Joe Calzaghe A Fraudulent Legacy?
Total Pro Sports - Joe Calzaghe defeated Roy Jones, taking his record to 46-0 and cementing his legacy as the best super-middleweight in the world. However the 0 on his record does not tell the whole story about his fraudulent legacy as he hasn’t fought the top fighters in their prime.
Agreed the fact that his record does boast the names of Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins and he has remained undefeated for 18 years means he should achieve recollection but he shouldn’t attain the status of the best boxer Britain has produced or top 3 in the pound for pound rankings. Joe has achieved these current adulation's because of his victories over a 43 year old Bernard Hopkins, a 39 year old Roy Jones Jr who both floored him despite their age, and the vastly overrated contenders in Mikkel Kessler and Jeff Lacy.
Lets put these victories into perspective. Firstly Roy Jones, a great victory no doubt, but Jones has been a shot fighter for almost 5 years, he was great, no doubt, ranked PFP top 3 in his pomp, but now aged 39 he isn’t even ranked in the top 6 of a rubbish division. As he lost to Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver, fighters who have done nothing since beating Jones. Johnson for instance lost twice to Clinton Woods, a fighter who Roy schooled but yet Johnson beats Jones, what does this tell you ? Calzaghe in his own book called Jones “washed up” but yet wanted to fight him after this and not in his peak, why ? To add to his myth. If Calzaghe did fight Jones in his prime the beating he would have received would be similar to the one Floyd Mayweather dished out on Ricky Hatton.
Bernard Hopkins would have been a credible opponent years ago, when he was the linear middleweight champion, but no Calzaghe waited till old father time had ticked on Bernie and he had suffered back to back loses to Jermain Taylor. Of course Calzaghe fan boys will tell you he offered Hopkins 2 million to fight him in Wales, an offer Bernard rightfully turned down because he was earning three times this amount defending his middleweight titles in the USA. Instead Joe fought Hopkins in 2008 when he was 43 and past it, however to Hopkins' credit he took Joe to a highly contested split decision, knocking him down in the first round despite his age, adding further speculation that the Calzaghe legacy is overrated.
Then theres Calzaghe’s victories over young challengers Mikkel Kessler and Jeff Lacey. Kessler was the unified WBC and WBA champion but had never faced anyone ranked highly in his division or in the pound for pound rankings and mainly built his undefeated record in Denmark and Germany against bums. Another example is the vastly overrated Jeff Lacy who was considered the second coming of Mike Tyson before the Calzaghe defeat but had only had 21 fights before the 2006 showdown. Yes Calzaghe won the fight by a landslide, all credit to him but why hasn’t he fought more young contenders such as Kelly Pavlik Chad Dawson’s of this world since then, instead taking fights against Peter Manfredo famous only for his valiant effort on the contender series, he didn’t even win the show, because he was more worried about his 0.
The foremost evidence that Calzaghe’s legacy is a fraud is that he’s never stepped up to the plate to fight the top American contenders in America in their prime, as he was happy to fight in Britain for his entire career. Also the fact that Joe took 10 years to unify all the titles in a very poor division.
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Yes. Calzaghe is a fraud. A good boxer maybe BUT certainly not hall of fame material. It is painfully obvious that he didnt fight the best when they were in their prime. And his fans resort to fabricating stories that RJJ, Hopkins were ducking him because they didnt come to some remote valley in Wales to fight him for pennies. I think deep down everyone knows he is a conman but he has become a ‘hope’ for the ‘white british’ population. They so desperately want a white british champion after Hatton got humiliated.
One other thing i suspect is that even though RJJ was washed out when he fought Calzaghe in 2008, i suspect that the fight was fixed. Because RJJ was looking lethal in the 1st round and suddenly for some bizarre reason, he goes into a shell for the rest of the fight. How to explain that? He was tired after 1 round? hahahhahahaha.
Calzaghe lost to 43 year old hopkins. It was clever propaganda from the media and Calzaghe to fool the public that he won, when i felt that he lost. He landed repeated low blows in that fight and should have been disqualified. And somehow the public have been fooled into thinking that Hopkins was faking low blows.
He has spoken disrespectfully of alot of other boxers all of a sudden after his RJJ victory. Froch and Oscar De La Hoya, Chad Dawson come to mind.
And some people here who used to like him because he was so quiet and well spoken are disgusted at the sudden attitude he has developed.
I feel that this attitude is just to evade getting back in the ring with alot of people who have challenged him. Kessler and Hopkins want rematches, Chad Dawson and Pavlik want to fight him. Froch publicly challenged him and Calzaghe responded that there isnt enough money in it.
There is alot of pressure being put on him. Some of his fans want him to fight in Wales one last time. He dosent want to get back in the ring cos there is a very real possibility he is going to get defeated.
He might get back in the ring if he can get an opponent to throw the fight for him.
Is Calzaghe a Fraud?
Damn… He could be jailed he’s that much of a fraud imo
Calzaghe would have been a very average journey-man if he had fought in any other era, I can’t see any way he could have competed with proper fighters. His management have done him a great favour by hand-picking such utterly weak fighters to face him. Really his and Marciano’s records should both come with an asterix denoting that they never fought anyone who had a fair chance of beating them; opponents were all either super-weak fighters or old men.
At least Marciano was exciting, as well as being a gigantic fraud Calzaghe was also the most boring fighter I have ever seen bar none, incapable of either throwing a knock-out punch or any sort of impressive combination.
Joe Calzaghe has the same major defect that Lennox Lewis had – he isn’t American. Only American fighters are hall of fame material – certainly not British ones who habitually beat up yanks in their own backyards. I recently read some crazy US guy saying Lennox Lewis would never have dared to fight Riddick Bowe – this after Bowe spent all his boxing career running away! No wonder the world loathes you America.
I got to say I find the rubbish being spurted here about Joe Calzaghe very disrespectful of a CHAMPION in two weight divisions. He has beaten RJJ and Hopkins and you Yanks keep whining on about their age, well sorry but if they had won then their age wouldnt have mattered, You were hailing Jeff Lacey as this amazing fighter….. never even saw Joe coming as the combinations Joe threw confused, dazed and overall out manouvred a boxer who was a valid champion. Where is Lacey today?? Anyone heard of him?? Answer:no and I will tell you why… nobody takes that sort of beating and comes back…Joe was that good, so don’t tell me Joe Calzaghe has not cemented his place in the Hall of Fame, even Nigel Benn and Steve Collins said if he was about in their era he would have been a great…..so America stop whinging, I am Welsh and Joe is Welsh and forgive me but you Americans crow on about how proud you are of your country and sportsmen, well let me tell you this Remote Valley Boy with pennies in his pocket is damn proud of Joe Calzaghe and what he has achieved, he doesn’t need to fight on like has beens RJJ and Hopkins to prove any more points he retires unbeaten whether you like it or not!!
Gav Thomas please its not an opinion its facts..calzaghe has fought those weaklings and has not proven anything..please be real you know it deep inside calzaghe is a really a loser theres no shame accepting it,its just reality you cant do anything about it,if he fought Roy and hopkins in their prime theres no little chance he would have won you know that dummy