How is Joe Calzaghe regarded in the boxing community?

[Jonny Ninja]

Robin Reid was a bit of a conundrum though. If he was good he was really good but when he was shit he was really shit. Just didn't have the mental fortitude to make the most of his talent.

Yeah agree, he lost the fight against lacy before he even stepped in the ring, I think lacy had the same issue. He looked great as an unbeaten fighter, but the fight with Joe seemed to break him

 

[Hagler]

Pretty good fighter. He belongs somewhere between where the Brits and the Americans usually rank him IMO.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

He was fucking awesome. Fought regularly for most of his career. Had a balls out exciting style with volume punching and power which makes his undefeated record pretty impressive since guys who slug it out always lose eventually. He beat a few guys that most people expected to smash him Like Kessler and Lacy. Sure it's easy to shit on both of those fighters for what happened to them AFTER he beat them but that's just bullshit hindsight. He fought them in their hyped up primes. He beat Kessler's ass years before Ward got in the ring with him. He crushed an undefeated Jeff left hook Lacy when people were calling him the new Iron Mike. Even took on Hopkins, the dirtiest most frustrating fighter in decades and came out on top. He had an incredibly entertaining career. Never lost a fight. Retired and stayed that way instead of risking his health on some bullshit comeback tour like every other boxer does.

If you can't respect that stuff YDKSAB.

Yeah, I remember before the Lacey fight, everyone was saying Lacy would destroy him, including me. I was shocked. And I was even more shocked afterward when all people talked about was how Lacey was never really that good.
Then the same thing happened with Kessler. Everyone was saying how he was superior technically and "finally Calzaghe stopped ducking him." Then Calzaghe beat him soundly. After that, the same shit happened. Everyone just said Kessler was never really that good.

 

[S-dot]

Clearly from the responses you can see the boxing world doesn't have a unified opinion on him. The boxing world doesn't have a unified view on almost anything. So I can only speak for myself-

Overall he's a solid fighter, an all time great, one of the best euro fighters of his generation. like all undefeated fighters there are so many questions about his record and who he could have fought when and how it would have affected his legacy, but it's all superfluous in my opinion because we can only judge him based on what actually happened. He beat everyone put in front of him including some legit top fighters. I thought he lost to Hopkins but it was a very close fight and I think it was a good reflection of how a fight between the two of them would have gone at any points in their career. He derailed the lacy hype train. He beat a very game Kessler. He beat an old skeleton pretending to be Roy jones. That gives him credibility and unquestionable skill. That being said his record doesn't reflect being at or near the top of any all time lists and both jones and Hopkins would rank above him in just about any category as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JayE]

Yeah, I remember before the Lacey fight, everyone was saying Lacy would destroy him, including me. I was shocked. And I was even more shocked afterward when all people talked about was how Lacey was never really that good.
Then the same thing happened with Kessler. Everyone was saying how he was superior technically and "finally Calzaghe stopped ducking him." Then Calzaghe beat him soundly. After that, the same shit happened. Everyone just said Kessler was never really that good.

Did they? Kessler remained very highly regarded at least until Ward beat him soundly (and arguably after that).

 

[Jack Reacheround]

Did they? Kessler remained very highly regarded at least until Ward beat him soundly (and arguably after that).

Maybe not. I seem to remember that's how it went down, but I could be wrong.

I think Calzaghe was a great boxer. You have to be to go undefeated for your whole career, no matter who you fight. But I think Roy Jones in his prime would beat him. Hopkins in his prime, well I don't know.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

Was a big fan, I really like his style. His destruction of Jeff Lacy was the first sporting even I saw in HD, I remember it as so anyways.

As sunfish mentioned, maybe others also, but it is a shame about his hands. His timing, speed, and combos were great.

He vs RJJ in their primes would have been amazing.

I didn't even watch him fight Lacey until after the fight. I just knew Lacey was going to beat him. Then, the UPS guy comes to my office the next Monday and is telling me about the fight. He said Calzaghe just beat him up real bad. I couldn't believe it. So I had to watch it.

 

[Gigaton Punch]

One thing that annoys me is that people act like Hopkins was some way over the hill washed fighter when they fought. Hopkins was still winning big fights and titles way beyond when he lost to Joe.

 

[DaveDave]

Yeah agree, he lost the fight against lacy before he even stepped in the ring, I think lacy had the same issue. He looked great as an unbeaten fighter, but the fight with Joe seemed to break him

An aside about Robin Reid: he was hot & cold his entire career.

I thought Hacine Cherifi (the middleweight EBU champ) boxed his head off, the fight before Reid lost to Malinga. I remember Glyn Leach of Boxing Monthly positing some utter bullshit about how Reid was "affected by the death of Princess Di" (I shit you not, go look it up!), because Reid got a lot of good press in that mag at the time.

Then 40-something Sugarboy did it so badly they couldn't rob him, then Reid lost to another former European middleweight champ, Silvio Branco, then came Reid's "redemption" versus Calzaghe.

FWIW, I always liked Calzaghe but on balance, the shit he took at the time for hanging about Wales for years fighting Rick Thornberry & Tocker Pudwill in endless bullshit soft defences is balanced out now in hindsight by people who either weren't there at the time or are American, who like to act like that whole four/five year stretch never happened.

The annoying thing is, Calzaghe eventually proved beyond doubt he was legit, which made the half-decade of bullshit soft defences, injury pull-outs (I clearly remember he got dubbed "Sicknote" for years; some of it was due to his hands definitely but does anyone remember the hilarious debacle of the never-was Glen Johnson fight(s)?) & terrible career decisions even more frustrating.

 

[Hagler]

An aside about Robin Reid: he was hot & cold his entire career.

I thought Hacine Cherifi (the middleweight EBU champ) boxed his head off, the fight before Reid lost to Malinga. I remember Glyn Leach of Boxing Monthly positing some utter bullshit about how Reid was "affected by the death of Princess Di" (I shit you not, go look it up!), because Reid got a lot of good press in that mag at the time.

True that. A quality showing by a French boxer in the UK, which doesn't happen all that often.

 

[JonJonesLines]

Calzaghe, Ward, Hopkins, and RJJ would've been incredible to see in their primes all against each other.

Calzaghe was so damn fast and violent early in his career before he started breaking them. RJJ was just so damn violent that I think he's the best. Ward is great but I really think he lost that first fight to Kov. And Hopkins is Hopkins.

1. RJJ
2. Calzaghe
3. Ward
4. Hopkins