Would the average boxer today win a round v the best boxer 50 years ago?

Despite being undersized, Ali could beat any HW today.

You've just seen last weekend how the perfect blend of styles and attributes can overcome a size deficit.

Ali was the perfect size.

He was 6'3, with a 78" reach, and he was light on his feet.

He also possessed great attributes, such as: Hand speed, foot speed, reflexes, chin, and heart and supreme confidence that could intimidate even the best fighters.

A great all-round package.

 

You've got to stop going on that site with those simpletons.

 

Not sure if you're serious or not.

There were some great fighters who fought more than 50 yeas ago, and Mark was referring to just average fighters of today.

 

He said the average fighters of today.

You can go back more than 50 years, where the greats of the past could beat the best guys of today, let alone just the average ones.

 

Boxing has improved from the M.O.Q. but for many years now it's just ebbed and flowed.

Some divisions are stronger than in past decades, yet some are weaker.

Boxing doesn't keep progressing in the way that sports like sprinting does.

Boxing is a stand alone sport. You can't compare it to a race against the clock from point A to B, where the sport deals in milliseconds, which means that equipment and technology can have greater effects.

A sprinter from 30 years ago couldn't match today's times, yet there's tons of fighters from 30 years ago that could beat some of today's fighters.

There's guys from over 50 years ago that could beat some of today's fighters.

Regarding Ali and Joshua, Ali was clearly fitter. He could fight scheduled 15 round fights that were only a month apart, and in his prime, he could be up on his toes. Whereas Joshua has huge stamina issues due to his size and muscular frame. His tank can empty very quickly and it's one of his biggest weaknesses.

Yes, we have YouTube etc today to study the greats of the past, yet we don't have the great trainers of the past, which can pass on invaluable knowledge. Nor do the fighters come up in the same way, where they used to encounter every different style on the way up. Studying fights is one thing, but seeing it first hand is completely different. Joshua saw footage of Ruiz and he knew exactly what to expect. He knew how he'd approach the fight. Yet he couldn't do anything about it and has now lost his titles.

 

Sure, but I'm talking more in terms of average weight than lenght. Besides, I never said that Ali or any other past heavyweight wouldn't be able to beat todays heavyweights. The only point I'm making is that the average top heaveweight from fifty years ago fighting the average top heavyweight of today would be like a welterweight fighting a middleweight. Some welterweights would be able to win regardless. But that doesn't take away from the fact that they would be at a physical disadvantage.