Joe Calzaghe, The Pride of Wales, fights this Saturday in Cardiff against Peter Manfredo Jr., a.k.a. The Pride of Providence, which may give you an idea of how little Providence has to be proud of these days. Calzaghe, the southpaw Welshman, is more known for his lightning-fast combinations than he is for his punching power, but I was You-Tubing around the other night and came across this clip and immediately deemed it Knockout of the Week material. This is Calzaghe's second professional fight, against one Paul "Stinger" Mason of Sheffield, who appears to have absolutely no idea what he's doing in the ring. The Pride of Wales, as you will see, was all of 21 years old in this bout, and looks all of about 12. Mostly I love this clip because of the intimacy of the vibe, the small-scale British boxing scene complete with Wimbledonian commentary. But don't let the atmosphere fool you. When it comes to knockout time, Cardiff's own delivers big, sends our Stinger hurtling into his corner like one of the ridiculous KO's in the montage at the beginning of Rocky III.
Man, he sent Stinger flying into the corner. Suffice it to say, Stinger got stung. I heard a bit about Joe C, and I caught his fight last year against Sakio Bika. He looked good, but after seeing him fight a full bout, I wasn't convinced by the pound-for-pound talk that I had read on him. Afterwards he was claiming that he deserves a shot at Bernard Hopkins. I have no idea why X would fight him, maybe 5 years ago. Large, is the pound-for-pound talk around Calzaghe legit or is this the sequel to the Great White Hype?
Bika roughed him up a bit, fought a very dirty, awkward bout. Even for the best technicians, it's tough to look convincing against fighters like that - I refer you to exhibit A, Winky Wright v. Sam Soliman.
Calzaghe is a very exciting fighter with beautiful footwork and handspeed worthy of the fastest of the fast, but at this point to mention him in the PFP argument is preposterous, simply because he's never fought anyone with real international cred. Robin Reid, Chris Eubank -these guys are not a-listers. As for the bitchslapping he gave Jeff Lacy, that was impressive, but it also exposed something that many suspected going into the bout - Lacy wasn't all he was cracked up to be. Other than that, about the biggest name Calzaghe's ever fought is Miguel Angel Jimenez, and I don't know about you, but beating up a pony-tailed golfer doesn't prove anything to me.
I would have liked to have seen Bernard fight Calzaghe instead of Winky - that's an interesting fight to me. But you're right - why would Bernard do that? Bernard's only going to fight a proven PPV draw in the States. There's a lot of talk of Jermain moving up to 168 and fighting Calzaghe in England - that's an interesting bout as well that I'd be thrilled to see. Jermain's a gigundous 160, and he'd still be a very big 168. Hard to imagine Calzaghe's shoeshine routine would hurt him very much. Then again, it's hard to imagine Jermain ever actually catching Calzaghe in there. Man is very difficult to hit cleanly.
Joe Calzaghe, The Pride of Wales, fights this Saturday in Cardiff against Peter Manfredo Jr., a.k.a. The Pride of Providence, which may give you an idea of how little Providence has to be proud of these days. Calzaghe, the southpaw Welshman, is more known for his lightning-fast combinations than he is for his punching power, but I was You-Tubing around the other night and came across this clip and immediately deemed it Knockout of the Week material. This is Calzaghe's second professional fight, against one Paul "Stinger" Mason of Sheffield, who appears to have absolutely no idea what he's doing in the ring. The Pride of Wales, as you will see, was all of 21 years old in this bout, and looks all of about 12. Mostly I love this clip because of the intimacy of the vibe, the small-scale British boxing scene complete with Wimbledonian commentary. But don't let the atmosphere fool you. When it comes to knockout time, Cardiff's own delivers big, sends our Stinger hurtling into his corner like one of the ridiculous KO's in the montage at the beginning of Rocky III.
2 Comments:
Man, he sent Stinger flying into the corner. Suffice it to say, Stinger got stung. I heard a bit about Joe C, and I caught his fight last year against Sakio Bika. He looked good, but after seeing him fight a full bout, I wasn't convinced by the pound-for-pound talk that I had read on him. Afterwards he was claiming that he deserves a shot at Bernard Hopkins. I have no idea why X would fight him, maybe 5 years ago.
Large, is the pound-for-pound talk around Calzaghe legit or is this the sequel to the Great White Hype?
Bika roughed him up a bit, fought a very dirty, awkward bout. Even for the best technicians, it's tough to look convincing against fighters like that - I refer you to exhibit A, Winky Wright v. Sam Soliman.
Calzaghe is a very exciting fighter with beautiful footwork and handspeed worthy of the fastest of the fast, but at this point to mention him in the PFP argument is preposterous, simply because he's never fought anyone with real international cred. Robin Reid, Chris Eubank -these guys are not a-listers. As for the bitchslapping he gave Jeff Lacy, that was impressive, but it also exposed something that many suspected going into the bout - Lacy wasn't all he was cracked up to be. Other than that, about the biggest name Calzaghe's ever fought is Miguel Angel Jimenez, and I don't know about you, but beating up a pony-tailed golfer doesn't prove anything to me.
I would have liked to have seen Bernard fight Calzaghe instead of Winky - that's an interesting fight to me. But you're right - why would Bernard do that? Bernard's only going to fight a proven PPV draw in the States. There's a lot of talk of Jermain moving up to 168 and fighting Calzaghe in England - that's an interesting bout as well that I'd be thrilled to see. Jermain's a gigundous 160, and he'd still be a very big 168. Hard to imagine Calzaghe's shoeshine routine would hurt him very much. Then again, it's hard to imagine Jermain ever actually catching Calzaghe in there. Man is very difficult to hit cleanly.
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