Andre Ward vs Joe Calzaghe

:good

 

I don't agree with that.

I think it would have been a very close fight.

Why would Andre have gone to Nottingham? I never bought that Carl wanted a rematch anyway.

Joe wasn't ambitious in his prime either.

 

:good

 

Good call

 

Calzaghe was often away as a SMW champ. Ward wasnt once the away fighter as a SMW champ

 

He must have meant 'away' as in outside of Wales.

 

Okay, that doesn't alter what I said though.

Joe wasn't an overly ambitious fighter.

 

As SMW titlist joe cowardzaghe fought TWICE times outside the UK, and against absolute weaklings on each occasion who provided absolutely no resistance -

1.will McIntyre, an unknown nobody who won nothing nor fought for anything nor ever did since!

2.Mario veit, king of 4-6 rounders, whom joe had previously dispatched in less than one round!


and that's it!
Anyone wanting to claim joe was a traveller is seriously deluded,based on him facing 2 weakling opposition that no one else would consider close to worthy.

No way ward considers for a moment defending against such minor nobodies.

 

interesting fact -

if you type "joe cowardzaghe" into google search, google asks you " did you mean joe calzaghe"


even google knows joes nickname.

 

I went with Calzaghe simply because of the style matchup. Andre Ward is a converted southpaw, and I don't like them against Calzaghe. Said it many times left hook is possibly the worst punch to use against a southpaw, because you are either glancing off his guard or hitting the back of his head, especially with Calzaghe's hand speed.

If Ward could fight effectively in his natural southpaw stance, I might give him a better chance, cause I think a skilled southpaw would have a good shot at neutralizing Calzaghe.

 

bailey,


Here we go again.

This must be the thousandth time we've debated Joe's career.

At the end of the day, my opinion is based on logic. I know who he fought, who he didn't fight, and what he said in numerous interviews. So yes, I stand by my opinion. I think there would have been more chance of Joe not wanting to have fought Andre, rather than vice versa. And I certainly don't think Joe would have fought Kovalev, even though I'm in a minority who thinks he could have beaten him.

I believe he fought 5 mandatories from his 21 defences:

Ferreyra, Veit x 2, Jiminez and Mkrtchyan.

Why, you ask?

Because if only 5 of those 21 defences were mandatories, then that means he was more than happy to fight those other 16 guys. Now some of those other 16 guys were good-very good fighters. But without being disrespectful, a fair few of them clearly weren't. Again, Joe has bragged of his number of WBO defences.

Let's not also forget that he claims to have offered Pavlik a fight in 2006, when he was an unknown NABF, MW champ, and Frank W claimed that although Joe was the greatest talent he ever worked with, he was content to fight a guy called Freeman Barr.

All things considered, I don't know what you find so confusing about my opinion that he wouldn't have fought Andre Ward or Sergey Kovalev.

Because in my opinion, Ward is better than those guys listed, and Kovalev looks extremely dangerous up at LHW.

Joe didn't go up to LHW until his 15th year as a pro, even though he complained of making weight, he wanted the biggest fights available, and for a large part of his reign, the LHW division was stronger with bigger names in it.

Again, that's a logical opinion.

Look at some of his comments regarding Tarver, Pavlik and Dawson.

He said none of them excited him and they hadn't really done anything to warrant a fight with him. Which would have been fine, had he not have fought the Manfredo's of the world.

If Chad Dawson didn't excite him, how did Sakio Bika?

If Tarver didn't excite him, how did Kabary Salem and Evans Ashira excite him?

Let's be real:

He was a great fighter. He had a lot of injuries. But despite what he claimed, it's obvious he didn't truly want the best fights available to him.

That doesn't mean he'd have fought Ward and Kovalev at LHW.

When he had to be, but he wasn't regarded as a fast fighter.

Are you really going to argue against what Joe wrote in his autobiography?

Here's an excerpt:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...ved=0ahUKEwj8rtru2fDLAhXEPRoKHV9HBx4Q6AEIHzAB


Now Joe wrote that himself.

Neither you or anyone else can argue against that. That was straight from the horses mouth.

He says that Roy was shot in 2004, which was 4 years before he went on to fight him at the end of 2008.

It's an absolute joke.

You seriously think that fighting Roy at that stage, is some sort of evidence that Joe would have fought Ward and Kovalev?

It gives an insight into his mindset. So take that on board as well as all the other comments he's made throughout his career.

It paints a very clear picture.

It was weak, and weaker than the LHW division for about a 5-6 year period.

He complained of making weight. He spoke of his frustrations of not getting the biggest available fights, saying that although he'd beaten some good fighters, he'd never beaten a great one. Yet when he couldn't get SMW fights against Ottke and Hopkins, instead of moving up to LHW, he remained at SMW to fight the following guys: Mitchell, Salem, Mkrtchyan and Veit.

Let's look at the WBO who owned the belt that Joe clung on to for 11 years:

They were a laughing stock back then. Not only did they force Joe to fight a guy who he'd already beaten in a round, they also moved a guy up their rankings AFTER HE'D DIED!

If you look objectively at Joe's career, it makes you scratch your head. He clung onto the belt for 11 years, yet gave his IBF belt up after less than a year, to fight Peter Manfredo.

There are no excuses. You've seen how Ward's career has played out over the last few years:

He had a tune up, then he didn't build up any momentum and fight anyone else. He then became inactive again. He then had another tune up, but he found himself in the same position as before. And that was repeated over and over.

That is not the same as what Joe did.

Yes.

Yes, but he never went through a period where he only fought 4 times in as many years.

How on earth can fighting Smith after 19 months out, be worse than some of the fights Joe took?

A tune up is a tune up.

Fights against the likes of Kabary Salem and Evans Ashira were not tune ups for Joe.

You don't think Paul Smith could have competed with Branko Sobot, Rick Thornberry, Evans Ashira, Kabary Salem or Mger Mkrtchyan?

:rofl

That's up there with some of the funniest things you've ever said to me.

Obviously you're just trolling for a joke.

I've not heard of him having weight troubles.

How can it be 5?

He's only just returned after 9 months out, and he's only had one official fight at LHW.

I believe it will definitely happen. All the signs are good. Personally, I don't want it to happen in November. I'd like to see Andre stay busy, culminating in a fight with Kovalev next year.

And?

Why?

Because they could have tried to make the fight at a CW, because it would have been a bigger, more relevant fight than fighting Roy who Joe had said was shot in 2004.

Joe could have had the plaudits that Hopkins received.

Can you not understand why I and others criticise him?

He said in 2008 that Pavlik didn't excite him and he'd done nothing to warrant a fight with him. Yet he admitted to having offered to fight him 2 years earlier in 2006?



atsch

A fair run?

In a reality TV series where he finished as the runner up?

:rofl


Answer me this:

Joe gave his IBF belt up because he didn't want to fight Robert Stieglitz. He gave it up to fight Peter Manfredo.

Yet he wouldn't give up his precious WBO belt in 2003 when the division was dead, or in 2005, when the WBO made him fight a guy who he'd already knocked out in a round 4 years earlier?

There is no evidence. But that's not my argument.

Yes, Ward didn't fight Bute. But again, in my honest opinion, he would have done at some point had Froch not destroyed him.

Yes, he didn't fight Dirrell. But he fought Dawson, which tells me he didn't have a phobia of fighting world class southpaws with speed and skills. It's just a shame that they didn't fight at a CW or at LHW.

All things considered, was a DeGale fight ever really viable? Hopefully we could still see it if DeGale is willing to move up to LHW at some point in the near future.


:good

 

Hopkins handled joe rather easy, I'd have to favor dre.