Former super-middleweight and light-heavyweight champion, Joe Calzaghe, has labelled one fighter as the ‘worst world champion of all time’ in response to a tweet that claims the Welshman was the most overrated boxer in the history of the sport.
Two-division world champ, Paulie Malignaggi gunned for ‘The Pride of Wales’ on social media in an unprovoked and since-deleted post where he asked fans who the most overrated boxer of all-time was, ‘besides Calzaghe…’.
Joe Calzaghe responding to Paulie Malignaggi today…
Which one is more accurate❓️ pic.twitter.com/C5pL7NqXia
— FightBuzz (@Fightbuzz1) November 15, 2023
Some criticism of the now 51-year-old comes his way for failing to take on his fellow super-middleweight Brit, Carl Froch, and instead deciding to face Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr at 175lbs. Others say Froch was the one not keen on the fight.
However, Calzaghe’s skills as a 168lber are hard to deny, reigning as the WBO champion for over ten years and making twenty-one successful defences of the belt, as well as capturing the WBC, WBO and IBF titles during his reign. Calzaghe would defeat both Hopkins and Jones before retiring from the sport with an undefeated record of 46-0, cementing his place as one of Britain’s greatest ever boxers.
Calzaghe fired back at Malignaggi’s post, mocking him in a similar tweet where he asked his fans who the worst world champion of all-time was ‘besides Paulie Malignaggi’.
‘Magic Man’ won the IBF Super-Lightweight Title in 2007, defeating Lovemore N’dou by unanimous decision before twice defending the title against Herman Ngoudjo and in a rematch versus N’dou, winning by split-decision and then vacating the belt.
After an unsuccessful challenge for the WBA Super-Lightweight crown against Amir Khan three years later, the New Yorker found success at welterweight, winning the WBA belt against Vyacheslav Senchenko on away soil in 2012.
Malignaggi overcame Pablo César Cano without the belt on the line before losing out to Adrien Broner the following year, meaning his second reign as champion ended without a successful defence.
