I can’t see how GGG could have stopped him. That’s bizarre in my opinion. I could envisage Joe and Carl having a shootout, but I’d have to have favoured Joe on points. Joe would have been a terrible stylistic match up for Canelo. I can’t see how De Gale would have beaten him.
Joe obviously had a better career than Andre Dirrell, but Andre was more skilful. He massively underachieved. I’ve always thought that Joe would have beaten Carl. But not as easily as what most people believe.
Andre Dirrell had more technical skills than Joe. 100% He didn’t have the career. He wasn’t as great. But technically? Absolutely. I’ve got to question whether you guys on here even watched Joe’s entire career. He wasn’t some southpaw technician. He wasn’t a Usyk. A Nunn. A Pea. He was a swarmer who could be very scrappy. He was tremendously effective. But never a great boxer. Watch his fights against Mitchell and Manfredo. Two very quick examples. Some of those punches thrown literally weren’t even proper punches. Horrible technique, off balance. He also often used to cuff with the inside of his gloves. For years he threw fast pitty pat punches that scored and overwhelmed mostly slower, lesser fighters. Andre Dirrell was immensely skilled. But he was a massive underachiever, with psychological problems. You saw that in the second half of the fight with Carl. But from a pure technical standpoint, he was absolutely more talented/skilled than Joe. As was a guy like Herol Graham. Being skilled and being a better overall fighter, are two completely different things.
No. His attributes made him extremely awkward. Of course he was skilled. He was a world level fighter. But again, he was never a skilled technician. Again, you would never say that he had southpaw technical skills like a Loma or a Pea. I can literally show you the fights.
He gets beaten easily by Andre Ward. A guy who has proven himself against much stiffer competition than Calzaghe.
Do you think so? I've always viewed that as a genuine 50/50 fight. I can envisage it playing out similar to the Hopkins fight.
I would never compare an old Hopkins to a prime Andre Ward. Younger, faster, bigger, stronger and doesn't run out of gas either.
Ward was definitely larger than Calzaghe. Calzaghe was not a large SMW and Ward was. He was almost always the bigger man when he fought at 168.
I'd pick Calzaghe over any SMW ever except prime RJJ. His workmate was insane and his conditioning was second to none.