Rank these fighters: Marciano, Finito, Calzaghe, Ward, Mayweather, Crawford

6 HOF fighters all retired with an unbeaten record. Where would you rank them from Best to Worst?

Rocky Marciano
Ricardo Lopez
Joe Calzaghe
Andre Ward
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Terence Crawford

 

Dont really know except that calzaghe is dead last and far behind the others.

But its a sad state of affair. Only 1 undefeated HOF before I started watching boxing, and in that 25 years spans theres 5. And the trend is only accelerating

 

Well, definitely Bud and Floyd above the rest.

Third place is tricky -- it's a battle between Finito Lopez and Marciano imo. Though Lopez was by far the technically more proficient and talented of the two, I'd argue that Marciano had more substance than Lopez despite having an ugly style. So, Marciano at 3 for me and Lopez at 4.

So it comes down to Ward and Calzaghe as the two weak links. Ward's greater, but I'd pick Calz H2H. Still, that's arguable. Ward being greater isnt really arguable.

So yeah, Calzaghe last.

 

BTW is this a question of best or greatest? The greatest fighter on this list is far and away Floyd. I hate him, but you cant deny that. Best fighter on this list imo is Bud, with Floyd at a close 2.

 

Mainly greatness but you can also have a separate ranking based on H2H best as well if you want.

 

Ward and Usyk are the only two with gold medals

 

Trinidad is the only one with tree gol medal.

 

GPT

Final Ranking (Best → Worst)

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Terence Crawford
3. Andre Ward
4. Joe Calzaghe
5. Rocky Marciano
6. Ricardo López

 

1. Mayweather over Crawford — Floyd faced deeper, more consistent elite competition over a much longer career while remaining undefeated.


2. Crawford over Ward — Crawford achieved something historically unprecedented (undisputed in two divisions) and showed greater offensive versatility and finishing ability.


3. Ward over Calzaghe — Ward beat more prime, elite opponents and proved himself at higher, tougher weights with greater tactical depth.


4. Calzaghe over Marciano — Calzaghe dominated longer, across a deeper global talent pool, and relied on skill rather than era-specific physical advantages.


5. Marciano over López — Marciano competed in boxing’s glamour division and beat every top contender of his era, while López dominated a less deep, lower-profile weight class.

 

I thought it was tli go medo

 

Mayweather Jr.
Crawford
Lopez
Ward
Calfaggy
Marciano

also

ROC Marciano >> Rocky Marciano

 

Calzaghe over Marciano is insane.

 

Floyd
Marciano
Bud
Ward
Calzaghe
Lopez

 

Calzaghe had better skills than Marciano FFS. I think he was down twice? The first time Mitchell hit him with a legit bomb that he'd set up with astute body work. The second was a sneaky shit by the sneakiest man of are times.

If we want to credit Marciano for getting up from Moore then you have to credit Calzaghe too.

I don't count the Jones knockdown ....that was a forearm smash to the nose , accidental, but it was still a forearm.



Marciano was legit but he was both lucky and fortunate.

He wouldn't have lasted pissing time in the era that was about to unfold and he probably would have found prime Louis, prime Walcott etc too much and you can throw in big men like Baer etc too.

They say timing is everything in life and boy did he have it. He was also exceptionally well managed. Very well managed guy.

Calzaghe packed in 10 years ago and we're hard pressed to find a 168lbr since that could definitely beat him. Maybe Ward but then you're into the Canelo School of Scoring Fights. It's rare that such a long period goes by in boxing that such a poor fighter is so hard to replace.

Bud? The guy who went 12 with Ricky Burns? Beat up a car accident guy? I don't know. Smooth fighter but we're hanging a lot on the dismantling of Alvarez who was Inna special class of his own when it came to overratedness.

 

Calzaghe was dropped by Kabary Salem, Byron Mitchell, B-Hop and RJJ. Hurt badly I thought in the last 10 seconds of the Eubank fight. Robin Reid had him buzzed. Great recovery every time to be fair.

Marciano was dropped by Moore with a counter right (textbook pull counter) and Walcott with a lead left hook. They are the only ones I've seen and he was up at the count of 3/4 and right back into action.

Just clearing that up. You can't have Calzaghe ahead of Marciano. I said it before but I thought B-Hop deserved that decision. Marciano was deceptively good with his defence and overall style. He's got skills but it's difficult to appreciate them unless you are watching several of his fights. His overall movements where he feints, leans away, ducks, leans down, leans forward etc, is pretty tricky to figure out. Calzaghe needed to do more. He was rematching Mario Viet ffs. Tocker Pudwills etc. He beat Kessler when Kessler was unbeaten. That's a good win. He lost the B-Hop fight in my eyes and RJJ was beyond a shell of himself in their fight. I'm not even that low on Calzaghe. I think he's good but you can't have him above Marciano. Finito doesn't have the names on his resume but he realistically didn't really lose a second of a fight until his 48th fight which was against Rosendo Alvarez and Finito was 32 years old fighting at 105 pounds so realistically past his prime. He was winning that fight but was stopped on a cut. He got dropped in r2 and recovered very quickly. He won the rematch. Finito was very good but gets discriminated against due to his opposition. At least he didn't get outboxed against a 43 year old guy though (IMO)

 

Calzaghe, prick that he is/was, remains horribly underrated on this site. He'd have beaten Ward by outworking him. Froch had Son of Gifts running away late on. Calzaghe would have given him fits during the late rounds.

And at 'Jones dropped him hard'. Aye, with a forearm smash, maybe. The closest Calzaghe came to losing was against Hopkins, who bottled badly the chance to fight him five years earlier and then resorted to throwing himself on the floor to avoid fighting Joe. He never came closer to losing other than that. He schooled Kessler through the second half of their fight - the same Kessler that Ward had to butt and foul his way to beat and who Froch (who is another underrated round here) went 1-1 with when Kessler was almost done.

I've no problem with him being rated properly here. But let's stop this daft nonsense so I don't have to defend the daft cunt any more.

MTF

 

Hopkins dropped Calzaghe with a lovely counter. He then spent the entire fight stinking the place out and looking for places to fall over.

MTF

 

I rate hin about the same as Froch (a bit lower, since Froch resume is much deeper). And i rate Froch much more higher than most here. So i dont think i underrate him.

He wasnt as balsy and relentlees as froch, so I dont see him having the same succes Froch had against Ward. I dont see a path for him to win that fight

If Froch had fought as terrible opponents as Calz did, he probably would be rated higher here, cause he would have looked more impressive (see the Mack destruction)

 

I dont think Calz is a lock over Ward. Like I stated previously, I would pick Joe, but I dont see it as some foregone conclusion.

Style wise, I think Calz would have beaten Froch more convincingly than Ward did. However, I think he would have fared worse against Kovalev than Ward. Peak Kovalev beats the shit outta Calz imo.

At 168, I favor Calz over any super middle in history with the exceptions being Jones and Toney. I can't see Calzaghe beating the Toney from the Barkley and Williams fights. Those versions of JT take Calz apart.

 

Calzaghe was better than Froch and would have beaten him very heavily imo. His style matches up terribly for Froch, who's kryptonite was speed. Calzaghe would have hit him with a million slaps he wouldn't see.

However, Froch was greater. The only vague argument otherwise is 'unbeaten', which is nonsense when you compare resumes.

Both Froch and Calzaghe are underrated around here imo.

MTF

 

AgREED

MTF

 

We've had these arguments multiple times (froch vs calz, and froch krypto being speed), and i have no intention to run the back again. But at least we agree on the most important part, that Froch was greater than Calzaghe

 

Nah, I'd have to disagree on that one. I have Calzaghe as both greater and better than Froch. Froch gets so much "He's so underrated" treatment that actually gets overrated at times.

At the end of the day, Calzaghe comprehensively outclassed a peak Kessler. Froch lost to a Kessler who was already faded.

Then you add in wins over a still good Hopkins, a peak Lacy in a fight where was an underdog, a peak Reid, and a still good Eubank Senior, plus retiring unbeaten... Joe was quite clearly greater imo.

Froch, to his credit though, is top 5 all time at 168.

The top 5 supermiddles of all time imo are:

1. Jones
2. Ward
3. Calzaghe
4. Toney
4. Froch

HM: Kessler

All six of those guys beat Crapnelo.

 

What about crawford?!

 

Bud's a great fighter, but he's not beating any of those top super middles in history.

Canelo was both faded and overrated to begin with.

No way Bud is beating Jones, Toney, Ward, Calzaghe at 168. And prime Froch would be too strong for him down the stretch, though admittedly I dont completely rule Crawford out against Froch. The gap in class is so big between Bud and Froch, that I would give Terrence a chance, but he'd be an underdog.

 

Froch lost a hometown decision to Kessler. He wins that fight in the UK and won the rematch when both were spent.

The argument for Calzaghe over Froch is the Kessler win, which was better (but styles and 'outclassed' is generous - it was a legit 8-4 fight) and Hopkins (which was ugly but clear enough imo). After that, Joe's best wins are Lacy (underrated since but still we know now that Lacy was massively overrated at the time) and Eubanks (who was never the same after Watson II).

Froch's third best win? Bute? Taylor? Direll? Pascal? Abraham? Mack? Reid? Johnson?

Take your pick. His resume shits all over Calzaghe's. His KO over Groves is better than anything Calzaghe can call his tenth best win.

Froch has a genuinely deep resume. He fought everyone he could possibly fight at a time that 168 was deep as hell. He beat most of them, several spectacular. Calzaghe, meanwhile, spent his prime ducking a guy (Johnson) that even Clinton Woods fought.

MTF

 

The Bute win is an interesting one imo. I made tons of cash on that fight. Bute was undefeated and a heavy favourite to lay Frock out. He was undefeated going in and most experts had Froch to lose and retire. Even Boxrec had Boot ranked no.1 at 168 going in.

If we are going to give Calzaghe loads of props for hammering and exposing a heavily hyped, but ultimately overrated, undefeated champ, surely the farmer deserves the same kudos for doing likewise?

MTF

 

And at least, Bute showed that he wasnt a complete fraud afterward with strong performance against DeGale and Jack (yeah i know Oesterine), unlike Lacy, who never won a second of a fight against a decent fighter afterward (bar the kd of Taylor)

 

Thats a terrible argument. Even if Joe beat Kessler more convincingly, it pretty much has no bearing on whos greater between the two. Not to mention that if you compare their performance on their hometurf against Kessler, its pretty much a wash.

As MTF stated, Froch resume is so much deeper that theres simply no argument hes a greater fighter than Calzaghe

 

Yeah that Bute ass whopping is overlooked. Froch ran through him. The hype on Bute at the time was big. I thought Froch was going to get KO'd. I felt like a mug as the Brit commentator Ian Darke said "oh how foolish we all were to doubt Froch". Similar dynamic to Lacy in that a US/Canada based fighter was coming over as favourite and expected to win. Bute was far better than Lacy though. Lacy was an out and out BUM.