Calzaghe never got the recognition he deserved here in the US because he destroyed every American fighter that challenged him and is the best ever in his class.
He was a southpaw on cocaine that almost entirely fought in the UK most of which was in Wales where he had biased refs on his side. He doesn't deserve anymore recognition.
@@johnjordan6032 oh bitter. It’s very hard to argue that he wasn’t a world class boxer and his record speaks for itself regardless of whether you think he had some advantages or not
almost every opponent joe fought was cut and had muscle definition,joe looked lean and undescerning,no big and ripped muscles,but boy was his workrate amazing,always busy always seemed to have plenty in the tank,a one off fighter.
This was a clinical and masterful performance by Calzaghe. Every time I watch him I'm astonished by his speed, fitness, ability and strength. He was a brute in the ring, the complete fighting machine; he never stopped coming forward, and knocking him back just made him come forward more. Pound for pound, the greatest boxer this country has ever produced. And he's Welsh. Cymru am byth!
Calzaghe and Sheika were originally supposed to fight on the De La Hoya - Trinidad undercard in Las Vegas 1999, but it get delayed because of Calzaghe injury. Maybe it would have gotten Joe more notice in the U.S. years before he did. Good job by Joe here, as someone else noted here, Sheika was seen as a real up and comer at this point in his career.
Referee did the right thing. Calzaghe eventually beats you with a thousand punches. So accurate, such great timing, not a massive hitter but eventually knocks the life out of opponents.
Joe Calzaghe s.cardio output was on another level from anybody ... the only guy I've seen like this is Manny Paquiao and even Manny falls a bit short. But close... Conditioning is half the battle ...whoever has enough in the tank left. Much respect to Omar Sheika a.Warrior for sure
Part of the reason he had such high work rate was because he used speedy arm punches instead of putting his body behind them. Power punching exhausts fighters very quick, but arm punches don’t.
this was a good decision to stop the fight before Omar landed in hospital from brain damage. Joe was holding back a tactic i havnt yet seen him do yet right up to the last round here, though ive only wtched about 5 fights so far. He is a real talent. way to quick for most. watching in slo mo you see him move as soon as the guy loads one up on him but by the time he leavs Joe is making a planed combo and is anticipating opponents next move. what a top shelfer bro.
WOW! what a great fight. Really feel for Sheika in this one, he had plenty of fight left in him but for an accidental clash of heads that just happened to happen in a really bad spot that cost him the fight.
Hardly a mark on Calzaghe unbeatably the best in his time he had to stop power punching later in career due to damaged hands yet still destroyed people. , totally unbeatable too fast, to aggressive and iron jaw !
Imagine if he had turned out to be a heavyweight with the same speed etc.....good night to most heavyweights of today's boxers and past I think 😂 Totally agree, Iron jaw.... ultimate stamina aswell, accurate and fast! Hard combination to beat as an opponent
It was always gonna be a tall order for any SMW in history to step in against Joe. Sheika had guts and the will to keep fighting despite being hurt, but the ref spared him of the kind of ass whooping your grandchildren feel, so I'd say it was a good stoppage with one of the fighters' well being in mind
Another one to pad Joe's inflated record along with: Charles Brewer Byron Mitchel Chris Eubank Jeff Lacy Mikell Kesler Bernard Hopkins Roy Jones Sakio Bika All champions, former champions, or very solid fighters. Only a casual boxing fan would say something so dumb. Every fighter that Joe fought trained for the fight of their life, most had everything to gain and nothing to lose, Joe had everything to lose. Hopkins backed out of a contract to fight Joe after the Brewer fight. Most boxers can be criticized, but Joe gets hammered with criticism at every turn.
but Joe never got tired? :) It was incredible the amount of work he was able to produce, really surprising his intensity, his speed, his variety in carrying the shots, besides his defensive capacity are of high level, great boxer!
its a little bit early to stop the fight but somehow it was a good decision by the ref. Sheika got hurt and he has nothing left. he would just receive more punishment if it was not stop early. Split second of delay to stop a fight will just cause more damage and sometimes death to the boxers.
I have to disagree. The last 30 seconds of that fight, the guy had to have took about 10 really heavy punches on top of what already went before. The ref is there to protect the boxers remember.
rohan knight you are deluded if you honestly believe that Calzaghe couldn’t punch. Maybe at the very very top of the boxing world he couldn’t punch as hard as some others but to mere mortals like ourselves we’d be sparkled if he hit us. But you know what, maybe you are right and the boxing experts are wrong. Who knows.
@@billwhite9703 Swinging, but not landing at all and getting belted very frequently by Calzaghe. Sheika was looking vulnerable, you have to be able to protect yourself and he wasn't doing that. It became more common to see fights being stopped in Britain when things got to this stage (one fighter not able/willing to defend himself) rather than allowing the bloody brawls of old to develop, waiting until a man is staggering around and half concious, and with good reason. There were some tragedies in the early to mid nineties in boxing involving British boxers, and things had to change.
I hate premature stoppages, & this is one of them. Full credit to Calzaghe, but Sheika wasn't convinced that he was beaten, ... & he needed to be convinced; the only way was for him to be put down & out for the count.
He always seriously came to fight. Seems like he had a lot of stoppages like this where he's still throwing bombs and hadn't been down. But he had very little chance here.
Referee stopped the fight prematurely! Very bad call to stop the fight ! Omar was still throwing punches fighting back , no need to stop the fight . These guys dedicate their entire lives for that one powerful last minute knockout punch to save the fight . Very bad call !!
He was swinging wildly and hitting nothing, and Calzaghe was landing at will. If you let every fight continue because someone might theoretically land a big punch and come back, then you get people suffering severe brain damage, as happened in the nineties.
Shieka was a one punch knockout fighter. It wasn't looking good for him but you can't stop it that soon. He's still standing in the middle of the ring throwing bombs. Maybe if he survives the round he regroups.
The ref seemed to see that he was just out of his depth. Calzaghe was on another level, and in another league. He was just sharpshooting Sheika, and slicing him up. It was the right thing to do. He could have let it go on, but he could see where it was going. It was going downhill for Sheika, bigtime - and just getting worse. Calzaghe had his number, and would have continued messing him up until his face was just a raw-meat and bleeding punching bag. It would have been a cruel spectacle.
He wasn't really a one punch fighter, he was a fighter who won by landing numerous medium-heavy shots, and he wasn't landing many at all on Calzaghe. When Sheika did open up and really go for it with combinations of hooks, most missed or was blocked solidly by Calzaghe keeping a tight guard. What I did notice on rewatching this was he started to have some modest success with landing lead right hands in the penultimate round (something other fighters succeeded with against Calzaghe, such as Robin Reid, Bika and Roy Jones, though obviously even at that stage in his career Jones had exceptional speed and so it is no surprise that HE was able to do it). They weren't hurting Calzaghe and were too few and far between, but they were landing cleanly.
100% agreed. Sheika was badly hurt but still fighting back and deserved to be given the chance to continue. Sheika was in all likelihood never going to beat Calzaghe but the ref should have given him more of a chance to prove that vice stopping it early like he did. Just my take.
@@abuabdoalwaheed9967 Lol, how do you see it then? Sheika was giving it a go, not shirking from the fight and trying to hit Calzaghe, but trying is all he managed. The commentator gave him his due. Sheika rarely landed on Calzaghe and never fazed him in the least, while Joe was landing plenty and looked very comfortable, completely in control and easily defending against Sheika. Sheika was getting more and more desperate and tried all out aggression, which only resulted in him being more cleanly hit with power shots. He was out of his league against Calzaghe.
Calzaghe would have won, but I had been in the referee I would have let it run until the natural ko! the boxers for the effort and commitment that they deserve to be beaten without any doubt, even if someone who complains always persists.
Stoppage was a little stupid, as Omar was still fighting back. Just like Frazier v Foreman, when the ref stepped in after the 7th knockdown, Frazier got mad and went to his corner. I think it should’ve been drawn out more, as anything could’ve happened. If the fighter is fighting back and throwing punches, then let him fight!
It's not a 'hometown stoppage' unless you believe the referee ended the fight to favour Calzaghe. Sheika was defending himself? That's debatable, he was swinging for the fences and missing Calzaghe almost all the time by that point, showing an increasing lack of consideration for protecting himself. Where was his guard in the last 20 seconds? For most of that period he was just trying to hit Calzaghe at the expense of anything else, his chin was an easy target and he did nothing about it, and started to look a bit uncoordinated. In the last couple of seconds he seemed to be doing some upper body movement to throw off Calzaghe's aim but the slightly wobbly look about him while doing it is probably what convinced the referee that it needed to be stopped. You need to understand that referees are more risk averse in Britain and have been since the tragic results of early 90s bouts in the SMW division which resulted in severe brain injury to a couple of fighters. One could argue that Sheika looked more wobbly than he really was due to the fact he wasn't taking any defensive precautions and getting knocked off balance more easily by Joe's punches as a result, but that just gives the ref another reason to stop it; Sheika was so desperate to start being effective that he had thrown all caution to the wind, and it clearly wasn't achieving anything for him. He was out of his depth. That said, it would have been exciting to give it another round or two, but I really don't think it could have gone anywhere but south for Sheika. He hadn't looked capable of troubling Calzaghe.
Calzaghe was holding and punching head butts and elbows rabbit punches and what not and on top of that the ref stops the fight.......I do not like Sheika but not a fair fight to say the least for Sheika
@@sheruffa6032 did you even watch the fight ??? First round rabbitt punches and other rounds doing unlawfull shit. Hey, its my opinion and maybe your perspective is different ? All good, enjoy the fight
@@freedomofspeech2238 in a nutshell you have no evidence to support the accusation against Calzaghe, or you have accused Calzaghe claiming that he had elbowed Sheika, but you have not been able to indicate to me the moment in which Calzaghe elbowed Sheika, if I had been in court you would have lost the case, for lack of evidence, in a nutshell you defamed Calzaghe.
@@sheruffa6032 I simply posted a comment reflecting my opinion..... In a nutshell = are you a snowflake too ? Thanks for analyzing my opinion and giving your own LOL. My wife does that all the time and it's normal for her she's a woman LOL
I studied Calzaghe for a long time, he couldn't do all the movement to punch, it would have been predictable, he needed to anticipate the opponent, so he cut the trajectory of the blows, he preferred the speed to the classic hook, starting and landing blows from unpredictable positions, however when he did it the hook was pretty cool!
Joe "hit and hold" Calzaghe. Roy Jones, James Toney, Thomas Hearns, Hagler, McCallum, Duran, Hopkins, Canelo, Eubanks, would all beat him in their prime.
So that’s 8 boxers that you’ve confidently predicted would beat calazaghe, an unbeaten fighter. Now figure out the accumulated odds of that prediction? Even at 50/50 per fight it’s less than 1% It’s fine to dislike boxers but making ridiculous predictions is, well, ridiculous
@@garrisonthad 😂 how on earth does my logic (which is mathematical so it is actually logic) help you to arrive at the fact that I think mayweather is the greatest fighter of all time? I’d love to hear that explanation
