Hunter: Calzaghe would have been tailor made for Andre Ward; we’d chew him up

By Boxing News - 09/14/2012 - Comments

Image: Hunter: Calzaghe would have been tailor made for Andre Ward; we'd chew him upBy Scott Gilfoid: Virgil Hunter, the trainer for WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) revealed in an interview today what I already knew in my mind that Joe Calzaghe would have been an easy fight for Ward had he fought him in his prime. Calzaghe was too sloppy and horribly flawed to beat a fighter like Ward All that useless bouncing that Calzaghe did when fighting. So awful to look at. Ward would have taken advantage of that in a second.

Hunter told Eastsideboxing.com “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 could have chewed him up, like bouncing in place. You know, we would have threw that completely off…He would have a problem.”

I think I have to agree with Mr. Hunter. He’s got a brilliant boxing mind and he’s turned Ward into the greatest fighter in the super middleweight division right now. Having seen a lot of both Calzaghe and Ward’s past fights I have to conclude that Ward would have positively whipped Calzaghe all around the ring had the two fighters fought. Calzaghe is one of those guys that liked to throw a lot of shots and move around.

Ward would have punished Calzaghe with all those openings he’d leave when throwing shots. It would be like watching one of Amir Khan’s fights where he’d laid out by someone catching him in between punches. Calzaghe would be so wide open because of his bad habit of throwing flurries. That kind of thing might work against the Mikkel Kessler’s of the division, but not against a talent like Ward. He’d have Calzaghe hitting the canvas all night long to the point where it would have been embarrassing to watch.

Hunter doesn’t think that Calzaghe is a bad fighter, but he recognizes that there’s nothing in Calzaghe’s game that suggests that he would do anything with Ward other than taking an embarrassing one-way beating.

Hunter went on to say that Roy Jones Jr. said that the fighter that would have given him the most trouble while he was in his prime is Andre Ward. That kind of speaks for itself about the huge talent that Ward has.



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