Is it just me? But why does EVERYONE rate Calzaghe so highly?

To me he is the most cushioned 168 champ ever.

bika lost a contraversal bout with beyer right before he fought JC.. bika isnt great but he is good... bute is bad a**

ICE you might not be a JC hater but you sure as h*ll are a JC dis-liker ;D

you want to discredit EVERY SINGLE DECENT VICTORY come on, you have to admit you are a little biased

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Originally Posted by Fire

bika lost a contraversal bout with beyer right before he fought JC.. bika isnt great but he is good... bute is bad a**

ICE you might not be a JC hater but you sure as h*ll are a JC dis-liker ;D

you want to discredit EVERY SINGLE DECENT VICTORY come on, you have to admit you are a little biased

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Nothing to do with me being biased everything i said there is true im sorry if you don't like it but its true.

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Originally Posted by Troy McClure

ill rate calzaghe much higher if he fights and beats the 2 best SMW out there ala kessler and mundine.

i must admit after seeing lacy destroy reid, i thought he would kill calzaghe ??? man was i wrong.

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I have known Jeff since he was in the amatuers....He never did like it when someone imposed their will on him....the lacey win was no upset nor big accomplishment

Joe is the real deal.

His next opponent should be a "young BEAST." Everybody knows who this beast is.

Not because it'll be the most profitable matchup, but that it will further vindicate Joe as an elite fighter.

In the long run it'll be the most profitable choice.

We dont all rate Calzaghe highly :)

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Originally Posted by columbo

yea, the point is, that by appearing on a reality TV show, Manfredo was not top quality opposition! Surely, if he was that good he wouldn't have needed the publicity! Moreover, does Calzaghe hold the WBC? And lots of champions could have made the same amount of title defences, if they too faced opposition like that of Calzaghe

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I didn't say Manfredo was good. But the way Calzaghe demolished him was impressive. That is all I meant. Certainly it was not a fight which did anything but make Calzaghe look good. But even early in his career he beat Eubank. You have to give him credit. And he did beat Brewer, Mitchell and Lacy. The Lacy fight alot of people thought he would get a test and he outclassed him. That is why he is rated so high.

if you are undefeated, have had a belt for a decade consecutively, 20 consecutive defences, anyone deserves to be rated highly with today's athletes and weight training

regardless of the details

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Originally Posted by columbo

erm, get my facts right, maybe you should take reading lessons, nobody mentioned Calzaghe's flagging career once, who said it was flagging? Not me! And yes he is over-rated! Kessler is all to eager to fight him, but it will be made diificult, ALSO Jones said he would fight Calzaghe in Wales, funny that was brushed under the carpet too!

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Kessler & his promo team have back pedalled twice already. The offer's have been accepted & now mum is the word.

I'm a huge fan of Calzaghe & Kessler...but the fight is building & should be a good...but I'd probably pick Joe.

Yeah...the Jones fight is funny...JONES SCUTTLED THAT ONE.

You do indeed need to get your facts straight...whether you're a Dane or not...that's no excuse.

:sadclick:

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Originally Posted by columbo

Why does everyone reckon Calzaghe is one of the best boxers that the UK has produced? He has constantly fought sub-standard opposition *Lacey was a blown-up super middle weight before anyone mentions it*, dodged bouts with mysterious injuries, and refused to fight outside of Wales!

He is another Naseem Hamed, making good money from fighting poor oppostion! Will he fight Kessler, duno, when Kessler agreed to fight, Warren suddenly changed the contractual agreements! And Peter Manfredo had to appear on a reality TV show to boost his flagging career! Not high calibre opposition for a 'supposedly' world class fighter like Calzaghe!

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Okay, first off, the title of the thread is just plain wrong, because the number of times I've written in threads like this to defend Joe Calzaghe must number in double figures, and there are a lot of people who don't rate him.

However, I'll put across my argument as to why I rate Calzaghe as the best Super Middleweight of the current era. First off, I think Calzaghe gets underrated by some people, because he has made the best fighters in the division look ordinary. As you mention Lacy, he was the big prospect from the United States, the best Super Middleweight from the largest pool of boxers in the world, and the IBF champion. He made him look ordinary. Omar Sheika was touted at the time by Americans as one of their hottest super middleweights. Eubank was one of Britain's best and a legend, even if he was overstretching his career and reaching beyond his grasp, Calzaghe put him on his backside with a fine shot, and outboxed him. Reid was a close fight, but not close enough to give Reid the win. Who else should he have fought? Ottke was a champion, but would never be forced to fight Calzaghe, as JC was also a champ. He's fought every mandatory put in front of him, so my argument would be that Joe's class has made the opposition look sub-standard, and that the strength of the division has not had enough quality fighters for Calzaghe to fight. If you could put forward which SMW's he should have fought during his 10-year reign, I would be happy to reply.

As for injuries, Calzaghe was told even before he turned pro that he would not be able to box again by one doctor after a hand injury, and that is just a way of life. He has brittle hands and has got on with it as best as he can. Nothing mysterious about that in my opinion. Calzaghe took the biggest fight of his career in England... and has travelled abroad and said publicly that he would travel for the right fight.

And finally, the way that I have seen the situation is that Calzaghe has agreed to fight in Copanhagen and Kessler wriggled out of it. And surely it's Palle changing the contractual arrangements. Basically, we don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but I believe there is an attitude among some who don't rate Calzaghe that they believe everything said by the Palle camp, and assume that everything said by the Calzaghe team is lies and smokescreen. We'll see.

well said super couldnt agree more.

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Originally Posted by southakron314

To me he is the most cushioned 168 champ ever.

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That may be one of my favorite ways of explaining JC.. The thing is, i'll never say he's not a good fighter, because he is the champ and of course he is.. but a number of people on this board, and on this thread say "well he has had 20 title defenses blah blah" we get that.. the thing that ruins all of it is that he's thinking of retiring in a few years because he's 34/35 and still hasn't fought the best, or even close to the best.. that is why he gets so much negativity when people hold him so high. Everyone has their opinions, whether they're the biggest fan of JC or a hater.. but the fact is that he is the champ, he is quite obviously a great fighter, but he has not gained NEARLY enough respect as he thinks he has, and that is due to the quality of his former opponents.. which makes it almost laughable to compare him to former greats in the boxing world at this point in time.

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Originally Posted by hackey100

because he has beaten everybody he has fought and in most cases at a canter. He may not be the greatest, but he is great.

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The only time the word "great" and Calzaghe can be used in the same sentence is when it's used in the following statements

"Calzaghe never fought a great opponent".

"Calzaghe is greatly overrated".

"The fact that Calzaghe's title defense streak (it's the fucking WBO title!) is even actually acknowledge (by some moronic people) is a great embarrassment for the sport of boxing".

Have you been TYSONBRUNO in the past 3 months?

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Originally Posted by Smashup

Have you been TYSONBRUNO in the past 3 months?

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Who's he?