Joe Calzaghe proved me wrong last night. I admit I picked Roy Jones Jr to beat Calzaghe and by TKO stoppage at that. I was picking with my heart and hoping that the Roy Jones Jr of old would come back just one more time. It is said about aging legends they always have one more great performance left in them. For Jones Jr that last great performance was at heavyweight against John Ruiz, after he beat Ruiz, Roy Jones Jr changed, he lost a bit of his reflexes going down in weight,his timing was off a bit and along with it his hunger was seemingly gone. Roy already accomplished everything he wanted to, winning multiple titles in different weight classes including the heavyweight title. I give credit to Jones Jr, last night he fought with heart even though he could not pull the trigger often, you could tell he did not wanna quit he was in the fight but his body just couldn’t do the things it used to do.
I don’t wanna take anything away from Joe Calzaghe because once again the man proves me wrong. When Joe fought Bernard Hopkins I scored the fight a draw, Joe seemed slower and more gun shy in that fight. It was part of the reason I chose against him in this fight as well. I thought the added weight would slow him down more but I was wrong he seemed just as fast, throwing those super fast slapping flurries and acting as cocky as usual, in fact Joe Calzaghe out showboated Roy Jones Jr which no one has ever done before. Joe Calzaghe has got to be ranked up there among the all time great European fighters and in my eyes the greatest Super Middle of all times his record shows it. But I still believe if he wants to really secure his legacy and kick himself up a few notches among the all time greats of boxing history, he needs to fight Chad Dawson. Joe is already a first ballot hall of famer but to beat Dawson would put no question on his legacy, he already beat 2 young undefeated fighters in Jeff Lacy and Mikkel Kessler and to add Dawson to the list would be legendary in my eyes. Bernard Hopkins in his 40’s just defeated a young strong and prime Kelly Pavlik, defying critics and pulling off one of the great upsets in recent boxing history. If Calzaghe fights Dawson I think this time around I will be putting my money on Joe.
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