Round Two

Is Joe past it?

Joe Calzaghe won his WBO title in October 1997! It is seemingly an amazing feat, to keep the title for over 8 years, but is it really as impressive as it seems?

Beating Chris Eubank is on paper eye catching, but Joe had him down very early, and could not finish him off, like Carl Thompson did… twice! And in 1997, Eubank was two years removed from losing to Collins, and he had looked pretty ordinary ever since the Rocchigiani fight in early 94.

And then you have Calzaghe’s next big fight, an encounter with Robin Reid. Tut, tut, tut, Joe very nearly blew it big time. Despite Reid looking terrible losing his WBC title to Malinga, and only having one fight in nearly 18 months since then, he gave Calzaghe fits, and Joe was lucky to escape with his belt.

Struggling in awful fights with the likes of Dave Starie and Rick Thornberry, Joe showed his tendency to fight down to opponents level, and his lazy and casual attitude in the ring, lucky for him, the likes of a Starie and Thornberry unlike Lacy, were non punchers.

He then had another epic struggle with a former Middleweight in Richie Woodhall, he won in 10, and people praised him, saying he looked as good as ever had done during his reign, and to be fair, it probably was his peak performance. The date of that fight: December 16 2000.

Since then, Joes great chin has failed him twice, and he has had to struggle though fights with the likes of an aging Charles Brewer. But luckily for Joe, the WBO has taken pity on him; after blasting Mario Veit out in a round in a mandatory, the WBO in due course ordered he fight another Mandatory, against… Mario Veit!!!


Calzaghe has the numbers, no doubt, be does he really have the pedigree to beat someone of Lacy’s stature? Joe has yet to beat a prime truly World Class fighter, and unlike Lacy, Joe has had eight years to answer this question, but for what ever reason, has failed to do so.