When asked if he would have beaten Ward if the pair had met
Joe smiled and replied - 'I think the way Ward fights would have suited me to be honest, I would have had too much speed and power for him - so yes, I would have beaten him
Did he not deal with hopkins inside game?
no. hopkins didn't have an inside game in that fight because joe cortez was the ref and separated them before hopkins could do anything even if he had hands free(improper reffing). several times in the fight hopkins is on the inside hitting calzaghe and joe looks at cortez like what the hell man break us! and of course he does because calzaghe is the a-side and has a blockbuster ppv against jones coming up...back to back ill informed posts. are you going for troll of the year because tunney has that wrapped up.
Joe was smart, that is a skill that a lot of people don't give due credit for. He could adapt on the spot and knew how to see and exploit weaknesses in the other boxer.
Ward would not fair well against Calzaghe once Joe found a way around the mugging and head grinding that he tries to do along the ropes. Ward would be in serious trouble around round 7 or so as Calz steps it up into yet another gear to start tearing down Ward's confidence. By round 10, Ward would be hesitant to throw punches at all....round 11, he is hesitant to even come out of the corner. 8-4 UD for Calzaghe
round 12-rather than come out of the corner ward commits suicide.
What i dont get is that Calzaghe came to america and whooped both of your legendary champions for 12 rounds. When he boxed RJJ everyone said it was a class to high for him, same with hopkins. It would be the biggest mismatch for Ward. Ward is good against fighters with no movement, Abraham, Kessler, Froch but Joe has faster hands, better footwork and a machine type workrate. And with Ward not having knockout power how could he imagine beating Joe?
do you live in reality? who said that? what kind of propaganda got filtered down to you? no one credible thought that and if you heard anyone say that then they weren't credible/were hyping up a joke fight. i could understand if the fight was like 20 years ago but it just happened a couple years ago. how could you be so wrong already?
Joe was smart, that is a skill that a lot of people don't give due credit for. He could adapt on the spot and knew how to see and exploit weaknesses in the other boxer.
Ward would not fair well against Calzaghe once Joe found a way around the mugging and head grinding that he tries to do along the ropes. Ward would be in serious trouble around round 7 or so as Calz steps it up into yet another gear to start tearing down Ward's confidence. By round 10, Ward would be hesitant to throw punches at all....round 11, he is hesitant to even come out of the corner. 8-4 UD for Calzaghe
We'll know more about the probable outcome of this fight after seeing what sort of problems Bute presents Ward. Although far from a carbon copy of Calzaghe, they do share some similarities.
I agree with Joe.
The first few rounds would be highly competitive but as it progresses i see Joe stepping up his output and Ward eventually being outworked and tired over the distance.
Calzaghe UD.
What i dont get is that Calzaghe came to america and whooped both of your legendary champions for 12 rounds. When he boxed RJJ everyone said it was a class to high for him, same with hopkins. It would be the biggest mismatch for Ward. Ward is good against fighters with no movement, Abraham, Kessler, Froch but Joe has faster hands, better footwork and a machine type workrate. And with Ward not having knockout power how could he imagine beating Joe?
in fairness, Joe would have taken Froch apart on the inside just like Ward.
Joe might even have stopped Abraham.
And Joe had a similar sloppy fight with Sakio Bika who is their one common opponent the reason being Sakio who is a bona fide beast if you take the fight to him.
Both fighters are better than any fighter on eithers resume so it would be interesting to see how a fight between them would go. Both have very high ring inteligence, comparable speed, deceptivly strong and similar power.
Err..... Hopkins????
And Jones jr, though past his prime.
unlike leonard, mayweather, foreman, frasier, liston, louis
RJJ never lost in his prime
mayweather of course was destroyed by castillo in a shut out
Wasn't a shut out, but I had Floyd losing 115-113 the first fight. Show me how Castillo won ANY of those first 5 rounds, probably a large part why Floyd got the decision. Also, Floyd came back like a real champ and fought an immediate rematch with Castillo, and won with no controversy.
You can't knock Calzaghe for who he fought and all, because he fought everyone at SMW in his era. Granted, it's not even close to how many good SMW there are today, but it's who was in his era, and I think Joe would be capable of beating just about any SMW. His resume isn't that great, and one could argue that Andre Ward already has a better resume.
Joe Calzaghe notable fights:
1997: Chris Eubank- W UD12
2001: Mario Veit- W TKO1
2005: Mario Veit- W TKO6
2006: Jeff Lacy- W UD12
2007: Peter Manfredo Jr.- W TKO3
2007: Mikkel Kessler- W UD12
2008: Bernard Hopkins- W SD12
2008: Roy Jones Jr.- W UD12
Andre Ward notable fights:
2009: Edison Miranda- W UD12
2009: Mikkel Kessler- W TD11
2010: Allan Green- W UD12
2011: Arthur Abraham- W UD12
2011: Carl Froch- W UD12
So, Joe beat Eubank, Veit, Lacy, Manfredo, Kessler (best win), Hopkins, and Jones. Eubank and Veit were top people when Joe fought them, but not really big time threats or great fighters. Lacy was seen as a really good up-and-coming guy and some people were picking him to beat Joe, and Joe beat him down, a great win. Manfredo was a decent win. Kessler was a great win, his best in my opinion. Hopkins was a good win, especially as we've seen that Bernard is still pretty decent, even in 2011. However, it was controversial, and I would liked to have seen a rematch, as Joe didn't win it outright by any means. I had Joe winning, but it was close. Jones, did zero for his legacy, as Jones was already 6-7 years removed from his prime.
Than, Andre has beat Miranda, Kessler, Green, Abraham, and Froch already, and he's only 27. Miranda was a decent win, same class as Joe's Manfredo win really. Kessler was a great win, but Joe gets more credit for doing it first. Green was a solid win, a pretty good fighter, who was seen as a legit threat going in, and Andre shut him out. The Green win was close to the Lacy win, as Green's reputation to a significant blow when he was KO'd by Johnson. Abraham, another really good win for Ward. Abraham was a really good, top SMW fighter. And Froch, Ward's best win to date, was a huge win.
So, one could argue that Ward has already beaten better people that Joe ever did, but you can't knock what Calzaghe did though. He dominated the SMW division from the late 90's to the late 00's, with relative ease. The only thing that stops me from saying "Yeah, Joe would have beaten Ward", is the fact that even a 42-43 year old Hopkins was able to nullify what Calzaghe was able to do. Granted, Joe wasn't in his prime when that fight happened, but eh was past his prime-still good until he retired. Joe picked a good time to retire, because we never really saw Joe fall on his face and fight to the point where he wasn't even that good anymore, and that's a good thing. I had Joe beating Bernard, but it wasn't by a large margin.
Joe Calzaghe is STILL an ATG, given the dominance he had for his era, at his weight, But, to say he beats Ward hands down is stretching it. Ward has started to dominate as well as Joe did, so far, and against much better fighters than Joe ever had to fight from 97-05.
Joe threw punches in bunches and had really good speed for a SMW, but Ward is pretty fast as well. Ward has fast hands, can counter with a straight right, jab, or a left hook. If they both fought, in their primes, there'd be a lot of clinching, and I suspect a lot of Brit's would b*tch and moan about Ward clinching in the fight. But, clicnhing at the right moments is an effective way to stop your opponent from getting off and getting going on you, and Andre would do it. I don't see Joe's power being too much to handle, as I don't think Ward is fazed by good punching power, he took shots from Froch like they were nothing, and was able to exchange with Froch well. The biggest question to me is how would a Calzaghe-Ward fight play out on the inside??? Would Ward be able beat Joe down on the inside the way he did Froch??? Would he be able to take Joe to the ropes they way he did Froch, and would Joe be able to cutoff the ring against Ward once Andre starts to box and move around???
There's too many questions really, and it'll never happen.