Who wins in their prime Andre “SOG” Ward vs Super Joe Calzaghe

Calz gets a bad cut early in the fight. Ward's aggressive, rough style against a South paw. You can almost guarantee a head butt or 2. JC stays active all fight due to his stamina. I see Ward winning a tough fight. Fans are split as usual. Ward is labeled a dirty fighter, JC is considered the victim of poor judging. The fight is debated and argued for years to come.

 

Assuming you have a ref which doesn't allow dirty fighting, i am going to go with Calzaghe to keep his distance and land more punches.

Ward lacked power in his right hand and its kind of hard to beat a left handed fighter if you don't have a great right hand.

Calzaghe close UD 12.

 

Ward was the true king of smw division by beating all rivals.

Joe didn’t and couldn’t do that.
the belt he held for most his career wasn’t considered a true recognised belt at the time.

 

I actually voted for Joe to win with work rate with Ward landing cleaner (and not so clean) shots
I think it is a 50/50 fight. An ugly fight which would be similar with the Hopkins fight

I can understand people picking Ward, it is a difficult one. I originally voted Joe as I am biased. He is easily among my favorite fighters all time. He did take a while to get his career going, but he finished strong

 

Ward

 

The Calzaghe that beat Lacy, Kessler & Bika would have worked the American groper. Bad style match up for Ward.

 

Ward

 

Andre Ward was meaner, more versatile, and craftier than Calzaghe. Workrate and athleticism won't bale Calzaghe out against someone like Ward.

 

Ward

 

Joe lacked power in both hands. It's hard to beat any top boxer with little power (yes I know he had hand issues later on but he was never a power puncher).

I see this bout 55/45 Ward. If Cal Z is absolutely on top of his game he could kangaroo for 10-12 rounds to win a decision. But Ward should be able to land enough ball sack shots to slow him down and win by a wide margin.

 

Sure Calzaghe lacked power. But he can make it up with absurd high volume. ward can’t .

now I do think Calzaghe is overrated by some. He lacked depth in his resume because he chose to play it safe. So I am not going to make him a big favourite here. Just a minor favourite. But I can totally see why you would favour Ward.

 

Maybe, I will say ward is ridiculously underrated on the forum