Joe Calzaghe: Andre Ward is good but beatable

[LobowolfXXX]

Firstly, with respect to anyone who thinks that a second Froch-Ward fight would go any differently, Froch doesn't even think he could beat Ward. He's already said that he's the second-best 168-pounder, and that nobody can beat Ward at 168.

Secondly, it's a myth that Calzaghe cleaned out the 168-pound division. He beat many good fighters, but there were A LOT of top contenders that for one reason or another, he never took on. Pick up a random Ring Magazine from the Calzaghe era, and you'll see a lot of names in the top-5 of the 168-pound division that Calzaghe never got in the ring with. That doesn't mean that he wouldn't have beaten them; but it's just patently false that he beat all of the big names in the division.

Thirdly, since the Calzaghe fight, with the exception of the Ward fight, Kessler is 5-0 (4), including a solid win against the division's #3. So it's bullshit to discount Ward's victory by saying that Kessler is somehow markedly worse than he was against Calzaghe; it's just that Ward made him LOOK bad. The 2011 Ward is better than ANY year's Kessler, and Calzaghe, while he beat him decisively, hardly "destroyed" him. To say that Ward hasn't done against anyone else the types of things that he would need to go to beat Calzaghe misses the point; it doesn't imply that Ward is incapable of doing those things. He just hasn't needed to do them against anyone else. What Ward has shown is that to date, he can do whatever is needed to beat the people put in front of him. That doesn't mean that he necessarily would be able to adjust successfully against Calzaghe, but there's no particular reason to think that he wouldn't, either. IMO, 2011 Ward vs. (insert your favorite 168-pound year here) Calzaghe would be a close, competitive, and highly entertaining fight.

Actually mate, your comment is 'The Myth' - this is a point that has been debated over and over on here. You tell me who Calzaghe should've fought at 168, that was operating at 168 at that time, and that the reason they didn't fight was JC!!

Andplease don't say Liles, Echols, Mundine and all that old blurb.

I didn't say anything about "the reason" Calzaghe didn't fight them; but the fact is, he didn't. Again, just pick up a Ring Magazine during the Calzaghe era. You'll see lots of names in the top-5 that Calzaghe never fought. Sorry, I missed the earlier debates, but why are supposed to ignore Echols and Mundine? They were #s 3 and 4 in the 2003 and 2004 annual rankings, when Calzaghe was defending against people like Kabary Salem and Mger Mkrtchyan. But those are hardly the only names. Look at Calzaghe's record, and look at the names of the people in the top 5 during his time as a top 168-pound champion and contender.

Ward is 27, and he's beaten three of the top 5 in the weight class, and four of the top 10.

OK, so you tell me who these people are and which ones enhance his legacy?

Woodhall, Reid, Mitchell, Lacy, Kessler, Brewer, Bika are not all time greats, but were all (except Bika) either current or very recent world champions. To say that Echols or Mundine (or the others you are going to tell us) would've changed your view on his resume doesn't make sense. Fact is, it wasn't a great era, B-Hop and RJJ were not fighting at SMW (there were to busy creating far worse resume's than Calzaghe in their own respective weight classes ) and other than Ottke, who was utter shite, there was nobody else to fight that he didn't fight.

I'm not saying they have to be all-time greats, but most of the people Calzaghe defended the title against weren't top-ten in the weight class. In the last 2 1/2 years, he stepped up his level of competition dramatically, but in the first 7+ years, his defenses weren't remotely against the best 168-pounders. They just WEREN'T. Don't extrapolate anything from that other what it is, or what his legacy would have been if he fought X, Y, or Z. I'm just stating a plain, verifiable, almost indisputable fact. For over 7 years, the top SMWs were passed over as Calzaghe defended mostly against 2nd and 3rd tier guys. I'm not talking about P4P greats; I'm just talking about the top 168-pounders of that era.

I agree with Gandalf that all boxers have some filler, but what other boxers do is irrelevant to the question of whether he cleaned out the division. He just didn't. And if you look at the Ring Magazine rankings of their eras (which are not perfect, but are at least Better than the corrupted sanctioning body rankings), it's apparent that Hopkins, overall, defended against a higher class of challenger. Which, of course, doesn't mean that Hopkins was better than Calzaghe. But it's still true (that he defended against better challengers, that is).