By Quentin “The Kid” Savoy: In the wild, when the aging lion reaches its end as king of the pride, a new young lion comes in and takes over. Now, I ask, what happens when the King vanishes with the picture unclear, ala Lennox Lewis, leaving the heavyweight division. This maze we now watch. No true ruler. No major power shift to anticipate, but only the wait for a consensus ruler..
This big problem has come in major form again, this time in one of the less loved weight classes. Champion Joe Calzaghe has left his division in bit of a mess, not like Lennox Lewis did, as the one and only king, but in a far worse way. He left as the “presumed” best. He left with a Question mark. While a fighter with just as much credentials, if not more than any other fighter on his resume stood in the back waiting for his chance at the thrown. One of the P4P best, “Bad” Chad Dawson.
Some people have had the audacity to say “What has he (Dawson) Done.” Well, lets break this done on basis of what has he not done compared to other opponents Joe took on.
1.Bernard Hopkins, a living legend, yes, (My Favorite Fighter) but the only light heavyweight he beat before taking on Calzaghe was Tarver. And that win was coming off of back to back loses to Jermain Taylor. Hopkins is also 44-years-old, not shot, of course, but out of his prime most definitely, and even that fight was a win with a question mark.
2.Mikkel Kessler, a good fighter and not a name on his record that stands out, except of course the fight with Calzaghe. Dawson has beaten the best Cruiserweight in the sport, Adamek, and two of the top five light heavies Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Not to mention the Tarver fight was pretty one-sided.
3.Jeff Lacy, was a hot talent. Many people say “Talk about it now, but most thought Lacy would Ice Calzaghe.” My response to that is: How many Lacy fights did you ever see? Do you know who Rubin Williams is? He was out-boxing Lacy early, so was Sheika and Vanderpool. Joe knew this, boxing enthusiast noticed this and this was a well picked (VERY winnable) dangerous fight. He (Lacy) earned this fight more off his “eventual” destruction of good fighters than who he actually fought. Once again Dawson level of opponent is at a higher level than this guys was. The big difference I see is a less pleasing style match-up for Calzaghe. Someone noticed it, right, Joe?
4.Roy Jones Jr., seriously what do I need to say? we all know Chad beat the two guys who knocked out the shot Jones. SHOT JONES, I repeat.
I wont go any deeper than that. But my issue is. How can we give Joe so much credit, when he left the division in a uproar through avoiding the biggest primed challenge he had? Worst of all he pretends there wasn’t a big fight left. I guess he only consider the guys he knows he can outwork big fights.
Another black eye to boxing that will probably remain unfixed. A top pound-for-pound fighter missing out on the chance to really emerge and show the world that the Light Heavies are not all aged and approaching the end. And the chance for Joe to really test his medal, avoided. A legend he proved not to be.