The two fights were nothing alike Joe threw more punches in one round than the other two did in the whole of their fight! Bernard started well with a great cross that put Joe on his arse, but after a couple of rounds Joe got into his rythm and managed to land more punches on Bernard than anyone in his career; Bernard also had to pull a fast one, pretending to have been hit with a low blow when the replay clearly shows a legitimate shot.
You can argue the good clean shot vs many lighter punches, however, if you are taking those factors on board, then you also need to allow for who was trying to win the fight - Valuevs attempts at aggression would have counted more IF he managed to hit Haye.
Joe was the agressor for the majority of the fight, but Bernard did box cleverly and fooled the ref to get his breath back when he was out of steam. The fact that a judge from Philly could only give it to a fighter from Philly by one round says it all to me, however the score was close.
I think this is just classic Bernard, showing he has skills as a promoter as well as a fighter, he's already getting things going for the Jones fight because the next time they fight he is likely to be the favorite.
I respect Bernard, but he isn't one of my favorite fighters to watch, but he summed up Roy's decline in a very insightful manner, saying that Roy's amazing natural ability meant he could take shortcuts on the basics that everyone else had to drill into themselves, once Roy's reactions started to go, he couldn't fall back on the solid foundations like Bernard
Cloud Cleverly is probably more likely than Cloud Dawson to be honest, I can see Dawson chasing one of two match ups for big $ 1) winner of Jones Hopkins and / or 2) going down 7lbs to fight the winner of the super six. Dawson needs to be careful to stay active look what happened to Winky when he stayed inactive waiting for the big fight to come to him.
The minute Ward won, I knew there would be some mass orgasm amongst the Calzaghe haters, which all detracts from Ward's excellent effort.
Ward suprised me, in a good way, but why that suddenly turns Calzaghe legacy to dust is beyond me, that sort of opinion pretty much sums up their lack of boxing knowledge and disrespects decent fighters such as Woodhall, Brewer etc.
Carl Froch and Jeff Lacy both beat Robin Reid more convincingly than Calzaghe, but Reid was shot by the time he got to Lacy and even more so when Froch beat him. Lacy got owned by Calzaghe and Froch would have got the same treatment. Calzaghe, with what many on this board call his gentle slaps, nearly stopped Kessler with body shots and it was only the referee calling him up for an illegal back of the head punch that allowed Kessler to recover.
Ward is an elite level fighter, Kessler has now lost to two elite level fighters being unable to adjust during the fight.
Calzaghe sort of suceeded despite himself, he did very little research on his opposite numbers, trusting in his own abilities; a clear result of this was his loss of the opening rounds vs Kessler. Ward on the other hand has a wonderful team around him, had the blueprint for defeating Kessler and carried out the plan to perfection.
I have no issue with Ward winning, I welcome a great fighter and give credit where credit is due. The biggest dissapointment for me was seeing that Kessler had learned nothing from his mistakes. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Dirrell win learn his lesson that you have to tear a title away from someone before you start boxing in the style of an incumbent. He has bags of skill, he just needs someone to remind him that he isn't the champion yet - if he can be more positive in the next bout, he shouldn't have any issue with the judges.
both chad dawson and andre ward would beat the living hell out of the fraud that is joe calzaghe, and thats all i have to say about that.
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnn!
Big ass brawl breaks out between all the little nut huggers on here mainly the big three the ******y pac nuthuggers, the fruity mayweather nuthuggers and the fairy calzaghe nuthuggers... plain and simple who wins? On second thought... i dont give a **** just shut the hell up
You have an avatar with an IQ that is equal to your current rep power. As you are from Texas, I am guessing you think that irony means a metalic taste, therefore your avatar must be serious, which in turn means we can ignore anything you say on this site.
Ward Direll will be good because to avoid a slow persons punches with not so good footwork is one thing but to avoid someone like Ward quick foot work and fast hands, I feel Ward will be the victor in this fight. I could be wrong still because Direll is quick himself, I just think Ward looks better on my opinon and is more rounded.
there will still be some interesting fights I wonder if Ward can beat Abrahams.
Absolutely, it will be a good fight, not one for everyones tastes, but a good match of skills
it is very early days yet.
taylor for the win haha.`
That would certainly give someone ammo for a styles make fights thread, how ****ed up will it get if the favorites in each fight get turned over. I will personally give up watching boxing if Ward does all the hard work only to get caught by a lucky shot from Froch in the final. Can you imagine how unbearable Froch would be if he fluked his way to a final win!!!!!
Ok my ranking would be something like this. The lower ratings are real slim pickings.
1. Vitali Klitschko
2. Wladimir Klitschko
3. David Haye
4. Eddie Chambers
5. Alexander Povetkin
6. Denis Boytsov
7. Ruslan Chagaev
8. Chris Arreola
9. Nikolay Valuev
10. Odlanier Solis
What about James Lights Out Toney? His love of burgers has not completely ruined him,
Great Catherine Jenkins avatar btw, I would!
Im not for headbutts, but at the same time I realize its a fight and butts do happen. If I felt I was butted purposely Id either butt back or something to the guy and/or let the ref know of the butt. When Ward was butted by Miranda in the first round he immediatedly turned to the ref and showed him the cut since the ref didnt see it, the ref stopped action and told the judges it was a butt.
Right, good fighters just deal with it and I'm suprised at Kessler, had he let the whole hometown thing get inside his mind? Who knows, but he was beaten by a better fighter on the night. Bika threw more headbuts at Calzaghe than he did crosses, great fighters adapt and I am dissapointed Kessler couldn't but give props to Ward - you box to the interpretation of the ref, it is vary rare that you actually get a truly bias ref - see Ottke vs Reid for an example of outright cheating.
Why are there no threads on the ref? Shouldnt we be blaming the ref whose job is to call such a thing than blaming Ward?
Ezxctly, if you fight to the referee, if he won't ref it for you, you have to sort it out yourself- if the ref then starts pulling you up and not the other guy then you can accuse him of bias, otherwise you just get on with in. Kessler couldn't adapt, he has now lost to two elite guys and hasn't been able to adapt during the fight. Calzaghe didn't do his homework on Kessler and paid for it if the early rounds, but he adapted during the fight to end up winning comfortably, unfortunately Kessler couldn't do this and ultimately it will stop him from being considered a great.
I saw potential in Ward and had a good discussion with Bhop reign regarding his skill in the clinch, but Ward exceeded my expectations. I let myself get put off Ward by Scott Gilfoid, who normally gets everything wrong.
How Kessler reacts to the loss will tell alot, hopefully he will bounce back and shut Froch up. Ward now has to prove the win was more to do with his skill than Kessler going backwards.
Kessler would always have a puncher's chance, but that's all. I had Ward down as needing a few more years before the fight, but Kessler has proved that when he fights guys with that little bit extra, he can't adapt.
Ward's game plan worked perfectly - even with a round or two off for the rough stuff, he would still have enough in the tank. No one can prepare for that peach of a punch, but good footwork reduces the chances of it happening.
he'll change some things after he learned his lesson with the froch robbery.
he has the skills. all he has to do is use it properly.
Dirrell's mistake was very basic, he fought like he had the belt and Froch was challenging him, and if that was the case, he would have done enough to win. Dirrell tried to fight like Hopkins vs Eastman, but that only works when you are the incumbent champ - you can agree or disagree but judges really like to see a metaphorical ripping away of the title (and I thought artistic impression was only scored in ice staking!!)
Ward vs Dirrell will be very interesting - Dirrell avoided a lot of Froch's stuff by a whisker - will he be able to do that against a more skillfull boxer like Ward? Interesting.
Can someone 'splain' dis to me? I don't want to create another thread...
a shit hot, fast talking promoter, who fooled everyone playing the 'Andre hasn't got the experience , he'll need to fight at home to balance things out card '
I just wanna give props to miguel and jermain for giving us fans some of the most memorable fights and performances of the last 8 years.miguel you are a true warrior who never ducks a challenge youve fought the best at light welterweight and welterweight including pacquiao,clottey,margarito,mosley,judah,quintana,torres,bailey,corley,sosa,and malignaggi.jermain you also have had great battles including wright,hopkins twice,pavlik twice,froch,abraham,marquez and lacy.if this is the final year for u both its been memorable,and if u decide to fight on WAR TAYLOR AND WAR COTTO.
Well said, they may have lost a few between them, but theu have given a lot to the sport, from which they deserve every penny they get. People sometimes forget it takes two people to make a great fight.
A very interesting fight that may come down to how Ward reacts if he has to eat a few uppercuts when he tries to clinch after a combination; its a shame that this fight is as early on in the series. I'm looking forward to it, I have Kessler winning, but who knows?
Froch won the fight against Dirrell because he was the champion and the judges will not score a close round to a challenger that is not engaging, especially if the champion is making the running; this system has its limits for most judges, a perfect exapmle being the Haye Valuev fight, where the champion's aggression was so slow and clumsy, that Haye could win a round with one or two clean shots. Although Froch was made to look silly at times, he still landed enough (see Dirrell's face) for those debatable rounds to go to him. IF they both came into the fight without a belt, I would have given the fight to Dirrell, however you can't come do just enough in the champion's back yard - you have to demonstrate that you really want it and despite Dirrell's quite evident skill, the one thing he failed to demonstrate was that extra 10%, ironically if he had engaged for just half a minute more in a couple of those rounds it could have been a different story.
However, like several others have already said, its academic, Froch won one fight by KO and scraped through (IMHO) in the other by virtue of being the incumbent. None of it will make much difference when he comes around in a Danish Ambulance asking what happened post Kessler.
A great defence is one of the best offensive weapons you can have - you get the other guy to do all the hard work for you. Its the same in most fighting systems, if you've got the skill to avoid damage until the other guy tires or leave a gap, you've got it made
It's a bit harsh because they deserve it that way, Kid.
There's a multitude of idiots across The Online Boxing Community who have made Kessler out to be a Beowulf-like figure....as if he beats anyone from 160-175 NOT named "Calzaghe"...
Speaking of Calzaghe...he's overtouted Kessler as well...like it was some kind of special feat beating him.
It's all ridiculous AND sickening at the same time..
This upcoming Ward win will directly tear Calzaghe's bullshit legacy wide open and CRUSH all of his superfans in one, fell swoop.
It's gonna be beautiful....a lot of us have been waitin' a long, long time for this moment...
If Ward gets KO'd and / or outboxed will you change your opinion? You get my respect if you are man enough to say you were wrong, if you comeback with excuses then your rep is likely to stay the same colour as your neck.
If you are not actually Scot Gilfoid, I suggest that you google him, his articles are tailor made for you; he thinks that Ward is the second coming and has a particular hatred for european fighters.
You've got to be a hard arsed businessman, ruthless. The only qualification you need is a degree from the school of hard knocks. Unless you want to be a promoter like the UK's Frank Warren, in which case you will have to splice your DNA with that of a Woman's vagina. Seriously though, most promoters are fairly shady characters that would sell their grandmother to turn a buck, but most have a charisma that blinds you to their dark side (google Don King's past for a good example)
No reason to talk about this fight.
It's old news by now.
The fight was terrible.
Dirrell knew what he was getting into on Froch turf.
He should have pressed harder.
That style, while effective, wasn't going to please the judges.
Especially in Froch's backyard.
Nail on the head! He also forgot that even though this was in the super six, he was challenging for a world title, his style is clever but should be reserved for when you actually have a title and its up to the other guy to get you.
Something that a lot of people have missed is his handspeed, the press have been banging on about ward, but Kessler is no slouch when he puts his one-twos together
That was few and far between when the fighters would come together from coming forward, I dont consider that clinching.
Its still clever fighting - can I cheat and choose an Amateur fight? LOL
Undefeated yes, and I bet no poster on this board can name another fight where they saw Ward clinch, like I said its a strategy, they talk like he does it all the time, name me one other fight that he clinched, they cant.
The Cantrell fight - he used his arm brilliantly to tie up Cantrell's left (when he wasn't beating the shit out of him!!) it reminded me of how Calzaghe neutrilised Lacys left (again when he wasn't beating the shit out of him!!
Sure choose one, Ive seen many of his fights. He's in the Bhop mold in that he has the mindset of "I'm gonna do everything I want to do to you, but youre not going to get anything on me", the old hit and not get hit, by any means necessary, I love that mentality.
He used it quite well against the Russian guy whose name I can't remember (i'll google or you tube it) but that was the amateur style score-clinch- disengage- score clinch very effective in the Ams, but he has definitely altered his style for the pros. As I said before though, I just worry about that uppercut if he males a mistake and telegraphs it. SHould be a bloody good fight mind you.
Thats boxing, Ward clinched for a reason and he didnt do it excessively, when you have to resort to name calling it shows a lack of knowledge.
Knowing when to clinch is a great tool in the armoury of the boxer, Ali used the clinch extremely well, but normally at the end of a ten punch combination!
Bernard uses it, perhaps too well, but I do enjoy technicians fight, its the same with sports like rugby - where the scrum and the maul are considered boring by some people, but to those who know how difficult they are they have their own beauty.
Ward uses the clinch too much and at this point of his career makes mistakes that someone like Bernard doesn't, I think he could find himself at the end of a few nasty uppercuts if he doesn't get it right. If Ward does loose, which on balance I think he will, it is not the end of the world, he is 24 and has a minimun of 6 years or so to continue improving.