Hear me out... Lacy was 21-0 before he fought Calzaghe, and was hyped up to be the saviour of the supermiddleweight division, the mini mike tyson, was expected by most boxing scribes obliterate the overrated and untested european level slapper. The hype machine had got ahead of itself and lost all perspective, in hindsight the world class wrecking machine was found out to be american-level at best, against an elite-level Calzaghe who hammered the perspective back in over 12 rounds of gap-in-class exposure. Ward is 22-0 to date, and with america again desperate for a challenger to the SMW great crown, is he now hyped up way too far ahead to be the world class future of the division, just as lacy was? Legitimate question, try to look at this objectively, is the Ward of today as good as the Lacy of early 2006? If so why??
Ward outclasses him in a one-sided mismatch. Ward is far too versatile, determined, skilled, and intelligent for Lacy to do much of anything after a round or two where Ward feels him out before making adjustments and exploiting the many weaknesses of Lacy's game.
I'm not a massive fan of Calzaghe - I'm trying to put a bit of an objective spin on the hype surrounding Lacy at 21-0 and Ward at 22-0 Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I wonder how many people proclaiming Ward to be the SMW saviour, will proclaim him untried untested and american-level at best, just as we all know Lacy to be with the benefit of hindsight. Sensible answers only please.
Boomboom you're trading on hindsight there buddy. I didn't know Lacy would win or not, but the boxing press thought it was a mismatch. My point is we're all experts on the past, but we should use these lessons to learn to apply to the present. My point is Ward has done very little to earn the sort of ridiculous praise and comparisons he is already getting. Just as (in hindsight) neither had Lacy. Most boxing fans on here are already talking about Ward's resume after he has won the super six!! which is grossly disrespectful to the other competitors and based on what exactly?? What if say Carl Froch knocks him out, then he becomes the untried untested and overrated stay at home american-level spoiler we all thought he was anyway.
ward is a headbutting hype job lacy got ruined by calzaghe if ward fought lacy before the calzaghe fight, i would tip lacy to win by brutal ko
Tbh OP has a point, Until ward does win s6 and beat bute ect its all just assumption, where as many people already act like its fact. Just like they did with Lacy. Whos to say Dirrell doesnt beat him in next fight and then he gets caught and KO in following. Boxing can be unpredictable.