Question:

Is Joe Calzaghe too good?

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What I mean is that he will not be properly recognised as an all time great until he is read about in books published in years to come or watched on grainy film material. His record is second only to the legendary Rocky Marciano (correct me if I am wrong).

In other words, Is Joe Calzaghe (undefeated in 12 years of professional boxing and undefeated in 11 years of defending his championship) on a par with Sugar Ray Robinson?

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Calzaghe is truly a special boxer and has tremendous skill. He creates angles with the best of them and has a granite chin. However, his offense is more centered around his ability to overwhelm opponents with sheer volume instead of power and accuracy. You probably noticed during the fight with Hopkins that Calzaghe throws a lot of "slapping" punches which when you look at compubox, makes all his fights seem one sided. While I think he is a definite hall of famer and all time great, I don't think he stands up to a Sugar Ray Robinson. However, Hopkins is one of the most difficult boxers to fight and Calzaghe did an amazing job. Hopkins didn't think so, but what else is new lol.
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hes a good fighter but not great fighter he beat hopkins when hes way out of his prime if he wants to be considere great he needs to fight the elite guyz in their prime but as for i say good yes great no
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I have the cd collection of all his fights and believe me he's not too good,are you serious ?putting him alongside Robison and Marciano,you've got to be joking!
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Marciano's shadow would crush Calzaghe. Of Marciano's victims, only Louis was really past prime, and Louis later said that he doubted he could have ever beaten Marciano.
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If "anybody" had a 10-1 record with at least 4 known good American(continent- not only the USA) boxers in the list, I would say he's better that the undefeated Joe.  I just can't give credit to a boxer that has not proven anything here in America.

Imagine this:

let's say that DC United wins the next 10 MLS Cups and in doing so,  Ryan Cordeiro becomes the best player on the team/league averaging an unprecedented 30 goals a season.

Will Ryan be the best football player in the world in that time??

NO. of course not!!! He would need to prove himself in either Spain, Italy or England's top leagues.
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the greats you mentioned fought other greats, which goes some way to measuring the're own greatness:

eg;

muhammad ali fought frazier, foreman, liston, patterson, shavers etc.

robinson fought lamotta, graciano, fullmer, basillio, maxim, and armstrong.

marciano fought charles, moore & walcott

as good as calzaghe is, the biggest names on his record are a past-their-primes chris eubank and b- hopkins.

it's through no fault of his own that he missed a prime jones, benn, eubank, b-hop (not that i'm suggesting that he would or wouldn't beat any combination of them in their primes)

sonny liston suffered a similar fate, with his biggest wins (with the excepton of patterson) coming against wepner, machen, and big cat williams.
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I will correct you, your wrong.  With all due respect to Calzaghe fans, Joe is good, but no where near that good.  In fact Joe may be the best British fighter since Lennox Lewis, who by most standards was exceptional, but Joe isn't even the best British fighter in history, let alone worthy of all time great historical status.  Lennox over all was superior to Joe.  The two you mentioned have few if any peers, and other than Lewis, almost no British boxers have ever reached the historical status or Robinson or Marciano.

Joe Calzaghe hasn't beaten a young prime champion, and even with wins over Roy Jones Jr., and a few legitimate lightheavyweights like Tarver, Johnson, Dawson or Haye, Joe still wouldn't rate historically as high as Robinson or Marciano.  There are many factors involved, and this is no slight on Joe.  No modern fighter currently active today with the exception of maybe Roy Jones or Holyfield warrant top ten historical status.  People far more accomplished than Calzaghe, like James Toney, Manny Pacquioa, or the trio of great Mexican little big guys, Morales, Barerra and Marquez don't rate that high historically either.

Joe's level of competition over his 45 fights makes it difficult to take him seriously.  Beating a 43 year old Hopkins was really Joe's first notable fight since he won his first title, against another aging veteran.  Historically you must beat talented competition in their prime to forge a respectable legacy, something so far Joe hasn't done..... YET.  His career isn't even close to over, and most feel it has just began.  Joe was too protected for too long to simply flash 45 wins over 40 unknowns and (5 name opponents all with major flaws) to be considered even close to "historical greatness".

Sorry, but if Joe goes 50-0 against nobody's he would be a tough sell, you have to beat the BEST in order to be the best.  Maybe in 20 years his record would be a major selling point, but for people who know who Joe fought, it isn't that significant.  Joe is  very good, but not that good.
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People go on about who has he fought !. but he has beaton quite a few world champions & even more ex world champions so wot more do they want. Also Roy Jones Hopkins were not interested in him 10 years ago as he was considered to big a risk for the money invovled. Tables have turned on them now though & he is gonna kick there butts lol
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He is a great fighter, a sure 1st round HOF fighter and a legend. I wish he could have had a few more compelling matches with guys like Jones Jr, Toney, Ottke, Tarver etc. His resume could haves used a few more stars. He may have lost one or two as well if he had more stars on his record.
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Good, not great. Similar to Marciano in that he never fought a top fighter in his prime. But it's sacrilege to mention Calz in the same breath as Robinson who fought everyone and anyone near his weight. If you want Calz to be universally recognized as a great fighter, we'll need to see him post wins over Pavlik and Taylor.
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Whether some want to admit it or not, he waited way too long to cross the pond. Fair or unfair a fighter must fight here, frequently, to be recognized as great.
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i think he is good but not great...if Hopkins would have jabbed and through more than straight right he could have beat Calzghe but i think only time will tell...i want to see hime fight a few more light heavy weights before i call him great
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He is that good but the sad fact is, he's British. Us Brits don't get the recognition deserved in the world of boxing, seeing as its an American world.
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people in favour of hopkins...they are using alot of ifs and buts. If hopkins jabbed more ihopkins used his right hand more, he didnt because he couldnt or wouldnt because of oppening his self up for calzaghe. If i could fly to the moon i would.............. enough said
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Calzaghe beat Hopkins fair and square, but don't get ahead of yourself there kid. He is NOTHING compared to Sugar Ray Robinson! Calzaghe has fought only 3-4 guys that have any name at all- none of them great in prime.
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No, he barely beat a 43 years old man by split decision. Sugar Ray Robinson would easily beat Joe.
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I see your point but Calzaghe kind of screwed himself. His win over Hopkins was his 1st fight in America & you have to fight here to be recoginzed. I'm not saying he ducked anyone but if he fought Roy Jones Jr say 5 or 6 years ago I don't think Joe would have won. Even Hopkins 5 or 6 years ago. I would like to see him fight Roy now & if he wins that then maybe Kelly Pavlik. I was impressed with his win over Hopkins but besides Lacy & his last two fights he has beat a lot of nobodys. I'm sorry but he's not in the same class as Sugar Ray Robinson, those fighters fought everyone. I don't even think he's in the same class as Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns or Roberto Duran.
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no doubt Joe is grate but to be fair Hopkins is 43 & over the hill! 8 years younger he would have been to much for the welshman
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He is a good fighter but as someone said the other day Calzaghe in with a young heavy hitting light heavyweight. He is in for trouble.
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NOPE!!!

They names don't even belong in the same sentence.

Nothing against Calzaghe... I think he's great.

However, the reality is that he has not faced even close to the level of competition that SRR faced in his career. He beat everyone anywhere near his natural weight class in their prime.

Calzaghe has been the best in a mediocre weight class. Why do you think he's just now getting any recognition? Becasue nobody cared what was going on at 168 lbs, and the reason nobody cared was because the lack of talent.
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Well if you watch him fight you know he's not "too good."

He is undefeated, but Ricardo Lopez went 47-0 before losing, JCC was like 56-0 (maybe even more, I can't remember), Larry Holmes was 48-0 before losing, undefeated doesn't mean very much to me personally.  Its an impressive streak, anyone who can stay focused like that for so many fights has to be given some credit.

My question to Calzaghe fans is if Floyd Mayweather retired right now, undefeated with a list of former champions and pound for pound guys on his resume, would you view him, at 39-0, better or worse than Joe, whose resume (even to his biggest supporters) pales in comparisson, at 45-0?

I think, like Marciano, true boxing fans and critics will weigh more heavily the quality of opposition faced as opposed to an undefeated record.
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