PICASSO RETURNS ONCE AGAIN
Two weeks ago when Bernard Hopkins painted a masterpiece in defeating Kelly Pavlik it was worthy of having the Picasso stamp on it. Last night when Joe Calzaghe dominated Roy Jones Jr. the ghost of pablo Picasso returned yet again and stamped Calzaghe’s performance. Last week when I made my prediction, I predicted that Jones would beat Calzaghe, as we all know by now I was wrong. I did however say that Calzaghe must stay busy in order to beat Jones, here is what I said at the time-
'’To keep the streak alive, Calzaghe will have to overwhelm Jones with emense pressure as he did when he suffocated Jeff Lacy.'’
That is exactly what Calzaghe did to keep his streak alive, Calzaghe tatooed Jones and continued to tatoo Jones until Jones couldn’t breathe or see. Many observers who knew that Calzaghe would win came to that conclussion after watching Jones last performance when he soundly beat Felix Trinidad. Those observers knew and felt that Jones was no longer the Superman that we remember him to be, after all even though Jones did knock down Trinidad a couple times, Jones still could not put away the blown up 170 pounder so how could Jones even dream to try to put away a fighter in Calzaghe who has lived in the 168-175 pound neighborhood his whole career? Before the fight when we asked how Calzaghe would do against a man that can match his speed, Calzaghe answered that question in the ring without even blinking. However, after the fight one question was left to be answerd and was never really answered, Mad Max Kellerman asked Joe what about the young hungry lion that remains, Chad Dawson? Joe then tip toed around the question and said that Kellerman should be a promoter.
Kellerman’s question however in my eyes is worthy of an answer. As I have said before, I feel that a fighters legacy is judged on the questions that he leaves on the table when he decides to hang them up. When Lennox Lewis retired, Lewis retired without any questions since he had already beaten every heavyweight worth questioning. When Mayweather retired he left the strongest division in only facing Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah when there was still Joshua Clottey, Paul Williams, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, and Shane Mosley on the menu. If Calzaghe retires, many of us will not be mad since Joe went out in his last two fights and beat legends. Allow me to break it down.
168
Jermain Taylor- Taylor’s jab would make it interesting but Joe would overwhelm him.
Sakio Bika- Joe has been there done that.
Allan Green- too green for Joe.
Carl Froch- tough but not tough enough for Joe.
Jeff Lacy- been there done that.
Lucian Bute- might be the second coming of Joe, but right now he is not ready for Joe.
Mikkel Kessler- gave Joe trouble for 4 or five rounds then Joe took over.
175
Adrian Diaconu- would get outboxed easily.
Roy Jones Jr.- what a bloody mess that turned out for him, no pun intended.
Zsolt Erdei- Sven Otke all over again.
Glen Johnson- pressure meets pressure, but Calzaghe is too quick.
Bernard Hopkins- I felt that it was a first half dominated by Hopkins and a second half dominated by Joe.. But the official win went to Joe.
*Chad Dawson- to be determined.
No matter how you slice the pie, there will still be one piece of pie left on the table, and that right now is Chad Dawson.