Joe Calzaghe: The Greatest European Fighter In History?

[Clegg]

I haven't seen footage of most of the pre-1970s European fighters. Because of this I wouldn't say that they were better than Calzaghe, but I also wouldn't say that Calzaghe was better than them.

Of the footage I've seen Marcel Cerdan really impressed me.

Even in terms of achievements I have no idea if Jimmy Wilde fought at a time when the standard of opposition was impressive or not. The same goes for pretty much every well-regarded European fighter from 50+ years ago.

Lennox Lewis had some definite flaws, I'm not sure I'd say he was the best European boxer ever but I'd put him above Calzaghe.

[Easy-E]

Setanta mentioned this could be what would be at stake before the fight.

No way.
I think last night proved that.

[The Hammer]

I really don't know enough about European fighters 50 or 100 years ago to be able to judge whether Calzaghe is the best or not.

But I am confident in saying he's one of the top 10 European fighters of all time, and possibly one of the top 3.

[tyson]

I really don't know enough about European fighters 50 or 100 years ago to be able to judge whether Calzaghe is the best or not.

But I am confident in saying he's one of the top 10 European fighters of all time, and possibly one of the top 3.

Holy ****. A sensible post.

Are you drunk?

[Silencers]

Lennox Lewis is the best European fighter in the last 20 years, so no, Calzaghe isn't the best European fighter of all time.

[The Hammer]

Holy ****. A sensible post.

Are you drunk?

Is that James Toney in your avatar?

[Wiley Hyena]

No, I'm not. I'm just not overrating him as the brits are doing.

Tszyu would be in with a shout as well.

Tszyu was Russian fighting out of Australia, so I didn't consider him a typical European fighter.....distinguishing Russian and the steppes from European. However, I would definitely agree that Tszyu is ATG. Fantastic fighter.

[SHB]

Lewis isn't British, he's Jamaican who was raised in Canada, represented Canada in the Olympics and moved to England.

He was born and raised in London, and moved to Canada in his teens.

As for Calzaghe, he's not even the best Welsh fighter ever. That's Wilde. He has a case to be the best post-war fighter, but I'd probably put him top 5 Euro in that time.

[Dirt E Gomez]

45-0 is not "luck." The fact is that Calzaghe has a great chin. Lennox does not. I'm still undecided on which is the best Euro fighter, but you're underrating Calzaghe big time.

I'll never understand why people hate on Lewis' chin.

Scratch that, the answer is because that's the only thing people can try to hate on him for. He lost 2 fights to mediocre competition because they landed big, big shots on him. It wasn't like they landed some ***** 1-2 that wouldn't daze most heavies.

[frankpaganini]

Joe Calzaghe: The Greatest European Fighter In History?

I dont know if im ready to say he's the greatest euro fighter in history just yet.

What about lennox lewis?

he has a little time left in his career and he should use it to his advantage (fight RJJ; Pavlik; winner of taver/dawson).

right now i'd say he's close; but i cant put him ahead of lennox lewis.