by Scott Gilfoid: I think it’s fair to say that WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) proved that he’s the best fighter ever at super middleweight in beating Bad Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) by a 10th round TKO last Saturday night in Oakland, California.
I don’t want to drizzle on the parade of former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KO’s), because he was a decent fighter during his day, but I think it’s pretty clear that Ward would have totally dominated Calzaghe if he was to have ever fought him.
For younger boxing fans who may not know who Calzaghe is, he was the top super middleweight during what many boxing fans saw as the dead era of the 168 pound division from 1997 to 2008. The division was incredibly weak during much of the time that Calzaghe held one of the super middleweight titles.
Calzaghe retired just when talents like Ward and Andre Dirrell were starting to breath fire into the super middleweight division. Of course, it’s just a coincidence that Calzaghe chose that exact time to retire from the sport rather than sticking it out to fight Ward and Dirrell. It’s too bad.
A lot of boxing fans felt that Dawson would have whipped Calzaghe had he been able to get the British fighter to agree to fight him. Unfortunately, Calzaghe never showed interest in facing the talented American. But with Ward’s easy victory over Dawson last Saturday night, I think we can case what the outcome what have been had Calzaghe been in the ring with Ward.
Ward should be boxing’s #1 pound for pound after beating Dawson. I think guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao deserve to be ranked high in the pound for pound rankings, but neither of them are dominating the division the same way that Ward is right now. They’re not looking as impressive as he is, and they’re not winning the same kind of style. For this reason, I think Ward should be the top fighter in boxing right now, and guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao should be battling for the #2 spot.
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