I've explained myself here mate. If you disagree fine but my point remains the same. I think it's easy to slate european fighters from that era and give 'big name' Americans a complete pass. It's just not a very nuanced take IMO.
I respect your opinion mate. But when you're fighting Mario Veit for the second time when you're in your 30's, you can't claim that you can't get the biggest fights because you've been ignored/avoided. It's not that U.S. fighters get an unfair pass, it's just that their circumstances are/were completely different.
This. I like Ward and rate him head and shoulders above any current guy at 168 or 175, but Calzaghe was a complete beast. He’d put a clinic on Ward.
How realistic would that have been? Sure, I could envisage him beating Andre. A clinic though? Based on what? He struggled with Robin Reid. He struggled with Sakio Bika. He struggled with Bernard Hopkins. He had a competitive fight against Kessler. As great as he was, he never put a clinic on an elite level guy. Andre Ward was around the same size as the above, with similar attributes. It would have been a very tough fight for both guys.
Underrated, under appreciated and always overlooked. The dude could scrap no matter what anyone says. I think alot of people didn’t like that he was unbeatable.
I know one thing Andre Ward would not Headbutt Joe out of it & Calzaghe's hand speed would be to much for Ward.
He was overlooked because he spent most of his career fighting non descript WBO guys. He wasn't unbeatable either.
It would have been an intriguing clash of styles. Realistically, it probably would have been a boring fight. Joe's hand speed would certainly have been problematic. But too much for him? I don't think so. It wasn't too much for far lesser fighters who troubled him.
Can we name fighters like Calzaghe who could stand in the pocket & not get hit much. Apart from Joe I'd say Bhop was second best @ this. This is where Ward loses out in my book.
Joe got hit a lot. One of his biggest flaws was that he was easy to hit with right hands, all throughout his career. Against Bernard, he just threw shots, where he concentrated more on volume than accuracy. Most of them were completely ineffectual. You can't just out volume every guy. Bernard timed him and landed the cleaner shots throughout the bout.
168 GOAT This content is protected ^^^^ And that should have been a clear UD. ****ing POS Adalaide Byrd.
its good that he in his last fight managed to double his number of top level wins with a scrape against 43 year old hopkins. it reminds me of when macho beat 40 year sugar ray all those years ago, he was so happy.
Ol Herol has refreshed himself and is ready to begin another glorious charge into the cannons and grapeshot of Calzaghe's reputation
