What Current SMW would have the best chance at beating Joe Calz?

Dirrell is defensive and offensive at the same time, don't get it twisted. Calzaghe would most likely be knocked down a few times (not hurt) from catching straight shots setting up to jump in with his flurry. I think dirrell could pretty much nuetralize calzaghe's outside game and force him to rely on his hundred hand slaps mauling style which is tough for most to deal with. Calzaghe in his long career has never faced someone like dirrell with reach, hand/foot speed, pinpoint accuracy and defense. Not to mention in thier prime.

 

Bute. Ward would get beat like Hopkins.

 

That's some crazy statements, and he would be the first that would have been able to do that.

Did you watch Dirrell's fight with Froch? You are vastly overrating the guy. He just not have the style or power to beat Joe.

 

ward would beat him. dirrell would come close. abraham would have a big hitters chance. bute ehhhhh

 

If we are talking the Joe Calzaghe who is retire for sometime now at the weight of 168, I'm sure a lot of these fighters have a chance to beat him. A couple of years ago, none of them.

 

There are several SMW's today I think would stand a good chance at beating Cal in his prime, and I by no means think it's all that exceptional a division right now. Bute, AA, Ward, Kessler... hell throw Bika in there on a good day. Calz was totally protected. The most long-term hype job in the history of the sport.

 

A prime B-Hop disposes of Calzaghe in a very routine defense.

 

Ward, he is a movier hopkins

 

Bika already lost to Calzaghe.

 

Bika and Kessler.:good

 

Bika? He fought Calzaghe in case you didn't notice. He tried to rough him up using his head and butting all night and lost comfortable.

Calzaghe pretty comfortably disposed of a prime Kessler aswell. Nobody at 168 beats him currently. And I wouldn't regard myself as a Calzaghe fan before you call me a nut-hugger.

 

Dirrell--Calzaghe is faster, a smarter boxer, a better strategist, and can take anything Dirrell can hit him with. Plus he's a southpaw, so Dirrell's pointless stance-switching wouldn't do him any good. Calzaghe would beat Dirrell every time based solely on experience and maturity, with skills a distant second. The only question is whether Dirrell survives 12 rounds or gets stopped. I lean toward Dirrell surviving.

Ward--I'd like to see it, but I think since Calzaghe has the better chin, power, and stamina, he's going to pull out a stoppage. If Ward fights from the outside, Calzaghe outspeeds him and forces the fight to the inside. If Ward wants to brawl, Calzaghe either forces the fight to the outside or simply out-brawls Ward, knocking him out. The key here is durability. Calzaghe can take literally anything Ward can dish out (except maybe headbutts but still). Ward probably can't take what Calzaghe would bring in terms of punch volume and power. Calzaghe isn't a power-puncher but when you hit a guy several hundred times you don't exactly have to be. This would be a good fight however since both guys are thinking fighters. It'd be interesting to see how their styles played off each other and which guy would be able to dictate the pace and terms of the fight. I doubt it would turn out like the Hopkins fight though. While Ward can think, he's an aggressive fighter. This one could be high skill-level action for 12 rounds.

Abraham--You see what Cleverly did to Murat? Same idea here. Abraham is too small, and while he would probably be able to hurt Calzaghe, it wouldn't be as devastating as it was at 160. Calzaghe could get countered and go down once or twice while teeing off, but seeing how he'd bag the first 4 rounds and most of the other ones, no way Abraham wins on points. Calzaghe has too much recovery ability to be stopped, too.

Taylor--I see this going much the same way as the Froch fight, difference being that Calzaghe would be well ahead when he stopped Taylor. The way Froch stopped Taylor (get him totally exhausted and then swarm him until he goes down) is exactly what Calzaghe would be looking to do. Calzaghe would be ahead throughout the fight, though, so Taylor would be working extra hard to score a knockout, causing him to tire more and be wide open for Calzaghe. Calzaghe's consistent body attack would slow Taylor down considerably as well. Taylor would pick up one or two rounds in the first third of the fight, but Calzaghe would stop him in the 10th or 11th. Froch was losing and had to hunt Taylor down. Taylor wouldn't be able to compete with Calzaghe's speed and intelligence, and would be forced to start looking for big shots around the 8th round--right about the time he'd start his trademark late-rounds decline. Calzaghe wouldn't have to go looking for Taylor.

Froch-- Froch isn't stopping Calzaghe. It's not inconceivable that he'd hurt him at some point though. He hits hard and is sneaky. However, Calzaghe is just too fast, too mobile, too tough, and too good for Froch. Froch was able to beat a tough guy in Pascal, but in a Calzaghe fight, Froch would be getting the worst of those exchanges, usually without touching Calzaghe. Furthermore, Calzaghe's body attack and constant activity would wear down Froch much the same as Kessler did. The difference is that Kessler fought on the outside a lot, and Calzaghe would probably not even bother with it. In other words, Froch would slow down toward the end and his shots would lose precision and power, letting Calzaghe cruise to a decision. It wouldn't be as bad as the Lacy fight, because Froch is a big dude and can counter you, but it would be one-sided. Froch is too much of a warrior to get ground down for a stoppage though. The only way you stop Froch is by catching him with some big shots, and that Calzaghe wouldn't do.

Bute--The only true southpaw of the bunch. Possibly the biggest puncher. The only one with a body attack worth mentioning. The slickest style by far. Easily as quick as the other guys, possibly the quickest. Not extremely durable or well-conditioned though, and that would be his downfall. Due to his style and the fact that he's a southpaw though, I can see him giving Calzaghe more trouble than Kessler did. Could potentially put Calzaghe down at some point with a nasty counter. Bute's only shot at actually winning would be to land that left uppercut to the body. That is the sort of shot that keeps you down. If he dropped Calzaghe with that, there's a chance it would either keep him down or soften him up for a finishing flurry. But Bute would not be able to outbox or outwork Calzaghe. I see Calzaghe grinding him down with pressure like Andrade did. The only difference is that Calzaghe wouldn't eat as many punches, would land more punches, and would be ahead on the scorecards when he stopped Bute in the late rounds. Depending on whether Bute's conditioning has improved considerably, he may survive to hear the final bell and Calzaghe would win by 2 or 3 rounds. Bute's style would give him fits in the early going though. The first 5 rounds would be very close and most or all of them would go to Bute.

 

All of them.

Calzaghe is overweight, out of shape, almost forty and a victim of The White Lady.





Now if you meant 2006/7 Calzaghe...


None of them.

It's reasonably well broken down in the previous post.

 

I would have to heavily favor Calzaghe over all of them. But I guess Bute, with Ward second, Dirrell third, AA and Froch about the same 4-5 and Taylor sixth. Bute's body work, power and size and Ward's speed and high ring IQ make them the top two, imo. Calzaghe just brings too much to the table in terms of volume, stamina and awkward guile. I don't find Calzaghe aesthetically pleasing particularly and can't call myself a fan but he's definitely a 168 h2h top guy that no one in this group has proven they should be favored over him.

 

The delusion is you not seeing dirrell's fight with froch even though you did see it. That fight only showed dirrell was superior and nothing else about his ability. Mentaly he had a bad gameplan. If the gameplan were different then you would have had an ass whipping, seeing that froch couldn't hit dirrell even when dirrell became aggressive with him :deal. That is all that fight showed as far as ability. I'm pretty sure you only filtered in the negative parts of that fight instead of seeing the overall ability that was displayed. If you saw anything else in regard to dirrell's ability than please let me know.

Did you not see the AA fight? That fight showed that he learned that it's hard to beat someone as gifted as dirrell when he is aggressive. That fight also showed that he is/was improving and taking his skills to a higher level.

And before you think I don't know Calzaghe. Here is an old post of mine which is prolly the best depiction of him on this site and I'm not even one of his nutthugger fanboys.

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