Is Joe Calzaghe an all-time great?

[Madvillain]

Hall of famer, but not an ATG.

[Iceta Lives]

Fuck no he isn't. Pulling out of fights against dangerous opposition with chipped finger nails is something that Armstrong or Robinson never did.

[The Hammer]

Without a doubt, Joe Calzaghe is an all-time great.

[ИATAS]

I don't think so.

I generally think all time great as being on the top 100 fighters of all time and I just don't see him on that list. Very close though, if only he were to beat a couple more prime marquee names he would be.

[Chunk..]

Only if he had beaten Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.

And Robert Allen.

[ИATAS]

Only if he had beaten Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.

And Robert Allen.

if they were in his weight class it would have helped

[S A M U R A I]

Yeah, why not. I have no problem with anyone who considers Calzaghe an ATG, but if we're talking top 100 then he's at the tail end of it.



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[disolly]

the fact that over 40% of the people that answered the poll said yes, really worries me on the intelligence of poster's on this site. His two biggest wins are a 40+years old hopkins, a way over the hill roy jones, both which were terrible fights, kessler, who i think is very good, and that was a very good fight, and probably jeff lacy, who sucks. In my opinion the only impressive win on his resume is Kessler, and I like kessler but he is not great by any means. The only way calzaghe could have been a top 20 all time great is if he came back to enter the super 6 and cleaned it out. The division now is way better than we he was fighting in it. I think in joe's prime he would lose to Ward and Abraham, and possibly others like dirrell, jermain taylor in prime, kelly pavlik.
So NO, i do not think he is an all time great, he cared way too much about retiring with a perfect record, ATG's fight the great fighter's of their era, for instance when he moved to light heavy he would have fought chad dawson and not hopkins and jones, and fighting kelly pavlik, who at the time was kicking ass , that would have been impressive.

[disolly]

i meant top 50 ATG, by the way if we are talking top 100 ATG than maybe in the 90 to 100 area , but I still probably wouldn't have him in there , but it wouldn't bother me too much either.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

People go on about "ATGs" as if they can be arsed compiling a list.

Calzaghe was one of the top fighters of his era. Thats all you can really say. No fighter in this era can come close to achieving what the greats of the previous eras did