Exactly. The idea that Eric Esch is anyway comparable to Tony Galento is beyond ridiculous. Galento was a real boxer, who whatever his limitations, was a legitimate contender in a tough era. Esch was a well-marketed bar fighter.
The point was that there were overweight, even obese fighters back then, regardless of how good they were. Someone brought up that only the modern era has overweight fighters, which is far from the truth.
True, there have been overweight guys in all eras. But it is also important to note that not all fighters who look "out of shape" are truly not in "boxing shape" - and not all rotund fighters are frauds like Esch.
I agree, to an extent of course... But you can't have a spare tire and be ELITE, I don't care who you are... But there are some slobs who are tough and can go a lot of rounds, even today.
Yeah, this illustrates exactly how good the division was when Galento was fighting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2DWswsfpmI
Yes there have always been fighters in the past like Galento and Buster Mathis who were clearly overweight or even obese but they never achieved anything, they may have been contenders but never top ones and always fell short. But Butterbean wasn't just obese, he wasn't even morbidly obese but super obese, that's a level of obesity I didn't even know existed until I googled his BMI. This current era is rife with fighters who are in poor shape or have been in poor shape more so than any other era. If you look at the top 20 on Boxrec 9 of them are either overweight or have been overweight for numerous fights. You won't see that in any other era. The 80's heavyweights were decimated by drugs while this era has been decimated by weight problems which just reflects what is happening within our society as a whole.
My God.......we're talking about Butterbean here..... Neither of these guys would last 2 minutes with Dustin fukkin Nichols FFSatschatschatsch
at eating pies. figuring in they were just coming out of a Depression and so they would be hard pushed to overeat in the way a greedy shyte like Butterbean does. that's about it.
Yes. He had underrated foot and hand speed, plus great upper body movement even though he was fat. Just kidding. No he would not.
Lol, does this illustrate how good todays division is? Anyone can pick and choose to prove their agenda. http://youtu.be/HxF4QzdEDnQ