"But superheavyweights back then were BAD!"

Debates about whether modern superheavyweights are a different and improved breed will sooner or later loop back to Carnera and Willard.

Some say that Carnera and Willard are examples of how big men are nothing new to boxing. Others, however, argue that Willard and Carnera are nothing like modern superheavyweights because their technique was so bad. So you can't compare them.

I think there's a minor problem with the people of the "Carnera and Willard sucked, so you can't compare them to modern superheavyweights" camp.

Usually, the people who criticize Carnera's and Willard's technical flaws will ALSO point out equally bad flaws in the smaller fighters of the 1910s to 1930s eras. The problem is that if this is true -- if the small fighters and big fighters both had bad technique -- then they were on a level playing field technically. And yet the smaller guys beat them back then.

Now, it's true that there are ways around this. You could say that technique in the 20s was bad for both, but that the technical awfulness hurt the biggest men more. Or something like that. But the situation is a little complex.

 

As someone who's said that Lennox would look like Terrell back then, I think most with that opinion are only saying that weight training (and whatever else) has allowed fighters in general to get heavier and more muscular. Terrell was not a small man when he fought Ali.

 

Another interesting question is why the giant guys disappear from the championship roll from the 30s to at least the 90s.

 

I don't know how much this makes sense, though. They may not have had many superheavyweights, but they did have some fighters who were bigger or taller than others. If anything, size mismatches were more common then than today.

Unless you are arguing that all fighters with any kind of size advantage back then couldn't fight well; essentially that everyone "fought small."

 

That's part of my point. Steroids aside, boxers didn't lift in the 1960s for the most part. Your 6'4", 260 pound white dude is a serious lifter, unlike Terrell.