Who wins in their prime Andre “SOG” Ward vs Super Joe Calzaghe

Not one of them was in wards league, ward schools calazaghe

 

JC wins Out punches Ward 2 to 1 and Ward has points deducted for his dirty tactics. After the fight it comes out that JC has broken every bone in each hand lol Welsh Rarebit

 

IMO it would depend on where the fight was held - and Ward would never get his passport out to fight Zags in the UK or Europe.

In Oakland Ward would have butted and ball-punched his way to a decision win, as he would literally get away with behaviour that would have seen him at least get 2 points deducted if not DQ'd elsewhere.

In neutral territory I think the matchup is a very interesting one and a true 50/50. Both could adapt, Ward was maybe stronger and more accurate on the outside, but Zags had excellent footwork, angles and volume, and had plans A thru Z.

We will never know, but I think in neutral territory Zags would have got a decision, likely with Ward having points deducted as a significant factor.

 

Probably the smart money, but I am biased to Joe. His awkward style, volume and speed would ask some questions. An older Hopkins did run him awfully close, so a more fresh Ward would likely do better

 

Joe slaps the horns off Ward's head. But really, I got Joe close decision.

 

Lol

 

I think you’re under rating Calzaghes own versatility and craft.
He could fight inside, outside, had great feet and solid head movement, feints. He was also someone who could match Ward on fighting dirty if needed.

He was truly a complete fighter, just a bit awkward so he doesn’t get viewed as such by many. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s Sugar Ray Leonard level or anything, but he did a lot of things very well.

Fitness and work rate wouldn’t make anyone a world champion alone, and I’d argue those great traits contributed less to his success than the things I mentioned above.

 

Good post, he also had some decent power early on his career, before his hands gave him more issues. Similar to Floyd in that aspect

 

Ward did a MUCH better impression of a Billy Goat on Kessler than Zags did, that's for sure!

 

A better job than Calzaghe :

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In any other profession that Ref would have been sacked.. in what world is groping and heading your way through the rounds a better performance .. & look how slow some of Wards punches are too lmao.. Calzaghe would have worked Ward

 

You can’t compare their reigns tbh.

One took on everybody and got known for winning against the best out there.

The other was known at home mainly fighting nobodies, defending one of the “other world titles”, he beat every nobody or old guy they put in front of him. He certainly had a questionable punch technique.
Lacy and Kessler were his best wins.

 

Ward and Cazaghe's resumes are actually pretty comparable if you look at it under a finer lens, with Calzaghe actually having more depth. Whilst Joe should have got out from under Fwank and unified earlier, there was the whole issue of Sven Ottke in the mix, where Warren was NEVER going to take Joe over to Germany to lose in an egregious robbery (like Robin Reid, Byron Mitchell and Charles Brewer all did before losing to joe himself!), and Sven Ottke never left his protected cocoon of corrupot decisions; so that unification was never going to happen regardless of how much it should have.

Let's look at their top 10 wins Ward v Calzaghe * denotes contested decisions or something dubious that means the win is not as great in realty as it might be on paper:-

1) Kovalev 1* v Hopkins* - toss-up, both contested wins, Hopkins went on to do more after his loss to Joe.
2) Kessler* v Kessler - Joe gets the nod on this being the first to beat Kessler, laying a blueprint, tho Ward fouled his way to a dubious win IMO
3) Kovalev 2* v Kessler - Ward gets this on paper, though Kov was a shell of the fighter from the first fight IMO
4) Froch v Lacy - Clear advantage to Ward on paper, although this was Zags finest performance. Lacey literally had his soul ripped from him that night, and Joe so thoroughly outclassed him Lacy was never the same again. Sure he was probably over-rated, but 50% of his post-Calzaghe issues were that hiding IMO.
5) Bika v Bika - toss up, Bika was a tough and dirty SOB and no one looked great against him.
6) Sulivan Barrera v Robin Reid* - hard to guage - some folks had Reid bearing Zags, though I had it a round or two clear to Joe. Froch still says Reid is the hardest puncher he has faced, and even gave grudging respected to Joe's beard given how Reid was tagging him with hard rights that fight.
7) Chad Dawson* v Roy Jones Jr* - both were shameless in some respects - Dawson draining to be a skeleton at 168 was bad, as was Joe's cash grab against a shot Roy Jones.
8) Allan Green v Charles Brewer - Brewer was underrated IMO, and was robbed against Ottke, which would have made his fight with Joe a unification...
9) Paul Smith v Byron Mitchell
10) Alexander Brand v Richie Woodhall

Once you get past the top 5/6 both their resumes start to show some quality issues, and although Joe has a LOT of filler, he has more depth with 10 world champs on his resume and many, many more defenses than Ward.

Ward has Kovalev, which is an equaliser to the resumes, regardless of the asterisks.

One of the things so frustrating about Ward (similar to Zags in some ways) is he WAS really skilled, and could have had a MUCH better resumke but he wasted much of his prime in litigation with Roc Nation and nursing injuries etc.

The resumes IMO are not that much different.

"One took on everybody and got known for winning against the best out there"

or was it really

"One took on everybody when he was the A-side with every conceivable advantage and suspect refereeing and judging and got known for debatable controversial decisions and being a dirty fighter"