Calzaghe is back!

I thought Calzaghe was going to give some lower ranked boxers a chance in Apollo Creed move for the peoples' love. In fact, I heard he was going to fight none other than Peter Manfredo Jr.

Can anyone agree with or throw these claims out?

Ayub, those claims are incorrect. Joe has his eyes firmly set on the big money, big names in the states- namely Bernard Hopkins coming out of his recent retirement. Last nights fight went out freeview on HBO in the States to an estimated potential audience of 30 million Americans in an attempt to raise his profile out there. He wants to get Paid $$$$$$$$

And there lies the big problem with last nights performance. A combination of arrogance brought on by having everyone telling him he is a boxing genius for the last 7 months, and an anxious need to live up to expectation and put on a show, led to quite frankly the worst performance of his career.

From the first bell, Calzaghe showed nothing but contempt for Bika, clearly thinking him an unworthy oponent. Gone was the 'matador' counter punching, and in its place was the 'head down charge' followed by some scrappy inside work, followed by some unwarranted show-boating.

By the end of 3 rounds of this tactic having zero success, and his corner screaming at him to sort himself out and start boxing, you would think he would listen. Of course he didnt.

Through these physical, punishing and messy rounds, Bika showed a couple of things. 1. He was stronger than he was skilled. 2. He was dirty as sin, scoring as many hits with his head as with his hands

All the more reason to stand back and do what Joe does best, but he just didnt want to, and so a clash of heads opened up a nasty cut on the side of his eye

Neither of them appeared to have the power to finish the other, though on the odd flurry where Calzaghe put together his sharp straight combo's, Bika backed up into the ropes quickly enough to suggest that a concentrated effort on those tactics may have worn him down into a TKO over time. Bika hurt Joe numerous times with his head, and with the best cleanest punch of the night- to his nuts. That about sums the fight up.

Workrate and (comparatively) cleaner shots ensured a comfortable points win for Calzaghe, but he made what should have been to him a sunday drive in the country, a monster truck derby, and he wears the scars to prove it today.

On the plus side, the weight of expectation post Lacey is off his shoulders now, and whilst it was not an impressive win, it was exciting in its way, so America will add him to their list of watchable battling Brits, and the big fight offers should come knocking.
I hope that when they do, he remembers that the oponent in front of him is more important than the people watching.

A wake up call he should be very glad to have survived in tact

I feel a bit sorry for Calzaghe actually. The choice of opponent was a terrible one. Bika seemed to have changed alot from what he usually does- come forward and use his strength- so this immediately ruled him out of the running. Calzaghe, who generally likes to counter-punch, was forced to bring the fight to his opponent, he did it lazily at times, letting himself get caught in scraps.

Calzaghe's showboating was, as is all showboating, completely unneccessary, I don't know why boxers won't learn this! Some of the stuff Calzaghe did though, showed us just how good he is, particularly when he had his hands low, evaded one punch and threw a left plush on Bika's jaw. There was also some great use of the upper body to avoid Bika's punches. I think that will be enough to get the Americans to take notice.

In the end, I agree with the commentators, that nobody could have made a fight with Bika look good, and Calzaghe has done well to get through the fight, so he can concentrate on better things. Too bad it was the fight that was televised, still I bet Hopkins will want a go.

Maybe after he fights Hopkins, Calzaghe can think of unifying the division by fighting Kessler. That is if he makes it through Hopkins. It is true that he will only get the big money by fighting the Americans, but it will be a real and singular achievement to unify the super-middleweight division.

was a terrible fight thats for sure but only started going down hill after bikos headbuts came in. wasnt impressed with joes attitude atall he let himself get dragged into it.

i have a question though, they both weighed in at 12stone? how is it that biko has SO much more power than calzaghe?

Several factors:

1) Natural strength. Some people are born with a higher proportion of fast twitch fibres than others, hence more strength. Look at sprinters, there isn't a hop in hell that any of us could get that fast, they are born with amazing genes.

2) Training. Maybe Bika was just training more effectively, with a more scientific use of weights. From what I've seen of Calzaghe's training, there's an awful lot of cardio (running) etc. Perhaps he's doing concurrent training which would damage strength gains.

3) Age. Calzaghe remember is 34, compared to Bika's 27. Bika is in the very prime of his career, most athletes are at their best in fitness terms at 27-28.

4) Shedding for the weigh-in. It may be that Bika's walking weight is somewhat above the 12 stone he weighed in at. He was probably in the gym for a few hours the night before, getting rid of some water weight to make his division. Then he would re-hydrate for the match itself.

Calzaghe has never been a huge puncher anyway. Although he has a lot of stoppages on his record, they are almost all TKO's. Joe uses his natural speed to overwhelm an opponent. His punches tend to have a cumlative effect.


NB Joe is actually only credited with 2 offical KO's in his whole career.

Just saw the Bika fight. I have to admit, while I was impressed with both fighter's strength and stamina, this was not the skill-fest I was anticipating. Bika was playing a bit dirty, although with apparent sportmanship at the beginning and end of the rounds. Calzaghe did not impress me in this fight with his strict adherence to the rules, either. Lots of holding and a few rabbit punches in his part.

A Hopkins fight might bring out some of the technician in him that he showed towards the later rounds. Overall very sloppy fight on both parts.

If you're looking for a definition, then concurrent training is simply doing weights and cardio on the same day.

I actually sit down and watched a few of calzaghe's fights the other day. I now know why he doesn't deserve any respect and why I barely knew who he was. He has had only 2(and thats stretching it) good fights. No wonder he won't come over and fight in the United States. All I saw was slap boxing and pushing in most of his fights. Maybe one day he could fight someone that will punch back. Until then I firmly believe I know why he cry's for respect. He should stop crying for it and just come over and fight his way up. Even Winky is still trying to get the respect he deserves but at least he isn't crying about it. He is just proving it.

Glad I never paid for these fights cause I would have been laughed at. I just had to responded to this post becuase someone was commenting on how he is one of the greatest boxers of all times and this was the only post I could find on him. I give him a thumbs down.

Well seems you disagree with the whole forum.

Calzaghe is quite good, well better than most boxers these days. And cut him some slack, he's just human. What you want? Superman with 1 punch ko?

-Taison out

Well, if Calzaghe is such a champ he should start fighting real contenders. I didn't watch the fight against Manfredo, but from what I've heard it was pathetic. Manfredo's only notable achievement is being in The Contender, where he lost twice, please explain to me why he was fighting Calzaghe?

This is sort of why boxing sucks. Every fight is a title match, it's ridiculous. I'm not saying Calzaghe sucks, but I think he should start facing some real competition.

He needs to fight Mikkel Kessler. Kessler destroyed Andrade, the only reason he didn't win by KO is that apparently Andrade's head is made of concrete . I figure Kessler would win against Calzaghe as well, and that's probably why Calzaghe doesn't want to fight him.

Oh well, enough rambling

This all comes down to one man: Frank Warren, Calzaghes promoter.

I have, in the past, been highly critical of Warren. He is first and foremost a businessman. You can't blame him for the way he operates with his fighters.

Calzaghe sold 35000 tickets for a fight against, and while I have the highest respect for all boxers, a lesser opponent. Warren made a lot of money (as did Calzaghe) for fighting against a vastly inferior oppoenent.

While this makes business sense (Warren did the same thing with Hatton, giving him a line of lessers while selling 22000 tickets per fight in Manchester, England) it results in poor match ups.

The problem with making the Kessler fight isn't that Calzaghe couldn't beat Kessler, it is that it is all about business. Calzaghe, according to reports, gets at least 1 million USD per fight, and has done for the last 3-4 years. Now, to fight Kessler, which is a big fight, he is going to want more than that. A lot more.

Kessler, good as he is, isn't as well known in USA. Like it or not, USA is still a big boxing market, that is where the money is. In order to finance the fight, you need American TV.

I reckon the fight will happen. Will Kessler have enough to beat Calzaghe? I don't know. He is in good form though, hehas beaten 5 former world champs in his last 7 fights, 4 of which he stopped.

I agree about the referee stopping the fight. I would have liked it to go a bit further, this is a world title fight for Pete's sake! Having said that, I respect the ref's choice to save Manfredo from further punishment, which WOULD HAVE COME. Manfredo didn't get a good shot in all night, and Calzaghe was frankly taking the p!ss.

These match-ups can't be helping Calzaghe's career, he hasn't got that many fights left in him. Taylor would be a great fight, then I would like to see him unify with Kessler. I have no doubt that Calzaghe will win them both. After that, I personally would love to see a fight with Alan Greene, who has really heavy hands and would be a great Lacey-like match-up, that again I think calzaghe would win. After that though, I can't see Calzaghe fighting much more. So I say get a move on Joe! July is a good time to fight, if he leaves it longer, then he will risk losing the legacy that he certainly deserves.


In the other fights- Amir Khan was awesome as always. He really showed some sitting down on his punches this time and the power was plain to see. Add to that, it was difficult to even see his hands move they were so quick, and you have a great fighter. His opponent may have thought he had an answer, but getting in the ring is a whole different story.

Maccarenelli was also brilliant, albeit against an opponent who didn't deserve to be in the ring with him. Enzo has incredible power, I reckon the most of anybody in his weight class. It's also nice to see how much more of a technical boxer he is since joining the Calzaghe camp.

All in all, this was a case of a group of challengers coming to Wales cocky and unprepared to fight 3 british guys that were way out of their league. It is a very exciting time for British boxing, and the faster the Americans realise it, the faster we'll get to see some more classic fights.

Kesslers last fight against Andrade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnut79s8U-g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzY6PS6N2nE&mode=related&search=

He seems good offensively, however:

When he is backed up, he doesn't look comfortable.

Too eager sometimes, his hands don't come back to guard after some of his combos.

Very little head movement.

Question is, can he cope with Calzaghes speed? Calzaghe gets in and out. If Kessler is backing up for most of the fight, he may find it hard to cope. In his favour though, he does have decent handspeed.

One other thing regarding this fight: Andrade, although unbeaten, was there to be hit. At one point he actually drops his hands in a show of bravado and lets Kessler hit him 4 or 5 times. Calzaghe will be much, much harder to find.