Virgil Hunter discusses Andre Ward vs. Joe Calzaghe

CIANI: Sticking with this Calzaghe-Jones type of scenarios, I’ve seen more threads in boxing message boards about Andre Ward and a prime Joe Calzaghe at 168. I have to ask you, if you were preparing Andre to face the best version of Calzaghe at super middleweight, how confident would you feel in Andre’s ability to beat Joe?

HUNTER: Very confident! Look, I saw the article I think that Steve Bunce and a couple of pro-Joe Calzaghe fans and acquaintances wrote and you know, “Oh! Now way! No way”! Well I mean, that’s what their supposed to say. They’re fans of Joe. He was their guy. And even Joe said, “He wouldn’t beat me. I would give him angles, I would give him this, and I would give him that”. But the fact of the matter is Joe Calzaghe would have been tailor made for us. There are just certain things that he did that we would have chewed him up, like the bouncing in place. You know we would have threw that completely off. Also the fact that he made that he was too strong. That was really ludicrous. He would have got manhandled all over the ring. Joe Calzaghe hasn’t fought one fight against anybody to give an indication that he could manhandle anybody. But I still give him his due as a great boxer. You can’t take away what he did in his time and era. But as far as him beating Andre Ward, in my mind, and I believe that I’m all the way correct, he would have a problem. We would chew him up. We would chew him up, and that’s just a fact.

Roy Jones? Listen, Roy Jones is Andre Ward’s idol, but I don’t have to speak for Roy because Roy said it himself. He was asked a question, “Who would have been your most difficult fight in your prime?”

And he said, “Andre Ward”.

So that speaks for itself. So we’re not going to go there with Roy, because he already spoke on it. He said, “That would have been my most difficult opponent”, so Roy knows.

Look Joe had a lot of problems with Bernard, and you know a lot of people say we’re a Bernard Hopkins clone and things like that. There are a lot of attributes that Bernard had that we admire, and there are the cerebral aspects of it, and some of the technical things that he does, and he gave Joe a very difficult time. And Joe never wiped out a division. He waited. Some of his name fights, the fighters were past their prime! And when he had an opportunity to fight the best, he didn’t fight the best. He stayed over there in England and he fought who was comfortable for him. Saying that, look! I admire Joe Calzaghe. I’m a Joe Calzaghe fan, and Joe Calzaghe was a dominant champion in his era. But as far as my personal opinion, and I think that I’m entitled to have my personal opinion like Steve Bunce or anybody else who’s a Joe Calzaghe fan—in my opinion we would have chewed him up!










CLICK HEAR TO READ AND/OR LISTEN TO ENTIRE INTERVIEW (approx 23 minutes)

 

In fairness, he mentioned what Bunce had to say, and if I am not mistaken Bunce specifically mentioned the Calzaghe who beat Lacy, Kessler, Hopkins, and Roy by name. (That is what I had read, and admittedly, I have not seen the whole article/transcript/whatever it was with espn.com.uk I believe)

 

1. He was asked a specific question regarding a hypothetical scenario with Calzaghe.

2. He seemed focused enough on their next fight in the interview.