How good of a win was Calzaghe's win over Kessler

[Ray*]

A bloody good win IMO, That win would still be talked about in years if Kessler would/could actually fight some good names...Underrated win IMO.

[nairbon357]

Good win, no question about that.
Kessler was the top contender at the time, he had 3 belts and this was a unification bout.
How could this be a bad win for Calzaghe?

[BennyST]

Although he didn't have big names like Hopkins or someone, Kessler actually has a pretty good record and there are some pretty damn good champions that he fought and beat very convincingly.

Instead of pretending that he hasn't fought a single good fighter worth mention, why not go find his record and see how many champions he has beaten. He was a very good fighter with a good record, and it was a very good win.

I really think anybody who says Andrade is the best guy he's fought is daft. Andrade is pretty good but has never won a title. Kessler has fought a number of very solid champions who have held a title with good success.

Just the fact that he is a two time world champion who unified the major belts is impressive enough. Someone who can do that is a really good fighter, especially someone who has done by not winning a single lucky fight but had numerous defenses of his title and worked up the hard way.

Anyway, for those that have a little too much bias for whatever reason to check his record I'll put up a brief list here:

Julio Cesar Green: Solid fighter who beat Joppy for the title.
Dingaan Thobela: Another solid fighter who knocked out Glenn Catley (a very good fighter in his own right) for the title.
Manny Siaca: Won the title in Australia off Mundine which is a good accomplishment.
Anthony Mundine: A very skilled fighter who would be hard for anyone to beat, whether you think he's a **** or not. 2 time world champ with many defenses of his title.
Eric Lucas: Very good champ who also fought for the LHW title. Has fought everyone in his time and only lost to the very best.
Markus Beyer: A very underrated win and a very underrated fighter. A three time world champion with 11 title defenses all up and some very good wins over very good opponents and champions.

He has also fought some very good contenders, some of which will no doubt become a title holder one day, such as Andrade, Haussler (who has actually beaten some fine fighters like Christian Sanavia, Catley, Porras etc), Henry Porras, Craig Cummings, Dimitri Sartisan etc etc.

He's a good fighter who has already done a fair bit. I don't disagree that he really needs to do more, but saying he has not done anything and beaten no one is ridiculous and ignorant. Just because he hasn't gone up and fought Dawson doesn't make him a Euro-hanging hack.

[Pullcounter]

kessler was a good win, but not something that will make you an ATG

[BarrySlisk]

Kessler says the complete opposite.

He did before and shortly after the fight, I remember that. But later we heard that he had problems and therefore did not spar. There was also rumors about this before the fight. This is the reason he was asked about it several times during interviews.

In this interview he mentions that he was injured: (at 1:30).

I'm not sure if he would have done much better with sparring and a hand in 100% state. Joe is very good. Once Joe actually won a fight with a broken hand for the majority of the fight (Evans Ashira).

I did not know who to root for during the Calzaghe-Kessler fight. Joe was my favorite fighter but Kessler is danish. Only when Calzaghe started being disrespectful did I finally side with Kessler.

Joe won the fight, nothing anybody can do about it and now he is retired. Mikkel must try to beat someone else with a pulse

[dde91]

in 20 years, when we look back, we will see Kessler as that European Fighter who wouldn't take chances. He only fights Euro-Bums. So then we will see that win as a mediocre win like a 6.5/10.
To me that win is okay, but not a great win. Kessler aint ****, and never will be.

[IMDAZED]

Too early to tell at this point but it's a solid win and one of the best on Joe's resume. What that means in the big scheme of things remains to be seen. Kessler has yet to distinguish himself as something more than another beltholder.

[Kris Silver]

He did before and shortly after the fight, I remember that. But later we heard that he had problems and therefore did not spar. There was also rumors about this before the fight. This is the reason he was asked about it several times during interviews.

In this interview he mentions that he was injured: (at 1:30).

I'm not sure if he would have done much better with sparring and a hand in 100% state. Joe is very good. Once Joe actually won a fight with a broken hand for the majority of the fight (Evans Ashira).

I did not know who to root for during the Calzaghe-Kessler fight. Joe was my favorite fighter but Kessler is danish. Only when Calzaghe started being disrespectful did I finally side with Kessler.

Joe won the fight, nothing anybody can do about it and now he is retired. Mikkel must try to beat someone else with a pulse

That interview also holds far less weight for me.

In previous video's he was very firm and went out of his way to say he was ok, fine.

In this video he mentions it far less off the cuff merely as an excuse. It doesn't help the previous to that he's talking of fighting guys like Lacy, Taylor, and Joe in a rematch either. He's a little deluded and naive. I like Mikkel a lot. But he gave all due credit and said he was fine post fight for awhile.

His first excuse was the lack of game plans, but he said he knew to expect several styles for Joe and was ready for that, so how is this excuse valid or any different next time. The next excuse right there is the hand as in in fight, and he landed flush find several times. For me he's just fishing for excuses I'm afraid, and that's backed up by his delusion of wanting to face Joe again and thinking he'd win. He'll say whatever he can to make himself and others think that could of, and could be the case. But it never, never will, as most rightly agree. You can't overlook pride though I guess.

[BarrySlisk]

That interview also holds far less weight for me.

Ok that's up to you. Just posting...

[Dave Rado]

I agree with most of this, I mean the all time great thing is just dubious.

That's a complete red herring.

Calzaghe will be remembered by most neutral boxing experts as a great, but in world terms, not as an ATG. In British terms he'll be remembered as an ATG, and will be ranked in the top 5 or so British fighters of all time. In world terms, he will be not be ranked at the same sort of level as the Haglers, or the Leonards, but will be ranked one or two levels lower than that.

And most of his fans see it that way. Of course some of them over-rate him, but that's true of some fans of every boxer - just as Mayweather won't be ranked as highly in the ATG lists as some of his more devoted fans rank him, but will still be ranked far higher than his haters would like.

The majority of Calzaghe's fans realise that he's not at the ATG level of a Hagler or a Hearns, but that he is still a great at a lower level than that. He'll be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame whether his haters like it or not, and many respected boxing experts already refer to him as a great fighter.

Its such a shame really, you get real greats like casamayor who are technically better boxers than calzaghe, dont make as many excuses, make the big fights happen, and get no credit.

Casamayor supposedly had some questionable decsions against him, but he fought Corrales, Castillo, Freitas (I think), Katsidis, Juan Manuel Marquez, even when he was past it, he was still hungry for big fights. Thats the kind of guys who deserve attention on this forum.

You're just saying you like Casamayor. Good fighter, I have nothing against him, but I would be astonished if any of the serious ATG lists ever rank him as high as Calzaghe. Too many bad performances. And I think your mentioning Katsidis as a good win is funny - Katsidis is a seriously over-rated fighter. Entertaining, but no skill. His fight against the extremely limited Graham Earl showed him up for the second tier fighter he is. A bit like Gatti, only even less skilled than Gatti was.