Technical or tactical changes that might've helped past fighters?

I would tell Jim Corbett to wear a real pair of shorts, not thongs.

 

I would tell Kuniaki Shiabata to actually develop his jab as a weapon, rather than sort of flicking it out once in a while. He had every single attribute for it - the crazy speed, footwork and tremendous punch slipping and countering. A strong jab would have made him more consistent and dominant against certain opponents, and much less likely to have his weakness (of slow starting and getting caught cold and KO'd, being overly cautious and sometime low work rate) exposed.

 

What about Billy Papke's abbreviated shorts?

 

The breed was named after a guy who managed a box factory.

 

They used to be guard dogs at whorehouses.

 

For some reason George St. Pierre is the only person who ever looked right in tiny shorts. https://c1.thejournal.ie/media/2016/06/ufc-167-mixed-martial-arts-11-310x415.jpg

 

I can think of several reasons

 

Dealing in broad strokes and stating the obvious, plenty of fighters I've seen who were very capable of taking a disciplined, varied and tactical approach and tightening up defensively, using their jab and feet more, winning a fight with more than one approach etc- 'boxing', essentially - often got drawn into brawls too easily. Morales, Saad, the younger Chacon, Boza, Minter, McGowan etc. If you're open defensively, an opponent of equal ability will eventually force you to grit it out if you can't avoid being hit, I suppose. Buchanan, known for his great jab and mobility, was often forced into using his physicality and freakish endurance at the elite level against the likes of Laguna and Navarro, but it won those fights for him and took a freak outlier like Duran to topple him. Saad had fight changing power and the likes of Chacon and Morales could bang too, but a cut prone light puncher like McGowan, it was infuriating to watch sometimes. Even a heavier hitter like Minter.

 

Speaking of Laguna, I've thought before that he could have neatened and technically improved his left hook. A fast but rather sloppy and cuffing punch compared to his jab and right hand. It might have given him an extra edge in the Ortiz rematches, the first Buchanan fight where his speed was declining (where the fight was very close) and as a good weapon in the Saldivar fight vs a southpaw who could occasionally square up a tad (also a desperately close fight). I don't think he'd have topped Ortiz ultimately, but might have held on to his title against Buchanan and earned a shot at Sugar Ramos at Saldivars expense. Lineal champ in two classic divisions?

And speaking of left hooks, it maddens me that Arbachakov didn't uncork his far more than he did. It was an awesome punch when used it, which was too little. The same for Wlad Klitschko.

Technical regression in the wake of power punching is always a bit frustrating to watch. Rosario, Gomez, Trinidad, Tszyu, Betulio Gonzalez, Golovkin, Barkley, Simon Brown to name a few.

And then you have fighters who don't pick a particular style but get caught between styles or try to expand their armoury too much and don't get a full grasp of the different approaches they try to implement. Sibson, Montiel, Hamed, Freitas, Froch etc. Younger fighters trying to copy Mayweather like it's a new thing or look good doing it despite not grasping the mechanics properly. Like another strain of the post-Ali influence where for every Sot Chitalada you got ten Kirklaind Laings.

 

Holyfield too perhaps.

 

I would tell Picasso to use more red.

 

Isn't this what we do almost every fight ?

 

When Joe Louis stepped left, he should’ve stepped right.

 

Robinson didn't do this enough either. It really hurt him against Turpin in the first fight because Turpin was expertly stopping Ray's left hooks with his right glove/forearm but was standing square and thus would have definitely been hit by Robinson's left hook if Robinson had gotten his left shoulder inside Turpin's right shoulder.

 

This is the only sensible answer.