Tyson Was Best Ever - FACT

Calzaghe was one of the most skilled fighter of all time. However he is a paper champion who sits proudly on a wooden resume! His defences include 2, yes 2 elite fights, even then both these fights are against an 43 yr old veteran and an untested fighter in Kessler. Where are the fights against :

Prime Roy jones

Prime Bernard Hopkins ( the executioner years)

James toney

Felix Trinidad

Kelly pavlik

Winky wright

Jermaine Taylor

Arthur Abraham
Even the likes of Glen johnson would have sufficed!! But nope, Calzaghe decided to pad his record with the likes of Peter Manfredo, Samuel BIka and Jeff Lacy, yes I said Jeff Lacy, every serious boxing follower knew that Lacy was a fraud who was handed a vacant belt and who struggled against two journeymen, I refer u to Omar sheika. Whilst the Americans were fighting the elite fighters of their time Joe stayed in Wales and fought obscure Eastern Europeans. Then when the money was dangled in front of him, he finally went stateside 10 years to bleeding late!!!!! Instead of fighting the up and coming champion in Pavlik, or the jermaine Taylor's of this world he fought a ruined roy jones and a 43 yr old Hopkins. Both fighters knocked him down in the first round, but due to their age and and lack of youthful stamina needed to finish Joe, they backed off and let him back into the fight. 10 years ago both fights would not have made it past round 5! Pavlik was the biggest fight that could of happened but what did Enzo do?? The guy kicked off at even th slightest indication of the 2 matching up!

Good riddance to both of them.

Mike,

I tend to agree, however his wins against Kessler and Hopkins were against two top class fighters. Hopkins may have been in his 40's but his victories following his fight against JC shows that at that point he still had a lot to offer. Kessler was unbeaten at the time and remains a top notch SMW.

However, his record is padded and I have absolutely no doubt that RJJ would have destroyed him at his best. I like Calzaghe though and believe that despite his refusal to fight the best at their best, he is still rightly regarded as one of Britain's best. I certainly think he would have beaten Froch if they had met, even though Froch deserves great respect for facing the best fighters of his generation.

Interesting. Cheers for the reply

Do you think that was his father fault ?

Do you think his father was scared the lad would get hurt, or just focused on the financial side ?

Well Enzo used to get quite aggressive about a possible fight with Pavlik. As a match up i think it would have been closer than most think.
Like i said he is a elite fighter, however his opponent list leaves so much to be desired.

Maybe i was harsh on Kessler, but i remain convinced that the Hopkins fight was not only a win for Bernard (i know some disagree) but the fact that Joe refused a rematch, on top of the statement he made saying it was his hardest fight paints a very cowardly picture.

mike,

hopkins efforts after the calzaghe fight indicate to me that he was in his prime when he fought calzaghe.

a fight with jones jr 7 or 8 years earlier would have been great but lets not forget that hopkins and jones both stayed at home for years on fat HBO contracts fighting bum of the month defences.

still nobody has satisfactorily explained to me how calzaghe deserves criticism for that whilst the americans don't despite doing exactly the same thing.

Whilst they were not perfect, the p4p fighters of the time were fighting each other. With regards to Hopkins, yes he was still in him prime, however at 43 years old your body biology is not the same as when u were 33! Calzaghe fought bums for 99% of the time.

Roy was the 1st person in a century to go from champ at middleweight 164lbs all the way through to being champ at light heavy! He was also p4p for a near on a decade. Hopkins was the guy to end winky wright's 7 year undefeated streak. Joe had a couple years left in him, he'll he could even had redeemed himself by entering the super six. Alas he ran off and decided to sit on his wooden record. Hatton although nowhere near as gifted, has a better resume.

winky wright,

theres another one who put together a lot of defences against mostly average at best opposition.

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Kevin Rooney leaving plus the deaths of Jim Jackobs and Gus made life for Tyson a nightmare!

Kevin Rooney was unceremoniously kicked out of the Tyson camp by Tyson himself and Jim Jacobs name was slandered in court by both Don King and Tyson when the Bill Cayton court case was taking place. The court case where Tyson was seeking to escape the contract he had with Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton to go to Don King.

Tyson's problems stemmed mainly from himself, helped along nicely by Don King.