Joe Calzaghe vs Chad Dawson at 175..

He is unquestionably better and greater based off what? I must have missed when the 90s middleweight division was bursting at the seams with talent.

 

Prime Hopkins beats Calzaghe and there's basically zero doubt about that

 

Nonsense. Clearly Bernard didn't share your confidence at the time.

 

Been through this nonsense.

The contract was for 3 fights on showtime. $3m for the Calzaghe fight, with both the opponents and purses unguaranteed beyond that. This is late 2002 when Oscar was making noises and Jones & Tito rematches were real possibilities. Tickets he'd have to shred to fight Calzaghe.

 

The Glen Johnson win looks much better in retrospect. While Oscar and Trinidad were blown up welterweights both carry more weight than victories over Wil McIntyre, Tucker Podwill, Charles Brewer, Mario Veit, Jeff Lacy....

Bernard's wins over Pavlik and Tarver trumps most of Calzaghe's ledger.

I'm going to bow out of the Hopkins-Calzaghe discussion...I hate Hopkins and defending him makes me sick to my stomach.

 

Also, Hopkins was pissed off because Don King would have made 60% of Hopkins purse. That was part of the reason it fell apart.

Hopkins fought his last fight for King (against William Joppy) then signed to fight Oscar.

 

I wouldn't bring up Pavlik as it happened right after he lost to Calzaghe.

Trinidad and De La Hoya only have weight because of the US hype. As I said earlier, it's a shame Calzaghe didn't have a one dimensional Rican hype to beat up, because that apparently secures your legacy. If you can find me 10 people who seriously thought De La Hoya had a shot in hell of winning that fight I can hold a mirror in front of you and show you a liar.

 

So you're saying Tocker Pudwill was more of a threat? Mario Veit? Salem? Ashira? Omar Sheika?

 

When did I say that? Those guys are as wank as the majority of the guys during Hopkins reign. Kessler is a bigger threat than either of those guys though.

 

:: at the Calzaghe haters lining up to make excuses for Hopkins not fighting Calzaghe when he had signed a pre-contract to do so. There is documentary, first hand witness evidence which demonstrates clearly that Hopkins wanted no part of that fight yet here are the usual suspects, lining up with stuff about Don King, Oscar, three-fight deals and other supposition.

I'll say this- if that had gone down the other way around, and Hopkins' team had flown to Wales to make a fight with Joe, a pre-contract been agreed and then Joe had fucked everyone off by making a 'double my money' demand, the same charlatans would be lining up giving Calzaghe an absolute fucking roasting.

:: Even when there is practically proof of who didn't want to fight who, where Calzaghe is concerned he is in the wrong.

MTF

 

Oh aye, Hopkins middleweight reign is a real murderer's row. Look at some of these killers:

- William Bo James
- John David Jackson
- Joe Lipsy (he was undefeated, mind; must have been good!)
- Andrew Council
- Morrade Hakkar
- Carl Daniels

All absolute shite. His best wins were Oscar (a blown up welter and a fix), Tito (another blown up welter), Johnson (a decent win against a man who lost to Clinton Woods and Sven Ottke), Howard Eastman :: and William friggin' Joppy :laughing:

Bernard lost to the first and second world level middleweights he fought. Then he lost to Calzaghe, after he tried to bitch out and get Calzaghe DQ-ed, but that doesn't count because he was old and shot by then (even though he was unbeaten for four years afterwards, beating an unbeaten Pavlik to a pulp and also Pascal).

MTF :shit:

 

Obviously those were rhetorical questions.

Bottom line...both guys had shit title runs. Hopkins' just happened to be a tad less stinky.

Hell, I'd give Hopkins more credit for losing to the version of Jones than the version Calzaghe beat.

Seriously dude...let's get back into the Calzaghe vs. Froch scrum. This Hopkins defending is making my skin crawl.

 

exactly


Even Robbed Reid managed to make Calzaghe reluctant by punching between his silly punches, and should have won the fight.

I expect Dawson Jab to bring him a close but clear decision

 

the fuck you're talking about, he was also dropped by the great kabary salem.

Try at least to get your fact straight before arguing

 

LOL

 

Calzaghe should be embarrassed he didn't stop that version of Jones.

 

Calzaghe is a bitch......Dawson is a dumb bitch.....Calzaghe never fought anyone as skilled as Dawson in his prime.....but Dawson lost to Pascal or whatever his name is.....I just can't get by that point...how can you lose to that bum?:eye:

Dawson is more skilled, but Calzaghe might now how to win it...

 

Where the fuck does this Dawson love come from? :: He's shite

 

who do you have in Ward vs Calslappy?

 

Calzaghe in an ugly, close fight. I do rate Ward highly though, I'll re-assess my opinion of Chad if he can do anything against him.

 

Ward beats Calzaghe 10/10 times.

 

Doubt it...Ward will be past his prime by the time Calzaghe get's around to fighting him.

 

Dawson is AT BEST, mediocre. I myself don't see anything special in him.

He literally had Pasqual out on his feet and he simply stood in front of him and did nothing.

The guy just doesn't seem to like boxing, honestly. I've never seen a more indifferent, disinterested fighter in the ring.

No way Calzaghe loses to him.

 

It's no such thing. If he was scared of Joe why the hun would he have signed the precontract & explored the option to the extent he did? The financial opportunity costs of that fight meant he'd have been nuts to sign that deal and you know it.

 

Excuses. That's all you have mate.

MTF

 

So why did Bernard fight him after Calzaghe had proven he was pretty good?

 

Because Bernard had nothing to lose, and he wanted to make some money off the US v UK hype which had been generated by Mayweather v Hatton.

 

We have a winner!

MTF

 

Nothing to lose other than the light heavyweight title?

 

Titles mean dick. Calzaghe clearly had a lot more to lose and you know it Steven. :nono: