Calzaghe Fans Thread!!

[JT Rock]

I bet all you Feckers could get a discount for a hotel room to celebrate this Calzaghe love fest


















































Just joking.. One of Great Britain's finest and superb fighter of this era, Mr. Joe Calzaghe

[Napolis]

To my mind, one of the finest boxers I've seen....up there with Ray Leonard, Ali, Chavez and PBF. Better than Roy Jones, and certainly superior to B Hop.
I didn't rate him for years, and was only finally convinced by his demolition of Lacey, truly the closest thing I've ever seen to a 12 round masterclass.

He gets knocked for the quality of oponent he faced early on, but a quick squint through Roy Jones' back catalogue, or B Hop's, is enough to remind you that they fought a huge number of nobodies. The problem when you are as good as those guys, or Joe, is that at any given time, most opponents are going to be over-matched. So, even if they come into a fight with a reputation, they leave with it in tatters. Ask Roy Jones.
The pinnacle fights, with two Hall of Fame level fighters taking each other on at the peak of both their careers, are few and far between in any era.

When Roy Jones and BHop fought, in their prime, it was actually a bit tedious. Both of them ran scared. Roy Jones won by virtue of better in and out speed, but he seemed afraid to take it to Hopkins. Hopkins has always regretted not being more offesive in that fight, but it's hard to break a habit. Jones never fought anyone with Calzaghe's speed, chin and agression combined, even at his peak, and I suspect Joe would have beaten him by virtue of having a bigger heart. RJJ has everything, but the ability to take punishment and come back. Every time he has come under severe pressure, he has crumbled.
BHop is a spoiler, and a cheat, and I'm afraid that I was wrong to rate him ahead of Calzaghe for so many years.

So Joe can bow out now, and I hope he understand that the best way to improve his legacy is defeat his biggest foe now, the tempotation to return. Younger fighters will be compared unfavourably to him for years to come.

[Mark TKO]

he joins Marciano as the only champ to retire undefeated (ok and Lopez - but he drew ) so end of argument. He will always have his haters - but what do those people expect him to do now ??

He fought everyone worth fighting - ok it took a while and I got a bit sick of him a few years ago when he wouldn't leave Wales I admit.

Theres nothing to prove by fighting Dawson and a Hopkins rematch would be plain dulll.

It's a real shame Joe came along a little bit too late to be part of the Benn Eubank Collins era - else we would have had our own four kings era to speak of

Happy retirement Joe

[JT Rock]

he joins Marciano as the only champ to retire undefeated (ok and Lopez - but he drew ) so end of argument.

Floyd Mayweather jr retired as the linear Welterweight Champion of the world

[Mark TKO]

ask me again in 12 months time

[Fenster]

Terry Marsh and Sven Ottke retired undefeated too

[Mark TKO]

yeah yeah - we also forgot about this guy

Paul Vache