Cheers mate i was pretty certain it was. Of course it's great it branches out a bit for discussion but i think Mark is fixated on the wrong thing.
What leads you to that conclusion Mark? Was it Joe's split decision win over a 43 year old in his first fight at 175 (in which he was dropped) or his UD over a shot 39 year old in his second and last fight at 175 (in which he was again dropped)?
Sorry but this is just ridiculous! Calzaghe had just 2 fights at lightheavy both cherry picked.A split dec win over 43 years old Hopkins, and a dec over a 38 years old Jones ,both floored him.
Maxim beat 5 men who held world titles,among his victories are the names; Walcott Patterson Bolden Sheppard Tandberg Mills Lesnevich Murphy Robinson Burman Nardico Bivins Oma Those are emphatically not the wins of a journeyman!
Although on paper I could see someone making an argument for Kovalev over Saad, In reality I think a prime Saad would knock out any version of Kovalev in violent fashion.
Kovalev has no argument over Saad neither in greatness nor H2H. Saad beat FAR better fighters, and Saad would have knocked Kovalev out. All three Muhammad's (Saad, Eddie, Qawi) would knock out Kovalev.
I don’t think you were even watching Kovalev from 2013-2015, which is when he really looked good. Fun Fact: Saad was a journeyman when he was in Kovalev’s current age range.
Another fun fact: Saad never threw a fight. But if you're more impressed with wins over Cleverly, Pascal, and ancient Hopkins than wins over prime Conteh, Lopez, Kates, and Marvin Johnson, hey, to each his own. Even Murray Sutherland was better than Cleverly, and even Vonzell Johnson was better than Pascal.
Actually, I watched both Saad and Kovalev's careers as they unfolded. And, I was actually a pretty big Kovalev fan. For quite a while I believed the party line that Kovalev was only fighting bums because the good fighters were afraid of him. But, the fact of the matter is, he beat very few top flight opponents. He couldn't even put away an ANCIENT Bernard Hopkins. Saad fought in a far tougher era. He fought and beat much better fighters than Kovalev did. I could care less that Saad was finished by the time he was Kovalev's age. Prime vs prime Saad annihilates Kovalev.
