Who do you rank higher: Andre Ward or Joe Calzaghe

I think Calzaghe's volume punching would give him a slight edge in a points decision.

 

Ward has a better resume. Who knows if he would have beaten calzaghe though.

 

Massive fan of both and i dare to pick a winner in H2H as i really could make a case for both fighters winning. Joe will never get the credit he fully deserves because he beat great fighters who seemed too be on their way out, Ward will never fully get the credit he deserves because of that controversial decision in the first fight with Kovalev and the controversial stoppage in the 2nd. Both will be remembered as ATGs in their own way and rightly so.

Ward never ever ducked a challenge and fought the best of the best and beat them when they were in their prime. That record probably would of hit the 40-0s list had he not had injuries that kept him inactive. Ill always have a soft spot for Andre Ward and not in a gay way.

**** Carl Froch for all the **** hes ever gave Ward & Calzaghe too, wouldnt & couldnt land a glove on the pair of them

 

Ward was able to beat way more credible fighters in

Froch
Kovalev x 2
Dawson
Sullivan barrea which is a hugely underrated win
Kessler

For me joe C biggest wins are
Bhop and Kessler

He has nothing to compare to beating the other guys I mentioned that ward beat but it's not his fault. He beat who was around at the time and his defense streak is impressive.

So again... resume goes to ward
Head to head can be argued either way

 

Calzaghe

 

Agree H2H Calzaghe would win. Resume Ward pwns. I do think both would win against everyone on each other's resume though. That said, Zaggers gets the nod IMO.

 

Voted Calzaghe as it's always great to see him win a poll and his sadly committed hate club cry their little eyes out.

 

Is it that obvious?

Both great fighters.

Obviously Joe had more fights, but there's an awful lot to consider when ranking someone.

 

Joe was always great. But when he was prime, he was relatively unknown outside of Europe.

He only gained recognition after the Lacy fight in 2006.

 

How could they have been no way for Andre to have won?

This gets thrown around all of the time yet there's no logic to it.

Sure, Joe could have beaten him. I could definitely see it myself. But Joe struggled with lesser fighters, including Bernard who shares some similarities with Andre.

To say Andre wouldn't have had a chance, is just a gross exaggeration.

Joe had competitive fights with Reid, Kessler, Bika and Hopkins.

A version of Bernard who had more stamina and who didn't have to feign injury in order to gain a break, would have given him an even tougher fight.

 

It's not obvious at all.

 

The thing is, you hate Andre. Which makes it really difficult for anyone to engage you in an objective debate.

The reason why people bring up Bernard's age, is because he had to feign injury in order to gain a breather. It was horrific to watch, and it was extremely frustrating for Joe as well as everyone else who witnessed it. But it was a tactic to buy him time as he had stamina issues. Now if you're honest with yourself, Bernard also caused Joe lots of problems. He landed the cleaner shots in the fight. Joe tried to swarm him with his unique work rate, but he concentrated more on volume than what he did on accuracy. A lot of those punches were cuffing shots, shots that often didn't hit the target. It became a contest between quality vs quantity. Now it's only logical, to believe that if Bernard had possessed more stamina, then he could have caused Joe more issues. Sure, Bernard went on to prove afterwards that he was still elite. But he was facing guys who were much slower than Joe. Although it was an ugly fight, Enzo Calzaghe honestly thought that Bernard was going to get the decision. He was extremely worried. It was a very close fight. You cannot just award rounds on workrate alone.

Against Andre, Andre would have employed similar tactics. It would have been a very difficult fight for both guys. Anybody who thinks it would be a cake walk for either guy, doesn't know anything. It would have been an intriguing clash of styles. If you want to believe that Joe would have handled him with absolute ease, then that's up to you. But it's a fact that Joe struggled with lesser fighters, and it's also a fact that he never easily beat anyone who was elite. So the evidence that we have to hand, trumps what you would have wanted to have happened. Logic outweighs emotion.

As for who was greater, that's also an extremely difficult to question to answer.

You have to analyse their skill sets, their accomplishments, and their resumes etc.

 

Ward based on resume but H2H it's a pick'em fight.

I'd go with Joe at 168 and Ward at 175.

It's a real shame that Joe wasn't born a few years later so we could have seen him vs Froch + co in the Super 6.

Two of the top 5 fighters in recent generations, along with May, Pac and Marquez.

 

I'm talking overall. Joe was the lineal Super Middleweight champion, beat everyone in his division and was undefeated at 168. Towards the end of his career, he moved up and beat Bhop and Jones Jr. Sullivan was a good win. He's not going to the Hall or will ever be considered and ATG like Jones or Nard

 

Kessler is Ward's best win. But Calzaghe took Kessler's O. Calzaghe did it first.