I'm about as far from a Calzaghe apologist as you can get, but let me ask you this in all earnestness. What the **** has Ward done to deserve the rating people give him? He scored a UD over a seriously damaged version of Miranda, and beat a horrible version of Kessler. That's it. That is all he has done. I personally think Joe could come straight from his coke dealer's house to the ring, and slap the living **** out of Ward.
Any fight would see Calzaghe coming back from at least a year and three quarters off. During that time his weight would have been well over 200 lbs for some of the time. (168 is not on, period, even had he stayed on for a 47th fight in 2009. So 175 is the lightest he could fight). He has not been training and been on coke. According to his dad, his hunger is gone. In short, he would be a complete fool to attempt it.
I don't discount Calzaghe, and I wouldn't say he would get beat down by Ward etc. That being said you ask what's Ward done and I hate be redundant but nothing other than win a gold medal, not lose a professional fight, win a share of the Super Middleweight title, and to get it beat what was generally considered the best Super Middleweight in the world. The man is young, we aren't discussing legacy, his best days are ahead of him. He's done all he could do to this point, why not just give him credit for that and let the rest play out.
I agree. When Calzaghe was fighting Jones he was just short of 37 then and well past his prime, and would be too much for Ward,
You know, IMO it would be competitive and Ward could very well pull it off. Calzaghe does best with fighters who think they can catch him with one shot (Lacy, Kessler to an extent, and a lot of his earlier fights). Ward at least so far has shown some real maturity and fights a style of fighting much more boxer-puncher than puncher-boxer. I think it would be interesting, is all I'm saying.
calzaghe would never fight ward. especially since ward is younger. If you made ward 25 years older now, he would be 51. then it would be a good chance calzaghe would fight him.
:roflatsch Because Calzaghe never fought 28 year old Jeff Lacy or 27 year old Mikkel Kessler in unification fights.