So did Calzaghe mate, and against far worse opposition. Saad was defensively lax, yeah, but he had a slew of other outstanding traits that he showcased against better fighters throughout his career. He was an excellent fundamental boxer-puncher in every aspect other than defensive reflexes/awareness really. Underrated in that regard quite heavily imo and he was a more complete and sophisticated offensive fighter than Joe by some distance. Calzaghes only really notable advantage was his handspeed imo, possibly his ring IQ by a bit. He beat no-one in a prime Matt's league in his entire career, never mind light heavy, whereas the reverse isn't true. Utterly ridiculous to say that Saad only has a punchers chance with the range of tools he had at his disposal just because he was relatively easy to hit compared to other top light heavies; it's a position that anyone with a basic grasp of the sport should outright reject. And I like Calzaghe, I've watched him a lot more than most.
If anything, Saad's apparently open defence might actually cause a problem for Joe imo. Joe would think he could take advantage, fire at will, and at one point when he's firing a long combo he may get caught with an unexpected belter or two. Saad had a way of lulling and blunting people's instincts like this imo.
If you’re going to count super heavyweight and heavyweight separately then you should count all 17 divisions.
WTF? Calzaghe was far better at slipping shots than Saad, and always out-scored his opponents, Saad often had to come from behind and lost far more rounds than Joe did.
Calzaghe fought vastly inferior fighters by and large and still got hit plenty, he struggled somewhat with Robin Reid and the likes of the mighty Evans Ashira ffs. Yeah, Saad got hit more, I never said otherwise, so you saying that Calzaghe slipped shots better was pointless. Saad fought far better competition and liked brawling far more, he was bound to get hit more. The rounds won-lost thing is almost a complete non-sequitur. Robinson lost more rounds than Mayweather, means **** all without context and is one of the more irritating 'facts' that gets chebbed out in discussions like this. You make solid points and observations sometimes like all of us but tend to present your arguments very oddly, usually littered with random, pointless comments that are weirdly out of water and take a sort of three steps back/rewiring of the thought process on my part when I read some of the things you type. It's a bit surreal. Have a good 'un.
If the Reid, Hopkins, Eubank, Kessler fights among others are anything to go by, I'd fully expect Calzaghe to walk onto some brutal right hands mid-flurry, yeah. Good observation on Saad, he was indeed a very dangerous sleeper type puncher in that regard.
Saad fought in probably the deepest light heavyweight era ever. Calzaghe fought two former middles who were past prime.
Wow! Calzaghe was one of the few fighters in the 90`s that didn`t just rely on athleticism, he was far harder to hit than Saad and far quicker fisted.
Hopkins didn`t land much on Caqlzaghe aside from the knockdown and Calzaghe was very green v Reid and Eubank.
If you brawl you`re not world class, look how Duran fought in an inside all-action counter-pressure style compared to the reckless Saad, he was a poor man`s Pryor.
Well done flower, you've repeated the same point again that I didn't really disagree with. He wasn't far harder to hit than Saad anyway. A bit harder, yeah. I said that already. Versus way shyter comp. Far harder to hit is someone like RJJ. Now I'm repeating meself pointlessly, it must be contagious over the ether.
