Was there ever a bodybuilder type who could fight?

That's still bodybuilding, just without the use of weights.

When I was younger, I use to do both and if you do enough push ups it's very close to the same and bench pressing, especially if you have access to a chair or something so you can raise your feet.

Sit ups too are a form of body building.

 

Archie Moore had huge shoulders he reckons came from walking on his hands and could do it for blocks.
Jersey Joe Walcott's upper body looked rock hard and an ideal boxers build on top of a runners legs.

 

when he used his cross arm defence there was nothing to hit!!!

 

Bob Sapp knocked out Ernesto Hoost and did it with pure strength.

Also having a bodybuilder type body is extremely useless in combat sports, bodybuilding is purely aesthetical and most bodybuilders are extremely weak simply due to their low bodyfat. You want a powerlifting/olympic lifting body for strength and punching power. Foreman had just that

 

Heavyweight Mike Williams from the late 80's was ripped. None of these guys were what I'd call bodybuilder types. They have "Rocky fighter" builds. They look like they'd fit well in a Rocky movie. Defined muscles but not overly big & fairly low body fat. Look at a modern bodybuilder & you'll know that type of mass wouldn't be good for boxing.

 

True enough, but I was merely responding to the specific context in which you speculated about Ron Lyle.

On the NFL gridiron, Jim Taylor was one of the few to train with weights heading into the 1960's, and after years of pestering Vince Lombardi to do it, finally got weight lifting machines and equipment installed in the Green Bay locker room.

So far as I understand, Herschel Walker was among the last really well known gridiron stars famous for NOT lifting weights, and published a fitness and bodybuilding manual late in his playing career on how to develop and maintain muscles w/out weights. He's performed 2,000 sit-ups and 750 to 1,500 push-ups on a daily basis since high school.

He enjoyed an injury free 14 year professional career, and is the only player with more than 25,000 all purpose carrying yards when his USFL and NFL statistics are combined. At age 53, he remains an outstanding physical specimen known for his unorthodox training methods.


Angelo Dundee was a boxing traditionalist who outspokenly hated weights. Like a lot of boxers, Ali developed upper body strength and muscular endurance with a great deal of wood cutting, and was the one guy who wore down Foreman physically, with his neck yanking tactic (as Archie Moore cited), and subtly bracing his back against the corners and ropes to forcefully shove George away with his long arms.

If you've both lifted weights and chopped firewood, then you can appreciate that weights can't properly duplicate the effects of repeatedly cutting into wood, then yanking back out of the wood over and over again. Forget huge muscles. Watch out for some of those competitive lumberjacks you see on ESPN from time to time! (Paulino Uzcudun must have been sheer hell. The Basque Woodchopper's sister weighed 200 pounds and was also a noted wood chopper.)

 

Theres are tons of fighters who "looked good coming off the bus" -
- Jeff Lacy was extremely muscular and a 168 contender
- Tim Bradley is diced too the socks, small frame but well defined with muscles crawling all over his arms and shoulders. His holds no water and his skin has that grainy look that many bodybuilders try to acheive during a contest. A current title holder.
- Ken Norton was called "black hercules" which says it right there.
- Chris Eubank shredded six pack and huge upper body which he constantly flexed in his ring classic pose
- Dwight Qawi in the second Saad fight. Incredible shape for a boxer, probably the most heavily muscled fighter I've seen. Everything neck, back delts were thick
- Vinny Pazienza carried a lot of mass in his shoulders and arms
- Evander Holyfield always was looked like he was about 10-20 pounds away from a bodybuilding contest. Huge V taper.

Enough man-chest talk from me.

 

It is well known that in Japan K1 and Pride where Sapp fought they did no drug testing at all and encourged athletes to come in superb physical shape using any means. In Pride the actual fighter contracts explicitly said we will NOT drug test fighters.

 

They did test in K1 but people just brought condoms of clean urine, it's in Ernesto Hoost book

 

Most Olympic lifters especially superheavies are short and low to the ground, Paul Anderson was 5'10" at 350lbs and was considered tall. Worlds strongest man competitors are giants this is where Foremans body type belongs not Olympic

 

I believe it. In Pride they would collect fighters urine samples if you pushed but then do nothing with it.

 

Body builder like swazaneger Arnold?

Throws five punches and blood pumps into his arms and can't throw combos after.

Any body builders in nba?
No

 

Bob Sapp was never a bodybuilder he was a football player that loves steroids he usually weighs between 320 and 375lbs