People don't generally believe Ward could beat a prime Calzaghe do they?

Dirrell and Ward were going to be forced to fight you know the deal with Showtime and their legal threat to Shaw and Goosen ..Dirrell got out of that by exiting the tournament with a "brain injury " which til this day I don't believe it was that serious ! So Ward can't be blamed for that I mean look how long Dirrell has been out of the ring for ..


Bute was an over hyped untested belt holder nothing more .. Ward didn't have to fight him when he faced much better fighters in Froch and Kessler ..Hell even a drained Dawson was more credible than Bute . So enough of that nonsense . And you didn't have to guess if Froch and Kessler were better than Bute the proof was in the their level of competition they passed the eye test Bute never did !


I may slag off. Joe but he wouldn't have been a cake walk for. Andre and vice versa ..The thing is. Joe never faced a fighter in their prime that was a technically sound as Ward so it could have easily been an interesting match up ..

 

It was Dirrell who pulled out when Showtime started to put pressure on Dirrells and Wards camp, so if you want to be generous to Ward you could say Dirrell is more to blame. I can't help to think Ward was acting funny up to that point, though. I don't think Ward is a very fan friendly boxer when it comes to match making, like Floyd Mayweather, Carl Froch or Bernard Hopkins.

Seems we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I can't really see your problem with Bute. He looked good winning and was fun to watch. But I agree Dawson fought tougher opponents.

We don't know the limitations of a fighter until he fights the very best. Calzaghe fought some very good opponents but he also struggled against them. Mikkel Kessler tagged Calzaghe with some brutal uppercuts and Bernard Hopkins gave him a lot of trouble. Much suggests that Calzaghe could have been beaten by the right fighter on the right night. Save beeing a good technician, Ward is also a good athlete. He's fast, has sharp reflexes and is gritty. Ward has looked real good controling his opponents in a way that Calzaghe rarely did.

But my personal belief is that Calzaghes slap-fu would confuse him and make it hard for him to fight his fight, as soon as the time machine is invented I might be proven wrong of course. Until then I just keep acting like a smart ass on Internet

I think a prime Bernard Hopkins ferocity would be more dangerous for Calzaghe, because he would put the hurt on him and I'm not sure Calzaghe could have stood up to it. It takes something special to beat Calzaghe, and it needs to be right kind of special as well.

 

Yeah it's unfortunate that both Dirrell and Ward never fought and now both guys are almost becoming non factors Andre with his long inactivity and now Ward .. Maybe they will meet soon if they man gange to get back in the ring soon .


My issue with Bute is that he was just hyped way to much the guys is a class act I don't want sound like I dislike him but when you don't test yourself you setting yourself up,to get exposed ..Look at Pavlik the more he stepped up the more he was exposed .

As far as Joe and Hopkins go personally I think if they fought 100 times Joe would win 80% of those fights. Hopkins gets beat by work rate who knows maybe a younger Hopkins beats him but to me Joe had the style that would have always troubled him ..Hopkins can't compete with slap fu

 

There will be many posters that will ignore this as best they can

 

Have you seen Serges post with regards to Bute and Ward?
I understand that Ward/Dirrell had no location agreed and that neither fighter started training even though a date had been set, which if correct seems very odd

 

Ward would have fought Bute at some point, becaue he had fought everyone else pretty much - a policy of NON-AVOIDANCE, not consistent running away for a weaker opopnent like Joe calzaghe has a proven track record for.

ALl the evidence supports the view that Ward, fighting everyone on his path to unifying, would have got to bute sooner or later. Bute being undefeated at the time is irrelevant. Ward dhas not discluded him simply because he was undefeated - that's just the way its transpired - bute never entered the Super Six for starts.It s Bute who never fought anyone until he fought froch - Butes AVOIDANCE policy is not Wards fault. That's like claiming that Carl Froch was guilty for Joe running from his mandatory with Froch to fight 40somethings.

Ward is already ahead of Joe at age 30, it will be interesting to see how far he gets ahead of the others by the time he is 36.

 

Showtime threatened legal action against both Goosen and Shaw if their fighters didn't fight but thanks Dirrell with his mysterious brain injury what did double AA call him " bad actor "

No I didn't see his post regarding. Bute and Ward why ?

 

Its an interesting read. Look at post 154, as I quoted it. You can see it there.
Also I understand that Ward/Dirrell had no location agreed and that neither fighter started training even though a date had been set, which if correct seems very odd
Are you aware of that? Seems odd

 

Reading that again, its shocking if that is correct that there was legal action involved and then Dirrell dropped out. I know he wasnt wanting to face Ward in Oakland. I wonder if that could be the reason?

 

Wether Bute was invited or not that wasn't Ward's fault sound a bit like sour g****s I mean this guy won his title 2 yrs before Ward won his ..He milked it against journey men ...Ward wasn't even the favorite going into S6 but the minute he wins it he was obligated to fight Bute !


I also find it funny that the 2nd highest ranked SMW didn't have a true test until 5 yrs after he won his title meanwhile this so called joke of a tournament at least gave us Ward / Froch in the finale Both men are doing a hell of allot better than Bute is ! What's he done to keep that claim that he was a very good SMW ? Oh I know not a dam thing but this was the guy Ward duck come on now people need to stop !



The Ward Direll situation is a travesty ! Dam shame those two didn't fight it would have gave the tourney another classic along with the Froch Kessler fight and Ward Froch ..I still to this day don't believe his injury was a serious as he made it out to be ..

 

What's sad is that the Super 6 ended over three years ago, and Ward and Bute have the same number of fights since it ended- two.

Froch's fought more than Ward and Bute combined since the finale.

 

Yeah but Bute's career has taken a nose dive while Ward's inactivity is due to legal issues ...Who knows maybe Bute can bounce back .

 

I think Bute's shot, personally. Maybe he can have a Jermain Taylor-esque bounceback against the right guy, but right now, the prospect of him facing some of the beasts at 175 would legitimately have me feeling sorry for him.

Ward was on the verge of having the boxing world in the palm of his hand. While I can't fault him for the legal issues since I have no idea what the situation actually is, he shot himself in the foot routinely by being so inflexible at the negotiating table.

Winning the Super 6 was a great achievement, but it's tough to make fights when you've got a high minimum purse requirement (which makes it harder to pay for good opponents), aren't a PPV fighter, and you want to control all the terms.

I hope Andre gets his legal case straightened out and loosens up a bit when it comes to matchmaking. He's got to get back in the ring, flat out.

 

As far as Bute maybe if he had stepped up sooner he wouldn't be in the position he is in..His management and trainers did him no favors by feeding him so many soft touches . Who knows now he's with Roach maybe he can salvage what ever he has left but he better not goto LHW ..


With regards to Ward :
His dumb ass tried to break away from the man who got him basically everything he wanted in the S6 so he tried to take Goosen to court several times and lost each time and now with his death his career is in limbo because who knows who will promote him going forward .


The S6 had its pros and cons and I'm sure that's the real reason Andre Dirrell pulled out the money factor ... Maybe they can revisit it again with better terms ..It was good for the fact that top,guys faced each other .