Joe Calzaghe

[Gandalf]

The man who turned up and beat the then RED HOT Jeff Lacy is overated without taking without taking anything in return is overated ?

Aye ?

Anyone who knows Joe knows he has bollocks bigger than Wales he'd walk to New York ( no swim ) to fight any of the so called top contenders

Joe has had injuries but i know he ooozes confidence and self belief like no fighter out there !

Comparing him to James Toney the laziest waste of talent of the last 15
years .

You are having a laugh

I am sorry are you Joe Calzaghe? Or Frank Warren??.....

At superMiddleweight James Toney would have gave Calzaghe a beatdown that would have given him a permenant studder....Don't confuse thise heavyweight version of James Toney to that of the Super middleweight version....Two comletely different fighters...

Only Roy Jones was able to beat that version.....

And if you even attempt to put Joe Calzaghe anywhere near the super middleweight version of Roy Jones I suggest you enter a 28 day program to sober up

A patronising post, backed up by very little. I politely disagree with the main bulk of this posting.

Disagree all you want but fact is that Joe Calzaghe should not now or ever be compared to James Toney as far as his career goes....Please explain to me what has Calzaghe done to be in the class of Toney?,,,,,The hell with that swim to NY and fight any of the so called contenders what the hell is that supposed to mean?.....

Joe and his injuries when ever the proposition of a big fight against a genuine top level opponent has wore itself thin...If Calzaghe has all these balls and all this ability then lets see it.....James Toney and Roy Jones have proven their worth over the years.....

I actually thought after the Jeff Lacey fight ( Who was not great fighter but always a dangerous puncher) we were going to see a new side of Calzaghe....But what has he done since?.....I rate his record up there with that of Valuev...Looks good on paper but thats about it....

Excuses have run out...The injury problem does not work anymore...If you are hurt that much the RETIRE!!!!......Funny how he is OK to fight Peter Manfredo....Funny how when the fight was first proposed that Joe was talking just as much B***S*** as Warren about what a great fighter Peter was and how much of a dangerous opp he was but after a massive amount of criticizm he started acting like the fight was pushed on him....Only after the press dogged him.....

Toney is a true legend he has earned that right to be one...Time and again...Even as a fat a** hw.....

Joe has become the king of excuses and the prince of safety just under Valuev

Sorry you don't agree Miles but that is how I feel about him...His track record speaks for itself

Right here goes. It must first off be understood that in talking about about Calzaghe and Toney, we are indeed talking about 2 of my favorite fighters. Toney has undoubtably achieved more. Considerably more. Toney has beaten many top tier fighters, and likewise come unstuck against a few others. Calzaghe's level of opposition has not been on that with Toney. I never have at any point ever stated this. So I think my response to your post has become a little twisted by some other posters as a response to the starting argument of this thread.

Calzaghe to his credit has defended his title with effortless ease over a long time. Having won his belt he has beaten a number of ex champions and also manged to unify against Lacy. He has beaten decent fighters. And IMO only Reid has come close to getting anywhere near a win over Calzaghe. Calzaghe wins rounds and fights with relative ease. Nobody has been able to take him to the limits. Nobody has been good enough.

We could argue that Calzaghe never fights the "big" fights. Who should he have fought? Hopkins for one. But didnt Hopkins get deep into negotiations but then price himself out at the last moment? Hopkins has continued his career by bypassing SMW altogether. Jones himself has mentioned Calzaghe on occasion too. We all know Jones and Hopkins have big egos and it cannot be easy to negotiate with them. Everyone would have loved a second Jones: Hopkins fight. Of course, it wasnt to be. Making those big fights is never easy. It hasnt all been the fault of the opposition though. Glenn Johnson always brings out the hand injuries in Calzaghe. And Joe's reluctance to travel is of course another issue. If you want the fights then get out of the safety zone and make it then!!! I want him to fight Kessler more than anyone. Its not easy being a Calzaghe fan!

My point in this thread was not to point out Joe's greatness but to merely say that I think a Toney: Calzaghe fight at SMW is a pick em between 2 extremely talented fighters. Toney was a great but he himself fought light opponents sometimes and failed to show up. Vinson Durham, anybody? Or else Larry Prather? These guys were bums and managed to go the distance with Toney. Toney frequently failed to show up because of a lack of conditioning. There is no denying how skilled the guy was, but he had faults. In fact it pains me to dig at Toney because I love the guy, but thats how it really is. Calzaghe is a very skilled boxer but not enough opponents on the resume. I know this. Toney has plenty of names and did get shown up on the odd occasion. It just comes down to where your instincts go in a fight like this.

It remains a pick 'em for me....