Like I said, all credit goes to Froch for gutting out these courageous wins against all odds. But Taylor's stamina, Dirrell's work rate / activity and finally Groves' resilience (and perhaps stamina, too) all let them down to a certain degree against Froch - and those aren't the only times such factors have hindered those men. They all had clear and obvious flaws to their game, and Froch pounced to take advantage and subsequently score wins over men who, by the letter of the law, are all better technical 'boxers' then he is in terms of speed, skill, athleticism and so on.
Unfortunately, Calzaghe just wouldn't give him those windows of opportunity. Stamina? It was one of Calzaghe's strong points.
this fight. Calzaghe's knockout percentage (70) and Froch's (69) show that while they were / are hurtful punchers, the best men with the hardest chins they face will go the distance with them (think Chris Eubank and Sakio Bika in the case of Calzaghe, Glen Johnson and Arthur Abraham in the case of Froch and, of course, Mikkel Kessler in the case of both of them).
Rather, it's about skill - and Calzaghe just has too much of it for Froch. Granted, not all of Calzaghe's wins were cakewalks, either. Robin Reid hurt him several times with thundering right hands, and Hopkins almost outsmarted him to a decision.
Well Froch isn't the same kind of canny, crafty
Even the kind of pressure a snarling Froch pours on is unlikely to make a man like Calzaghe wilt. Unlike the still very amateur-looking style of someone like Dirrell, Calzaghe never stopped punching and making his statement first. He landed (not threw, landed!) 1,006 punches on the hitherto undefeated IBF champion Jeff Lacy in their 2006 bout over twelve rounds, and it was his stamina, conditioning and work rate which won him difficult fights against Robin Reid (1999) and the aforementioned Hopkins (2008).
And he was a hard, hard man as well; knocked down only four times in his career, but never really in danger of being stopped outright.
Froch has the best chin of this, of course - but that isn't a factor which is going to decide
boxer as Hopkins in any case. Hopkins was able to shut Calzaghe's offensive output down to 700 punches in a fight (good for just about everyone else, but not for the indefeatigable Welshman) and protects his chin against counters as well as anyone in the game. Neither of these things are a USP of Froch, who takes great pride in his 'warrior' style of fighting.
Even Froch himself has acknowledged that, "It would be very, very hard to outpoint Joe Calzaghe....Nearly impossible, in fact" in a 2011 interview. Froch is adamant he'd have knocked Calzaghe out, but the evidence suggests not, for me. All of Calzaghe's four career knockdowns occurred inside the first two rounds of fights - so he could be a slow starter.