Calzaghe or Froch

[LacedUp]

Froch loses a lot of fantasy fights.

Usually wins them in reality. Going 12 rounds with Froch is a difficult prospect and Joe had his issues with lesser fighters than Froch.

Froch is held in higher esteem by me, but I would slightly favour Joe if they fought.

[IronDanHamza]

Froch loses a lot of fantasy fights.

Usually wins them in reality. Going 12 rounds with Froch is a difficult prospect and Joe had his issues with lesser fighters than Froch.

Froch is held in higher esteem by me, but I would slightly favour Joe if they fought.

Agree 100%.

I'd edge Calzaghe to box to a close decision and his chin would hold him up late but I could see Froch edging it though.

[billeau2]

Then why did Calzaghe opt to retire before fighting Froch? Was there a fear of him getting caught with a good shot and losing his 0?

I think so. Joe is an interesting fighter historically. To me at least. He represents a group of European champs who managed to really thrive in their own backyard. Sven Ottke also comes to mind. I think at some point that 0 does become too important. There is actually no correlation to being undefeated and being a great fighter. As a matter of fact, many fighters who lost quite a few times are often open to consideration. Even in our day and age, if we take a guy like Salidad...One knock on him before he brought down the Juan Ma, was that he was a much better fighter than his record indicated.

I don't think the backyard in Europe is as infested with competition as the United states. Europe is getting there quickly though! and things might change in even the next few years. But when Joe was plying his trade, as well as when Ottke was, the big dogs were in America.

[LacedUp]

Agree 100%.

I'd edge Calzaghe to box to a close decision and his chin would hold him up late but I could see Froch edging it though.

Pretty much how I see it.

On paper Froch is getting outboxed by everyone who can box, when in reality he's beaten "boxers" on plenty of occasions and even showed he could box a little bit himself when needed to.

[billeau2]

Pretty much how I see it.

On paper Froch is getting outboxed by everyone who can box, when in reality he's beaten "boxers" on plenty of occasions and even showed he could box a little bit himself when needed to.

While I don't think there is any shame to losing a fight to Andre Ward I think the fight between Froch and Ward was telling. Froch looked very ordinary and he did so against a truly elite fighter. While this isn't the only reason I think Froch is good, but not a great fighter, it tells me a lot that he can compete and beat fighters like Kessler...tough, good fighters with decent to outstanding fundamentals and skills, but is obviously in another class when fighting a fighter like Ward.

Froch imo is the crab, that if you put in the pot, with all the other tough, good, competative fighters in his weight class would find a way to claw out of the pot...but the minute you take a fighter that is a class above, and as much as it pains me to say it, Calzighe is in that class...Froch is outclassed.

Where as Froch could out muscle Kessler, Joe was too fast and unorthodox...where as defensively Froch could deal with guys who were good punchers, Joe had too much speed, and as Lefty said "a real mean streek."

I guess that is why Froch loses these punch outs in many people's minds. Froch imo is closer to ordinary than world beater. Froch ahs made the most out of his gifts and deserves credit for that...and he deserves a special category as in "Boxers with extremely good looking wives."

[BennyST]

These are the champions each guy beat. I'm not including top contenders of each and not putting in ages. That's another discussion and I can't be bothered now. Simply the champions each guy fought.

Calzaghe
Hopkins
Eubanks
Lacy
Reid
Jones
Woodhall
Brewer
Bika
Kessler
Mitchell

Froch
Reid
Kessler
Johnson
Abraham
Bute
Taylor
Pascal

It's not quite as obvious as one would think looking at it that way. Calzaghe beat more, and beat the higher quality at the top end. The best opponents for Froch, Bute and Kessler, Calzaghe beat one of them clearer while in his prime.

It's an interesting one that isn't as clear as most make it out to be I think. I think it's because Calzaghe had good opposition mixed in with lots of fluff, while Froch fought good opposition in a shorter length of time, or more back to back. But if you take their overall careers and leave the fluff out, Calzaghe could easily be argued as having the better resume.

We can take out a shot Jones of course, but then we'd need to take out a shot Johnson and Reid for Froch, so that's why I just didn't bother.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

My opinion, Froch had the better resume, but Joe was the better fighter.

Calzaghe better h2h.. Resume its very close but I might give the nod to Joe just for the simple fact he was #1 in 2 divisions and froch was #1. Also Joe beat a prime Kessler and froch lost to Kessler. Though froch did fight a tremendous schedule of opponents