By Scott Gilfoid: American Andre Ward looked incredible in taking apart World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler in a one-sided 11th round stoppage last Saturday night in their Super Six tourney bout in Oakland. So impressive was the domination by Ward over Kessler, who came into the tournament as the number # 1 choice by many boxing fans to the one to win the Super Six tourney. It’s impossible not to look at Ward’s monumental win over Kessler and not compare it to the close 12 round decision that former WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe got over Kessler in 2007.

Calzaghe, a fighter that many people see as the best super middleweight that ever breathed, had an incredibly tough time against Kessler and beat him by a four round margin on two of the judges’ scorecards and a six round margin on another. I scored it much closer with Calzaghe winning by one round. Whatever the case, you can’t begin to compare the impressive performance that Ward put in beating Kessler black and blue and the fight with Calzaghe and Kessler. Calzaghe was forced to go life and death with Kessler in order to get the win.

The Kessler fight is arguably the best win of Calzaghe’s career you would think You certainly can’t consider the 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins or the then 39-year-old Roy Jones Jr. comparing to the win over Kessler. Aside from that, Calzaghe has wins over Jeff Lacy, Byron Mitchell, Charles Brewer, Richie Woodhall and Chris Eubank, all good fighters but probably none of them in the class of Kessler.

Calzaghe fought Eubank at the very end of his career. But in looking at how badly Ward dominated Kessler, you have to now wonder what would happen if Calzaghe hadn’t retired recently and had stayed on and fought Ward. Based on what I saw last Saturday night, I see Calzaghe losing every round of the fight and possibly getting stopped by the 9th or 10th round.

Before you discount what I’m saying, you have to realize that I got the Ward-Kessler prediction perfect. I predicted that Ward would dominate the entire fight and I got it down perfectly, so I know what I’m talking about. What would have happened if Calzaghe had been in the ring with Ward instead of Kessler? With the incredible hand speed, movement and power of Ward, I think Calzaghe would have been in deep trouble and would have found himself in a sinking ship without a paddle. It would have likely been dire straights for Calzaghe.

In looking at Calzaghe’s resume beyond the aforementioned fights I listed above, he faced fighters like Omar Sheika, Mario Veit (twice), Robin Reid, Evan Ashira, Peter Manfredo Jr., Kabary Salem, Mger Mkrtchyan, Sakio Bika, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Tocker Pudwill, Will McIntyre, David Starie, Rick Thornberry and many more fighters similar to them. I’m afraid that none of those fighters compare to Kessler in talent.

Bika is a good fighter but I think Kessler is far better. Now what does that tell us that Ward was able to totally dominate Kessler while Calzaghe had to struggle to beat him? I’m no rocket scientist but for me, it tells me that Ward is better than Calzaghe and would have probably beaten the stuffing out of Calzaghe if he had decided to stick around and take part in the Super Six tourney.