Two-division champ Calzaghe retires unbeaten

[Tim Mousel]

Two-division champ Calzaghe retires unbeaten

02-05-2009 02:34 PM



Undefeated two-division champion Joe Calzaghe of Wales announced his retirement from boxing Thursday, saying he had nothing left to accomplish. -





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[Uke]

That's great and all, but astute boxing folks will always regard what Calzaghe did as a rush to solidify a paper tiger legacy.

He had basically fought only one young lion in Lacy, who by popular opinion was very protected and very suspect. Then he fought an old Bernard Hopkins, and then an already beaten and clearly diminished version of Roy Jones Jr.

I'm not saying that Joe Calzaghe isn't a good boxer, but his legacy is predicated on fighting a list of virtual unknowns to pad his record, and then he won against men who were clearly passed their primes but still had name recognition.

IMO, that's a pretty weak legacy, and the fact that Calzaghe locked himself in a corner of the world away from where elite boxing thrives tells the tale. Any Euro boxer who wished to establish a solid legacy has come to the boxing mecca to gain respect, recognition and most importantly ..... money.

Had Calzaghe not eventually come to America to fight he would have simply gone down in the boxing history as another Darius Michalczewski: A protected fighter that avoided top competition in order to rule in a small pond as a big fish.

Records are an indication of dominance, but equally as important is who you beat and how. When you unify your weight division, that's a milestone. When you defeat all the top contenders at your weight, that's a milestone. If you fight and win against prime fighters who are favored against you, that's a milestone. If you can do all these things in several weight classes, then you have yourself a legacy.

Calzaghe really did none of those things. The closest he came to doing something that I mentioned is when he beat Kessler and Lacy, with the former having struggled against several of his warm-up opponents.

I applaud Calzaghe's longevity, and his willingness to finally take on real challenges after 13 years, but Calzaghe isn't an old man. His retirement has more to do with not risking his no-loss record than it does with him being too old to fight. Hopkins is 44 years old this year and beat Kelly Pavlik in incredibly impressive fashion. Jones beat Trinidad and is just a shadow of his former self.

Its Joe's decision but I know that history will judge his legacy harshly. Ricky Hatton could have still been undefeated had he stayed in the UK. He could have taken a couple more fights, with a few fights in the USA against guys like Paulie Malignaggi and other B and C fighters in an effort to glue together a paper legacy, and then retire and let his devoted fans talk about how he was the "best ever".

Hatton didn't though because Hatton truly wanted to be recognized as the best ever. He didn't want his legacy to be questionable. So what did Hatton do? He challenged the then P4P #1 fighter in the world at that time, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and got beaten. Hatton lost but actually raised the amount of respect his peers as well as fans had for him. He took a chance and gave his best. It wasn't enough to win but his legacy will still be regarded more highly than Calzaghe's because Hatton actually shot for the stars when given a chance. Calzaghe avoided nearly all of his chances at the #1 spot in favor of remaining the unbeaten pride of Wales.

Joe Calzaghe had PLENTY of opportunities throughout the years to fight Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins when they were young, prime lions, but he refused to do it. He could have easily fought RJJ or Hopkins during the 90's while they were cleaning up their divisions. Calzaghe could have gotten ready to fight Jones after Jones fought and beat then P4P#1 super middleweight James Toney. Calzaghe had NO INTENTIONS of fighting RJJ or Hopkins. He, like another Brit by the name of Lennox Lewis, waited until all his opposition either got old, or fell apart.

Lennox Lewis similarly waited for Mike Tyson to go to jail and lose all discipline that he acquired with Cus D'Mato. Lewis also waited until Evander Holyfield retired from heart problems, and then re-emerged from retirement to fight him. Holyfield was never the same as he was before. Lewis also is a Hall of Famer, but history will show him as a guy who waited for all the titans to fall before he was willing to step into the arena. He was unwilling to fight either Tyson or Holyfield at the top of their games, and only did so once they were shells of their former selves.

Its all part of the game, but when its blatant it just is.

Calzaghe survived his tests, however mediocre they were, and can now retire .. hailing himself as the next Rocky Marciano.

IMO guys like that should have just fought Muhammad Ali in his present condition just to say that they fought and beat the "greatest of all time".

[Hardball]

Great post Uke!

[Guest]

As much as I like Joe Calzaghe as a boxer and a sportsman, I agree with the post. Joe's Dad and his management staff did a very good job of protecting his career and his record, though to be honest thats the politics of Boxing for the most part.

On paper, it is a fantastic record. Also in reality, I have watched several of Joe's earlier fights which really were bloodbaths in the trenches, so I'm also not saying that the guy hasn't fought the hard fight. But agreed, did he go after the best in the world, at their prime, and put it all on the line? No. Knowing the kind of person Joe is, I'm sure that was far more down to those who protected his career than the man himself, but once again - thats Boxing.

Although I wasn't impressed with Lacy on the night, I still thing Calzaghe's performance in that fight was superb, and you cant take that away from him. To offer balance though, I still maintain that Bernard Hopkins won their fight, I was stunned when Calzaghe got the decision. The scoring of professional boxing is based on forward aggression, and the fighter who scores the greater amount of attrition. Hopkins went after Calzaghe the whole fight, and landed some clean shots. Joe never found his range and fumbled through on the back foot, I never understood that result.

In the end, I know that the decision has ultimately come from a long period of requests from his wife and family to retire, which you can understand. I saw an interview with Joe yesterday where he said he had done everything he wanted to do and had nothing left to achieve. You could see in his eyes that, deep down, I don't think he really believed it

[Uke]

Thanks, Hardball.

Well Michael Wright, I'm not so sure about Hopkins getting robbed in that fight. You've got to understand that Calzaghe's winning formula is based on contact, but not necessarily effective punches.

Joe is a shoe-shining kind of fighter, meaning that he'll pitty-pat smack as opposed to laying on the heavy leather. While many don't appreciate and/or respect that style, it does count in CompuBox numbers. What Joe does well is make people look bad, often without hurting them.

Now this isn't because Calzaghe is a humanitarian. Its because the guy doesn't carry real power with him. His style is built around dare is say slapboxing. He's effectively created a style of decent defense while being able to score with slaps that aren't even meant to hurt other fighters. That's why is was such a sham when the fight between Peter Manfredo and himself was stopped. Stopped for what?!?!?! Calzaghe might have been throwing a lot of punches, but he wasn't hurting anyone. Manfredo wasn't in any danger. Proof of that is when Calzaghe tried to "turn it up" to end the fight and most of the punches/slaps that he threw actually missed!

Still, if it looks like one boxer is getting off more than the other just by sheer activity, the judges more than likely will score it that way. And CompuBox doesn't help by counting the slaps as powershots.

Honestly, Calzaghe only beat Hopkins because Hopkins came to fight to win, while Calzaghe came in to simply not get hurt and look impressive while slapping. Effective aggression of course should have been scored in favor of Hopkins, but when CompuBox numbers tell a different lopsided tale then it causes judges to lean towards who seemed more active instead of successfully aggressive.

All you have to do is watch any Joe Calzaghe fight to see he slaps arms, the back, the shoulders and many of those slaps are counted as power punches. He gets away with it because he hasn't fought a young lion that can bring one good shot that would make him respect their power enough to stop showboating.

Take Roy Jones for example. Before RJJ ventured to the heavyweight division Jones had the ability to dismantle Calzaghe at will. Since then, Jones is not an agile fighter. Jones still possesses hand speed and a decent amount of power, but the secret to Jones' success has always been his leg strength and stamina. The man boxed like he played basketball: He was able to stop, get set, and explosively pounce on his opponents before they even knew what hit them and move off to the side to avoid getting hit before they could retaliate. Once Jones came back to light heavyweight, his legs were completely shot, which is why we saw him leaning on the ropes constantly. Jones no longer had the legs to keep moving and dodging, which essentially made him a sitting duck with fast hands. Buddy McGirt saw this and groomed Tarver to take advantage of that fact, which exposed a chink in the once great champion's armor.

It wasn't until Roy Jones had been knocked out twice and beaten thoroughly that Calzaghe and Trinidad wanted to pursue a match with him. And even as a former shell of a champion Jones was still able to dismantle Trinidad and put Calzaghe on his ass in the first. As did Hopkins.

So while I say that Calzaghe has some speed and craftiness with him, he lacks any real power and gets by in fights by simply waiting for counter punching opportunities and overwhelms by slapping so much that its hard for other boxers to attack because their forced to cover up.

Here's the kicker though: The boxers aren't covering up because they're being hurt. They're covering up out of instinct because they were trained not to allow anyone to contact with their face without the reflex of covering up coming into play.

The key to beating Calzaghe is simple and old school: You have to ignore the slaps without covering up and just throw what you've got. Years ago, boxers would actually take a shot to give a better, harder shot. When Calzaghe squares up to start shoe-shining with slaps, the key is to let him and go right to his body with something hard. Continue to work off the jab so his pitty pat can't be a big factor, and once he squares up for an exchange, hurt him to the body. Joe has got good head and upper body movement, but he leaves his body exposed for some big shots when he gets set.

Were Calzaghe to continue to box and fight a young lions like Pavlik or Taylor, all they would have to do is keep the jab working until Joe got frustrated enough to close the distance and then BANG! his body. He'll try to occupy their attention with the slaps but if they realize that they have little to fear from his slaps they can get the opportunity to land something big that will put the breaks on Joe's slap happy style. There's nothing spectacular about Calzaghe's jab, so outjabbing Joe and being ready to kill the body to get to his head is the key.