Quote Originally Posted by Lyle View Post
I never cared much for Calzaghe or his horrible trainer/father....but Ricky Hatton should have followed in Joe's career path. Go from Kostya Tszyu to Sharmba Mitchell to Erik Morales to Marco Antonio Barerra to a couple more old fuckers at 147 and then retire undefeated.

If Ottke, Calzaghe, or Michalczweski had the stones to come to the US to fight RJJ in the late 90's early 2000's then they would have had the shit beaten right out of them and hell even OLD Roy and OLD Hopkins gave a PRIME Joe Calzaghe trouble.

It must be a hollow feeling being "the best" just because you never dared to take a live challenge....oh well, I'm sure this will just go down as me hating on the Brits but like I give a fuck

Calzaghe was extremely talented but he never tested himself....I don't mean to seem 100% one sided but it kind of pisses me off when he had the chance to fight RJJ and Hopkins at various points in his career and never did it until late and RJJ and Hopkins piss me off because they had chances to take on bigger fish but waited too long too, although Roy did fight better competition than Hopkins and Hopkins fought better competition than Calzaghe.
I agree. As far as British champs go, I'd pick Calzaghe as one of the better ones. I would've loved to see Calzaghe test himself in facing a young Jones or even a younger BHop. The narrow victory over a 43 year old Hopkins just wasn't enough to prove to me that hes a "living legend". Don't get me wrong, I like the guy and I think he may have even had the potential to be named among the ATGs, but he just never proved it. Yes he beat everyone that he faced, but it's the quality of opposition and the performances that you put on, not just the win on your record. If Julio Caesar Chavez Jr retired today with his undefeated record, would you call him a "living legend"?