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It's just ridiculous to suggest he'd have beaten him easy.
Bernard and Ward have similarities: They're both good technically, very crafty, very dirty, they both lack power, they're good on the inside etc.
Joe struggled with Bernard in an awful fight.
The Bika fight was also tough for him.
Saying it would have been easy is a gross exaggeration.Comment
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Froch_uppercut,
This is a fantasy.Joe boxes his ears off. One of the most underappreciated fighters of that era, JC. He took on Eubank when Jones and Hoppy wanted none of it.
Did he box Reid's ears off?
Did he box Bika's ears off?
Did he beat Bernard's ears off?
Why would Roy have wanted to have fought a relatively unknown WBO, SMW, when he was at LHW and considered the world's best fighter?
Joe wanted nothing to do with Roy either, making 21 defences of his lightly regarded title, with only 5 of his 21 defences being mandatories.
Joe would never have fought Roy when he was anywhere near his prime.
He admitted in 1999 that he wasn't chasing Roy as he didn't want tough fights.
It's not a school of thought, it's logic and common sense.There's a school of thought that says RJJ would have beaten JC had they fought sooner, but I am not so sure - it wasn't even close, so the gulf between the two would take a whole lot of reversing, and that's even IF RJJ could do it.
Roy was faster. He was harder to hit. He was more accurate. He had better timing. He had better reflexes. He had more variation. He was more powerful with one punch knockout power in either hand.
Joe's only advantages were his chin, work rate and stamina.
It doesn't matter if their 2008 wasn't close.
Was Roy's fight with Glen Johnson close? Roy was bullied for 9 rounds before being knocked cold. It doesn't mean anything.
Roy was a completely different fighter in his prime, to what he was when he was 9 weeks away from his 40th birthday.
The only thing of similarity between Roy in 1994 to the one in 2008, was his name.
Joe was a great fighter in his own right, but he was always relatively easy to hit.
He could have done a lot more to earn his respect earlier.I've said it before: If JC was Bronx born Italian American, he would have gotten infinitely more respect for his career. A great, unbeaten boxer who fought many many great fighters. Too bad he was avoided for so long.
He could have moved to LHW whenever he'd have wanted and gone to the U.S. but he wasn't interested.
Again, he was more than content to remain at SMW defending his WBO belt.
Again, he made 21 defences, but only 5 of them were mandatories. Which means that the other 16 were voluntaries. I don't want to be disrespectful to any of his opponents, but look who he fought.
You can't say he was avoided when he was happy to fight guys like Evans Ashira and Kabary Salem when he was in his 30's.
I think he'll fight Sergey, and I think he can nullify him.As an aside, I like Ward, amazing skills, especially defensively, but he has done himself no favours the last few years. I think the antidote to his skillset is a big ****er, (especially as there are a few questions about his chin) and there are a few of them at 175. Stevenson, Beterbiev and of course Kovalev. If he runs that gauntlet and comes through with his 0 intact he gets immense respect. I can't see him taking the challenge based on his attitude the last few years, and if he does take the challenge my money is on any of those three as good 'value' against the odds.Comment
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A long way to go to lace Joe's gloves?
Do you seriously think Joe would have fought Sergey Kovalev had he have been in Andre's position?
This was a guy who never stepped up until his mid 30's.
This was a guy who dismissed the likes of Tarver and Pavlik on the grounds of not exciting him, who then went on to fight guys like Bika and Manfredo.
If you want some perspective, have at look at what Joe was doing when he was Andre's current age.Comment
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