Quote Originally Posted by 1-hit Wonder

To me this seems like the US has NO prospect at SMW any more so there determined to rubbish the Europeans. I mean c'mon Kessler would not add to Calzaghe's greatness Holding all 4 major belts in a division is unheard of these days. It seems they know absolute zilch about Kessler in the first place to be honest. If I was Calzaghe and beat Kessler, i'd think fuck America, IM the undisputed champ let them come and get me. HBO's attitude really pisses me off, not showing a unification bout just cus its involves Europeans really disgusts me.
Their point was that, while Kessler seems to be a good boxer, he has not proven himself to be great. Not his fault, of course--he's like 25 years old and from a small country. Nonetheless, you can't prove that you're not merely very good, but actually Great, by beating someone who isn't recognized as great. Wright and Hopkins are recognized by everyone as Great. They're recognized on pretty much every P4P list as BETTER THAN CALZAGHE, let alone Kessler (who is on exactly zero P4P lists). I'm not saying that Wright and Hopkins are necessarily even better than Kessler (though they are)--that's almost beside the point; the point is that if you want recognition as being an all-time great, you do it by beating an all-time great, not by beating a young guy who holds two alphabet straps and has never faced anyone great himself. And the "unification" of four alphabet belts really doesn't mean anything to me. As far as I'm concerned, Calzaghe is the SMW champ and Kessler is the #1 contender. WBC, WBA, NATO, RATT, NAMBLA, all that stuff is about paying sanctioning fees. There's one linear champ, and that's Calzaghe. Adding a couple of "titles" to his name would mean nothing.