Quote 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!
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.