Joe calzaghe v the current light heavyweights

[boliodogs]

I think a prime Joe would beat all the light heavyweights except Kovalev. Kovalev would beat him by UD or KO in my opinion.

[The Akbar One]

Calzaghe wouldn't fair well at all. He'd lose a rematch to 50 year old Hopkins, because this set of judges wouldn't screw the old man. Calzaghe would be KO'd by Kovalev, Beterbiev, and Stevenson, and he would be outboxed by Ward.

[robertzimmerman]

The hands issue is a pertinent point but I reckon the op means, if Calzaghe at his best was at light heavy, how would he handle it and in all honesty, I don't see any light heavy troubling him too much. Stev and Kov have the power to hurt anyone and Calzaghe could be knocked down but he always got up and I think he'd be too quick and too skillful for both men.

Ward v Calzaghe would probably be uglier than the Hopkins fight but we all know about Calz punch output and tenacity and he would simply outwork Ward. Beterbeiv and co are not tested enough to be worthy of fantasy match ups.

We have to be realistic. Joe was a great fighter, and he had a unique style that could cause anyone problems. However, as great as he was, he was always relatively easy to hit. Whilst you could certainly say he could have beaten Ward and Kovalev etc, you have to remind yourself that he struggled with Reid, Bika and Hopkins, and he was dropped by Hopkins, Roy, Mitchell and Salem. Yes, he got back up. But there's a world of difference between being hit by Kovalev and Stevenson, and being dropped by Hopkins and a mistimed shot by a near 40 old version of Roy. I think it's also a stretch to say that he could simply have outworked Ward. Those fights would have been extremely hard for Joe.