Fighters who were genetically gifted athletes

I think quite a bit of the credit goes to Futch. Few fighters regressed without their trainer more than Bowe did without Futch.

 

"Bowe at his best was nothing short of surgically accurate. He isn't wildly winging punches. He is carefully selecting his shots to exploit holes in Holyfield's defenses. You can see it in his eyes, you can see it in the split second pauses between his punches. He isn't throwing mindless rote combinations, he is adapting millisecond to millisecond, what he should throw based on the defense that Holyfield utilises. Improvising. Flowing from punch to punch with zen-like patience in a high-adrenaline, high pressure situation in front of thousands of people. A jaw-droppingly brilliant moment from Riddick Bowe."

Absolutely love it.

 

He did kick Bert Cooper's ass pretty good after a competitive round one.

 

Well, there's always the Tony Tubbs affair if some balance is needed in the argument.

 

I’m not a doctor, so I can’t dispute the medical aspect. However, in Armstrong’s case his enlarged surely had to be athletically advantageous. Kind of like he racehorse Secretariat whose heart was reportedly THREE times larger than average.

 

I'm not a doctor either, but the very fact that it's even known that Armstrong had an abnormally large heart means (almost certainly) that this was found through an autopsy, which isn't performed unless there was something unusual and/or puzzling about the way the person died.

 

Dunking requires a bit of practice. I never played ball but had really good springs. It took me a while to figure out how to dunk. There's some basic ballhandling and knowing where to take off... especially for us sub 6-footers.

Anyways, I remember reading in Hauser's book how Ali jumped into a celebrity 100 yard dash and got smoked. Same in the 1960 Olympics when he tried to race Wilma Rudolph. Now, was Ali not blessed with genetic Godhood because he was rather slow?

 

Yeah, my dad hardly practiced at all and he was built like Fedor Emelianenko (only more top heavy with a thicker chest and arms) and he still almost dunked at 5'11". I'd be genuinely amazed if Joshua couldn't, and even more amazed if what appears in that video was even an earnest attempt.

As for Ali, I heard a story somewhere about Jim Brown wanting to get into boxing, but abruptly giving up on the idea after Ali playfully invited Brown to try to hit him in some parking lot, and not being able to come even close to laying a hand on him. (I have no idea if there's a single grain of truth to this story.)

 

Futch deserves a ton of credit. Bowe idolized Ali and at the beginning of his career Futch told him not to be a "second rate Ali but to be a first rate Riddick Bowe ". In short Eddie Futch got Bowe to fight Like a heavyweight. Sitting down on his punches and also utilizing that big jab to open up his opponent. It may have been Futch's finest work which is really saying something. Sadly it gets somewhat forgotten because Riddick couldn't sustain it.
I saw Riddick Bowe climb the ranks of prospect to contender and eventually champion. Trust me he should be on that short list of great heavyweights. If he had kept it together.

 

There is a brief tape of Ali, Cosell, & Wilt Chamberlain on Wide World of Sports in the mid-60's, when Wilt is calling out Ali for a Title fight. Wilt measures Ali using his 102" reach, and Ali easily slips it, then unleashes a blur of punches around Wilt's head. Wilt soon after drops his request for a title shot.

 

That was for the cameras, nothing about the episode was real

 

Exactly....the sound of bumblebees around Wilt's head brought him back to reality.

 

Should I cite Wilt and others close to him who say Ali backed out of the fight?

Again, nothing about that was real, it was all for publicity.