If Andre Ward fought Calzaghe's resume would he had been 46 - 0

I laugh at all these hypothetical matchups, but really, what do we know?

For all we know, the "Ward v Pudwill Trilogy" might have been the 3 most closely contested fights in the last 15 years, remembered for the last fight in which a desperate Ward, behind on points on all cards and needing a knockout to win, repeatedly head-butts a fading Pudwill toward the closing stages of the 11th, only to open up a huge gash over his own left eye instead...which results in a TKO for Pudwill after he throws a few tired jabs at it to open it up some more. After that, we might have heard that Ward vowed to change his style, fight cleaner - only to fade into mid-card obscurity after some disappointing points losses against Veit and Reid.

 

What he said...

 

:good Good post!!

 

:huh damn some guys just dont understand boxing very well, Kessler lost to a guy that would beat him 99 times out of 100 at any point in his career. I saw nothing in the fight with Calzaghe that suggests that, that Kessler on that night would have faired any better. Calzaghe and Ward are different fighters, Ward is a much better defensive fighter then Cazlaghe and that is the thing that gave Kessler the most problems. No version of Kessler would beat a pre-prime Ward.

Pre-Prime Ward....Leads me to the question of the topic. I would say its hard to say if Ward would have beatten all of the fighters that Calzaghe did this early in his career. This may become a silly question if Ward goes on to become a great fighter.

I will say this for SURE with 100% confidence. Ward would have beatten every fighter that Joe had faced in the same stage of thier careers. The first 21 fights for both fighters cant even be compared. the fact that Ward in 21 fights is a fight with Jones and Hopkins away from already outdoing what Calzaghe did in his entire career.

 

1. Ward will not be around long enough to go 46-0 if he keeps winning. He's smart, and he'll get out and make another career for himself.

2. Ward loses to Kessler of 2007. That man was a much different fighter riding a tidal wave of confidence.

3. Ward would be countered incessantly and possibly stopped by Hopkins.

4. Bika/Ward would be an amazingly dirty fight which might go either way.

5. Eubank would have destroyed Ward, even while past his prime. Ward has no punch resistance and zero power. Calzaghe of 1997 could get Eubank's respect with his power. Ward hasn't got that dimension or the chin to handle Eubank's power.

6. Reid, Brewer, Sheika, Woodhall, Veit, McIntyre...All those guys would take Ward the distance and cause major problems. I don't think it's beyond reason to assume he would drop a decision to one or more of them.

We'll see about Ward in a few years. At present, he needs to do some refining of his technique. I have him being stopped by Taylor, though it wouldn't surprise me to see Ward pull off a decision. I think Ward leaves himself open for counters, and Taylor will be able to hit those openings. Remember, Ward has shown an inability to take a punch, and Taylor has only had problems against Pavlik, Abraham, and Froch...iron-chinned power-punchers, which Ward most certainly is not.

And let's not forget that Taylor dropped Froch and Pavlik, Froch for the first time in his career (not sure about Pavlik). It's not unrealistic to think that Taylor will have Ward down at least once in the fight. I think it'll be a good one, and I can't wait.

 

Too true. Calzaghe made Kessler look better than he would have if this wasn't the case. That's the other side of the coin, and the key to the whole argument. Well stated.

 

What a **** post here.

1) Agree
2) I agree with hudson. Ward has the style and temperament to beat Kessler any time. Kessler couldn't infight in 2007, and so he loses. Easily.
3) I agree with this, though Ward has the in and out movement to cause some issues for Hopkins.
4) Bika wouldn't touch ward.
5) The Eubank that lost to Clazaghe would have been BADLY outclassed against the Ward that beat Kessler. Too slow, didn't throw enough, Eubank loses badly. In his prime, maybe a different story.
6) All of these guys would lose, not much trouble for Ward.


This is all of course that the Ward we saw against Kessler is the real Andre Ward. You never know, he's only strung two great fights together,



Keith

 

1. Glad we can connect on that.

2. Kessler did his best fighting against Calzaghe on the inside. Landed at least two uppercuts that would have dropped Ward.

3. It's definitely a fight I'd watch.

4. Have you ever see Bika fight? Because I and most people who have, and/or know anything about boxing would heartily disagree with you there. Bika's a tough guy, and Ward is just the kind of fighter he'd love to fight.

5. What you're saying is that Ward would do what Calzaghe did to Eubank, but worse. Because it was a hell of a fight, not one sided at all. But Calzaghe could really bang back then, and Ward has never had any power. I think that if Eubank understood that Ward wasn't able to hurt him, he would have walked through him and put him away. He had to fight cautiously against Calzaghe.

6. That's interesting, because Veit has since beaten Juergen Brahmer and Reid lost a very close split decision to Calzaghe. I'm not picking any of them to beat Ward, but to suggest that he'd have an easy time with any of them, let alone ALL of them, is ridiculous.

And you're right, though I'd hardly call the Edison Miranda fight great, and the Kessler fight was just plain ugly. To each his own, I guess.

 

Well **** why dont we just take you word for it and close this thread down right nowatsch

Kessler GOT dominated by Ward, he lost much worse then he did to Calzaghe, so of course the Calzaghe sack posse would ride in with the whole "Kessler was better when" bull****. Its was totally predictable, because this is the argument that European fans always make in this situation. But then rebuff that same argument when made for WELL past thier prime fighters like Jones and hopkins.

And lastly when I along with a few others said that Ward would beat Kessler is was also seen as "ridiculous":hey:good

 

Why don't you watch the mother****ing fight and form an intelligent opinion for yourself? Didn't Kessler fight well on the inside against Calzaghe? I sure thought he did... Hasn't Ward been dropped by a nobody? I think he has... Do you think that if Ward had eaten those uppercuts he would have stayed on his feet, let alone kept on coming forward?

I'm not saying Kessler is past his prime (mentally, maybe he is, but not physically). I still favor him to win the tournament. I'm saying that Kessler was a beast in 2007, and he would probably have given Ward a lot more trouble than he did today.

Also, I'm American. It's boxing, not a war, so I feel okay about supporting fighters who aren't from my own country. What a narrow-minded view to apply to sports...

I agree that Jones was past his prime. Hopkins, on the other hand, might not have been. How can you define 'the prime' of a guy like Hopkins??? He's probably at his best right now...imagine the Hopkins that fought Jones against the Hopkins that fought Pavlik.

Imagine the Hopkins that fought Trinidad and a plethora of other little or old men against the Hopkins who fought Pavlik. How can we say when he was and wasn't in his prime? He's still a formidable fighter, ranked #4 p4p... He was the best at light heavyweight when Calzaghe fought him, what more do you want?

And he would beat Ward.

Feel free to disagree with me, but don't be a jackass and assume I'm just a European supporting Calzaghe at the expense of Ward. I happen to think Ward's pretty good, but I'm not prepared to put him at Calzaghe's level just yet. We shall see.

 

Wow, Im not sure were to start?? So your saying because Ward got dropped in his 6th fight as a pro that means that the same kessler that couldnt stop a blown up featherweight coming off being knockedout, would have dropped him with a couple of shots that didnt even shake Calzaghe???

Here is the biggest problem with you statement. Why didnt Kessler Land those shots vs Ward??? Do you think he didnt want to??? could it be that he couldnt?? Which goes back to my first reply on this thread and that is Ward is a better defensive fighter then Calzaghe and that is the reason that Kessler looked better vs him then he did vs Ward. Kessler simply couldnt land his shots, and Ward had him looking amatuerish at many points in the fight. European or not a sack jockey is a sack jockey. Putting someone on the level of Calzaghe isnt that difficult being that his resume was pretty weak. Should Ward go though the Super Six he would have outdone Joes entire career in less then 30 fights:bbb

 

I don't think there will be a rematch of Kessler/Ward. I think Taylor stops Ward, Kessler beats Froch, and Abraham beats Dirrell.

Then I have Kessler beating Taylor, Abraham stopping Froch, and Dirrell beating Ward:

Abraham 8
Kessler 4
Ward 2
Taylor 3
Froch 2
Dirrell 2

I don't know how they decide who stays and who goes, but I give Ward absolutely no chance against Abraham. Taylor and Dirrell CAN beat Ward, whether or not they will is always up in the air. Froch could also beat Ward, in my opinion. Kessler, I don't know. It's possible, but I'm guessing Ward beats him 4 out of 5 times. I favor Kessler because I think he has the best skillset to match each of the other figthers. He has a great chin (hasn't been down yet), good power, good jab, good defense. Doesn't do anything spectacularly, but does everything well. Taylor and Ward are susceptible to being dropped, Froch is terribly limited, Dirrell is inexperienced, and Abraham can be outworked pretty easily. To me, Kessler matches up well with all of them. Now I know that Ward is a worse matchup than I expected, but they may not fght again in the tournament and next time around the fight will be staged more fairly (not saying Kessler would win, but it'd definitely be a better fight).

Kessler had beaten Mundine and Andrade. Beyer and Lucas as well. He was kind of on a roll, he was undefeated, and a slight bit younger. I thought that Kessler fought Calzaghe well on the inside in the center of the ring. When he was on the ropes, obviously Calzaghe was mauling him. My point was that Kessler CAN fight on the inside when he isn't being forced backwards, and that he landed some good shots on Calzaghe which I don't think Ward could have taken. But who knows whether he could have landed them on Ward in the first place?

Seriously, Ward has beaten Edison Miranda and Kessler. In two ugly fights. I was actually more impressed with his win against Miranda. The Kessler win...well anyone can beat a guy who can't see out of either eye. Add in the fact that the ref was extremely lenient, allowing Kessler to be taken out of his gameplan...I don't think it was all that impressive. Then again, we know Kessler can't adapt in the ring, and he appeared to be setting Ward up and waiting for something that was never going to come. Ward's clearly got talent, but I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon just because he beat the favorite in the tournament. Let's see how he holds up before deciding how he stacks up against guys with twice as many fights as him.

 

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Calzaghe's chin is notably better than Ward's, and Ward has as much as said that he really hates getting hit and counts on evasion to protect his chin. I was saying that IF Kessler had landed those shots on Ward, Ward would probably have gone down or been seriously effected. Kessler has knocked people out with his jab, for god's sake.

 

At the risk of sounding elitist here, Im going to say that your not worth the time that it takes to type this out so this will be the last time that I reply to your posts. You said and I qoute

You said nothing about Ward probably going down or maybe being effected. Also once again Kessler hit Andrade with everything he had and could stop him, yet Bute did. Kessler also couldnt stop Mundine who got waxed by Ottke. also Kessler couldnt stop a guy that was a featherweight one fight after he was knocked out. The people that he knocked out with a "JAB" werent ward or eles he would have knocked out Ward with a jab being that was the only shot that he could land, and that was few and far between. Your whole theory is based on what ifs. What if will always change history. What if Andarde had been able to get to kesslers body the way he did Bute in the first fight, what if the Abraham would have been stopped vs Miranda in the first fight the way he should have been. Get out of here with that bull****.

 

Probably. I don't hate Calzaghe, I have nothing against the guy but his resume is a little weak.

The only one with a chance of beating Ward is old B-Hop. Unless I'm totally mistaken about Ward and he proves to not be as good as I thought in his next 2-3 fights. But I kinda doubt that.