one thing i am not up to speed at when i discuss boxers are the rankings of those they fought. i am getting a little better now at looking at these factors but i don't base my opinions on top ranking opponents but rather on what they did to the guys they did fight. joe seemed to rise to the occasion every time and had stamina that was just unbelievable to me. i always admired him in his private life and how he conducted himself. he was at his peak at the time i was becoming a personal trainer and my fitness was unbelievable too i could just run, swim and keep going like a madman and joe was inspiring me with his incredible stamina. i am also of middleweight build never huge muscles but rather slim middleweight but with great great stamina. this made me especially a fan of that weight class.
i come at this forum as a fan rather than an expert and i just feel joe had some amazing wins in the states and he really inspired me in my fitness training back then.

"On 5 February 2009, Joe Calzaghe announced his retirement from professional boxing. He finished his career with a record of 46 wins and no losses, and becoming one of only fifteen world champions (to date) to retire as an undefeated world champion." wikipedia.

It's easy to do that when your opposition level is poor, which it was.

He has three wins over Top 5 ranked opponents; Kessler, Lacy and Hopkins.

Kessler was his best win, Lacy was a good win on the basis he was overhyped and a big favourite although the asterisk is that Lacy is garbage, Hopkins is a good win, but he arguably lost that one.

Not impressive to me.

[max baer]

It's easy to do that when your opposition level is poor, which it was.

He has three wins over Top 5 ranked opponents; Kessler, Lacy and Hopkins.

Kessler was his best win, Lacy was a good win on the basis he was overhyped and a big favourite although the asterisk is that Lacy is garbage, Hopkins is a good win, but he arguably lost that one.

Not impressive to me.

we will have to agree to disagree my man.

[tonysoprano]

Over-rated if anything. In the UK they act like he’s Sugar Ray Robinson. He basically fought nobody for a decade and then picked off 43 year old Hopkins and a shot 38 year old RJJ.

Kessler was nothing special he had beaten nobody of much worth before the Calzhage fight and then Ward and Froch have both beaten him.

But he retired 46-0 so people think he’s much better than he was. His list of title defences is laughable. Peter Manfredo, Evans Ashira, Kabary Salem, Toker Pudwill, Branko Sobot and various other nobodies.

Plus for years he refused to fly and wouldn’t fight outside the UK or Wales, only to suddenly find his air miles when old BHop and RJJ gave him a payday.

[max baer]

I never liked Calzighe, felt he fought underwhelming comp, etc... BUT, the fact that a fellow poster who has displayed an appreciation for the topics put fourth here consistently, and with a depth of insight and understanding favors Joe... makes me want to open my mind and take another look at Calzighe. Also, I think my dyslexia and his name, specifically spelling it... might have influenced my opinion on him and who's fault is that!? Not Joe's.

Seriously one has to admire how he took apart Lacy. It is one of those things that seems to happen constantly... People have 20/20 hindsight about how Lacy was lacking, but at the time Lacy was considered a murderous puncher coming up the food chain. Joe never had any doubts...

Welsh fighters always have seemingly given a good account of themselves! Joe is part of a venerable tradition. Tommy Farr is a guy who I enjoy watching tape of.

OH YEAH! Tommy FARR!!!
I am so glad you said that I completely forgot till just now,
against my all time favourite old boxer max baer. I can't believe I had completely forgotten about this. Thanks man you're a star!

[kara]

It's easy to do that when your opposition level is poor, which it was.

He has three wins over Top 5 ranked opponents; Kessler, Lacy and Hopkins.

Kessler was his best win, Lacy was a good win on the basis he was overhyped and a big favourite although the asterisk is that Lacy is garbage, Hopkins is a good win, but he arguably lost that one.

Not impressive to me.

The only guy people wanted to see him fight at the end was Froch, but Froch was very green and Joe would have beaten him

[IronDanHamza]

The only guy people wanted to see him fight at the end was Froch, but Froch was very green and Joe would have beaten him

Not really true.

Ottke, Pavlik, Johnson, Dawson, loads of guys that people were interested in him fighting at different times.

While he was at 168 there were a plethora of guys who were ranked in the Top 5 that he didn't fight. Not that he ducked them, he didn't, but there were plenty he missed.

He was in a division for a decade and fought two guys in the Top 5. It's a joke really to say that out loud.