Joe Calzage: An alternate, somewhat modern perspective.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

Bad hands

So I'll go all round the houses with this one a little but I'll start first with the Ward-Froch super six final. Where Ward pretty handily beat Froch but was a little un-nerved by the end with Froch (yet to ''shoot his load'' still gaining momentum in the fight... The post fight quip from Ward was that if he had two hand's, he'd of knocked Froch out.

Fast forward to last months Argentinian triumph for Martinez v Chavez jnr and again we have a situation where there's an opinion that if Martinez had two hands, he'd of knocked Chavez Jnr out.

Calzaghe was a very different fighter to Martinez and Ward, he was a very aggressive two handed, high-output fighter. There came a point in his career when this should have stopped, when his hands turned bad - pretty much permanently - and he began making excuses much like the ones above but instead (after the obvious criticism - which we forget seemed to start and die both in around 2005) he adjusted in the way a logical thinking man would assume suicidal, he softened up his punches. Bernard Hopkins for example must of thought he was in with a lightweight the way his fists were caressing his cheeks but if that were 5 years previous it would have been a little bit different.

Calzaghe made the most of his amazing stamina and undeniable confidence even with terrible hands for probably the last 7 or 8 fights of his career. The kind that would have seen Ward or Martinez rendered useless.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

A bit of a ramble more than anything but there you go

[p4pking]

Well ok, but Calzaghe had to alter his whole style to suit having chronic hand troubles. I think it's fair to say Ward has enough ability to change a lot of things as well IF he needed to, the fact that he hurt his hand in one fight hardly means he simply doesn't have the same depth as I presume you are implying; especially given that he still controlled the fight against a very dangerous opponent

[Gandalf]

The only thing Ward would do is to hug more, if that is even possible. And maybe pray a bit. S.O.G, ha ha how stupid!

Calzaghe was truly special in evolving his style so dramatically. Usually it is more like Hopkins and just throwing less, moving and hugging. But Calzaghe softened his punches, seemingly got faster, upped the output and expanded his ability to throw multi punch combinations.

I think an older Calzaghe beats his younger self because the older Calzaghe just had so many approaches and means of getting the result. He would exhaust the Eubank period Calzaghe.

[THE PHILOSOPHER]

After watching froch v ward i was convinced 05/07 JC would have handled both of em!

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

Well ok, but Calzaghe had to alter his whole style to suit having chronic hand troubles. I think it's fair to say Ward has enough ability to change a lot of things as well IF he needed to, the fact that he hurt his hand in one fight hardly means he simply doesn't have the same depth as I presume you are implying; especially given that he still controlled the fight against a very dangerous opponent

I apologise if this came across this way, you'd be perfectly right to assume but wrong to presume
I don't want this to be a Joe v Andre thread etc. Andre's depths are his own. I guess I was pointing out Calzaghes strength in courage as I feel this is something that has been overlooked.

Another fighter that I'm pretty sure would bee long retired or worse is Floyd Mayweather - had it not been for these injections he's been having.... Really not a knock on Floyds part, just highlighting Joe's ability to endure.

To me a fighter endures a battle of attrition one way or another. If you can't sustain an attack because your stamina is poor, it's no different than if your hands are bad... Even if you have a broken hand, the idea is to put yourself to the test as much as your putting your opponent to task.

A fighter fights.

I just think Joe had done well to pipe down with the excuses and just crack on with his career at a time when he could of gone either way.

[Master]

Joe had fragile hands which did hinder his professional career. He went through a phase where he was protected by Warren and won some close decisions which I think he attributed to elbow injuries. Joe threw plenty and nearly stopped Lacy, hurt Kessler with a body shot and battered Roy Jones with his fast combinations.

[imp]

Joe had fragile hands which did hinder his professional career. He went through a phase where he was protected by Warren and won some close decisions which I think he attributed to elbow injuries. Joe threw plenty and nearly stopped Lacy, hurt Kessler with a body shot and battered Roy Jones with his fast combinations.

Not trying to discredit calzaghe but lets leave the roy jones win out of this. We all know what happened there.

[Master]

Joe had fragile hands which did hinder his professional career. He went through a phase where he was protected by Warren and won some close decisions which I think he attributed to elbow injuries. Joe threw plenty and nearly stopped Lacy, hurt Kessler with a body shot and battered Roy Jones with his fast combinations.

Not trying to discredit calzaghe but lets leave the roy jones win out of this. We all know what happened there.

I was just illustrating the damage he can cause, Roy took a beating that night.

[imp]

Joe had fragile hands which did hinder his professional career. He went through a phase where he was protected by Warren and won some close decisions which I think he attributed to elbow injuries. Joe threw plenty and nearly stopped Lacy, hurt Kessler with a body shot and battered Roy Jones with his fast combinations.

Not trying to discredit calzaghe but lets leave the roy jones win out of this. We all know what happened there.

I was just illustrating the damage he can cause, Roy took a beating that night.

True