Joe Calzaghe - Modern Day Fantasy Gauntlet

Ward is bigger than him too.

 

Hopkins was better than Ward, even the version that Calzaghe beat.

His win over Tarver is better than anything on Ward's list.

In fact, Ward has no serious resume at LHW.

That Hopkins went on to beat Pavlik like a drum.

And then he beat Pascal twice.

 

I dont think any man in his 40s is better than Andre Ward. Throughout the entirety of pro boxing history. Just my opinion.

 

Andre’s best wins and opponents at SMW, were:

Kessler
Froch
Dawson
Bika
Abraham

They weren’t on another level to the best guys who Joe fought at SMW.

 

Can't agree.

Bernard's best work was post 40.

Howard Eastman
Jermain Taylor (twice, both close)
Antonio Tarver (who IMO was a much better LHW than Ward)
Winkie wright
Kellly Pavlik
Pascal (twice)


Andre Wards total LHW resume:

Smith, Barerra, Brand....three journeymen.

And Kovalev twice....first fight, a gift from the judges, second fight, a gift from the ref.

 

Andre Ward at SMW, was no bigger than the LHW version of Hopkins who Joe fought.

 

I think that Andre’s wins over Kovalev, were better than Bernard’s win over Tarver.

That’s at LHW though.

At SMW, they faced a similar level of opposition.

 

Calzaghe wouldn't have touched Kovalev with a 10 foot pole. At least not until Kovalev was tarnished by the bottle.

 

He also lost a lot in his 40s against fighters who wouldn't stand a chance against Hopkins in his 30s.

 

I don’t know if Hopkins was better than Ward.

That’s a tough one.

 

Bernard did all the in-fighting, the holding, the use of the head, the living-on-the-edge-of-the--rules things that Ward did.

And he did them better.

 

It wasn’t a gift from the referee.

The last few were low, but the damage had been done way before that.

That fight was getting stopped irrespective of where that last shot landed.

The referee had seen enough at that point.

It wasn’t just that final barrage. It was everything that had lead up to that.

 

I agree with that.

100%

 

We difer then.

The first fight was a fairly clear robbery. Even Ward knew that.

In the second fight, I had Kovalev ahead going into the eighth, and the lowbrows were decisive in how things ended.

 

That’s okay.

But in the second fight, a few rounds from the end, I saw Andre hit him with 2 great body shots, where they were 100% legal, and not even disputable.

Just 2 great shots. Yet Kovalev looked at Tony Weeks in absolute desperation.

I knew then that he was done.

The odd low blow wasn’t going to change things.

He was done.

Again, it didn’t matter where those last 2 shots landed. The referee’s mind had already been made.

He was done when he was slumped over with nothing coming back. Beaten both physically and mentally. Just exhausted.

The last blow was low. But at the same time, I think it’s disingenuous to say that Andre fouled his way to a win, and that he stopped him on a low blow.

Again, Weeks didn’t stop it on the last low blow. He stopped it due to what had happened over the last 2-3 rounds.