Calzaghe...An All Time Great? Not a Puncher's Chance.

Joe Calzaghe...an all time great? Not even a puncher’s chance. The best of his generation? Sorry, declined. Greatest WBO Super Middleweight Champion? Ok, I will give you that. Since ’The Pride of Wales’ won his WBO Crown against Chris Eubank in 1997, Calzaghe never fought a whole plethora of very good fighters ranging from middleweight thru light heavyweight including the following: Glen Johnson, Sven Ottke, James Toney, Antonio Tarver, Dariuz Micalczewski, Clinton Woods, Chad Dawson, Arthur Abraham, Felix Sturm and Carl Froch. Yes, he fought Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins but let’s look at the facts with both of these fighters. Hopkins was 43 years old at the time (7 years Joe’s senior) of the fight and, although still a fine fighter, was the not the same fighter he was several years earlier when he was dispatching opponents such as Oscar DeLaHoya and Felix Trinidad. Even with diminished skill and power Hopkins was able to drop Calzaghe in the first round in route to a split decision lost. In the case of Roy Jones this was strictly a payday and an opportunity for Calzaghe to ride off in the sunset with an undefeated record in tow. The 39 year old Jones was a mere shell of what he had been since winning 49 of his 50 contests (his sole loss being a DQ against Montell Griffin which he avenged with a 1st Round KO) which was evident in his back to back knock out losses to Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Even so, Jones gave Calzaghe problems early before Joe made the adjustments and cruised to an easy decision victory. On a side note one writer here stated that Hopkins and Jones were heavy favorites. Nothing is further from the truth as Hopkins was a +225 underdog (some had it a tad higher and some lower depending on the site or sports book) against Calzaghe and Jones was almost a 3.5 to 1 underdog against Joe. Now, we have Jeff Lacy. So much is made of this fight that it is almost intolerable. Yes, Lacy was considered a favorite coming into the fight. Yes, Calzaghe put on a clinic against Lacy. Yes, Lacy was exposed as a not-so-good fighter which makes this fight a hard barometer in terms of Joe’s status as an elite. If Lacy went on to do great things since his loss to Calzaghe the win would mean more but Lacy has been terrible since that fight in losses to both Jermain Taylor and Roy Jones. Some supporters of Calzaghe claim that because he never really established himself in America is the reason why he is not considered an all time great. There is some truth to that but Joe did not even fight the best that Europe had to offer which negates that argument. Again, if you look at the list above there are several European fights which could have taken place against such opponents such as Woods, Micalczewski, Ottke, Froch, etc but never materialized. A win against Mikkel Kessler is the only real notable European win Calzaghe can lay claim to (since Chris Eubank in 1997) and with so many other good European fighters out there...that win does not say a whole lot. In ending, Joe Calzaghe may have had “A” level talent but he had a “B” level career. He beat some ok to good opponents and the great opponents he did beat were way past there prime. Greatness lies in fighting other greats in their prime and beating them. Calzaghe simply does not have that distinction. Instead of fighting notable fighters of his era he instead opted to fight boxer’s such as the Mario Veit‘s, Peter Manfredo’s and Tocker Pudwill’s. Having said that Calzaghe isn’t even the best British fighter of his era (as that distinction belongs to Lennox Lewis) much less an all time great. To even whisper Calzaghe’s name in with fighters like Ali, Ray Leonard, Joe Lewis, Ray Robinson, and Henry Armstrong border’s on boxing version of sedition.