They weren't deliberate. But yeah, I've seen a few comments about them being on purpose, as well asa Ward using an 'intentional' headbutt. Ward did his job. IMO, the ref dropped the ball a little on this. I'm pretty sure Kov would have been taken out in the next round or two, as those body shots were taking a huge toll. this was the only thing I can think to disagree with you a bit on. Love reading your posts, don't bee too much a stranger!
Don't worry about disagreeing with me. Ha! I'm back on here now on an almost daily basis. Look out tomorrow for a thread I'm going to bump regarding Roy, Ward and Kovalev. I'm about to do battle with one of my favourite posters on here - Serge.
Wouldn't even require a point deduction, as Ward had not received a warning prior. Weeks should have caught it, and given Kov the 5 minutes before reconvening the fight. That's what SHOULD have happened.
Both experience and common sense leads to the observation that heads collide unintentionally while boxing. That is a given every boxer accepts as a risk. What is not acceptable is a boxer adopting a style that he knows increases the chance that his head will open up deep cuts. That isn't boxing. That's Billygoating. BTW It's like RJJ said during the Joe vs BH fight, "Bernard says here comes my head and if your face just happens to be in the way that's just too bad." That isn't boxing and if you win via using that head butting style then you can expect reactions such as the one Horn recently provoked.
Well, Calzaghe always fought like that. I don't think Ward has the power to hurt him, either. Ward could try and spoil and mess up his rythmn I guess, but Joe would always be landing more than Ward imho. I think that if Kovalev's stamina were a little better he would have cleaned house.
Both of you guys are excellent posters. Lance too. This is about the first time that I disagree with you about a fight, btw.
No I said take away your top guys from each division in that case it'd be JC, Ottke and Jones and DM. Everyone under at that point in time was b level at best.
No I'm stating facts. Ward was in a division no better than Calzaghe's proven that Kessler was still the man at the time.
What good is cleaning house when you have the judges on your side? Kovalev could only have won one way and that is through knock out.
Unfortunately that is true. Kovalev expended an enormous amount of energy in outworking Ward in the second fight for very little appreciation on the judge's cards.
I don't think Ward has power that would have hurt Joe, but I think he had enough to gain his respect. Due to Joe's actions throughout his career, I really have to question whether on not he'd have fought Andre in the way he fought everyone else.
Thanks. You're a great poster yourself. It's cool that we disagree, it's what makes the forum great. Regarding a fantasy fight between them, I can honestly envisage Joe winning. He was a great fighter, and I think Ward would have been extremely troubled by Joe's speed and style. But after watching both of their careers, I can't believe that it would have been easy for for either guy. If Joe hadn't have fought guys like Bernard and Robin Reid etc, and I'd have put forward a question asking what may have happened had he have fought them, I know that my questions would have been scoffed at. Many posters would have wrote that those fights wouldn't have been competetive, and that I'd asked questions that didn't need to be asked. Basically, half of the forum would have laughed at me. People can put forward compubox stats etc, but the reality is this: As great as Joe was, he never beat an elite fighter with ease in his entire career. Guys like Robin Reid, Sakio Bika and Bernard Hopkins, are all roughly the same size as Ward, whilst also sharing some similarities with him. And we know that all of those fights were tough at times for Joe. Every one of those fights were competitive. And I believe that a fight against Ward, would have looked a lot similar to the one against Bernard, but one where Ward didn't need the time outs like Bernard needed. Again, I think you're a great poster and I always enjoy reading your posts. And again, it's cool that we don't agree here. But in my honest opinion, there is no evidence whatsoever, to suggest that Joe would have beaten Ward with absolute ease. I think that theory is a gross exaggeration. Because a guy good enough to have beaten Ward with absolute ease, wouldn't have been troubled by the lesser fighters like the ones who Joe fought.
We're supposed to be looking from Joe's perspective and why he should have moved up to LHW earlier. Sven was the number 1 SMW for years. But he had wins that were gifted. And if you removed Sven, then other than Joe himself, you were left with guys like Reid and Brewer etc. Again, those guys weren't better than Hill and Griffin etc. And even if you want to include Joe, then Joe and Sven weren't better than Roy and Dariusz. Either way, the LHW division was stronger, and Joe could have fought there and made the weight much easier. But he didn't do that, because he wanted an easy ride with his WBO belt, where he was happy to fight the Kabary Salem's of the world.