Freak athletes of Boxing history

Ali, obviously.

 

You're not wrong but for how long do you expect athletes to maintain their freak athletic abilities? Ali di so for about a decade. I think that's pretty darn good.

 

Hi Guys.
Not sure what the term " freak " actually means relative to boxing, it's not easy to decipher, as Cross pointed out the overly tall fighters could be labelled freaks, not sure that a boxer that excels in another sport could in the real sense of the word be called a " freak " for me a better word would be multi talented, I see the word being more approbeate when applied to fighters like, Nelson, Armstrong, and most definitely Greb, fighters with endurance, and almost inhuman stamina, able to fight dozens of times a year, that says " freak " to me, but looks like we all translate the meaning differently .
stay safe guys.

 

Late 1970's Ali relied on his chin a lot. Which is a gift imo. Besides I feel like "freak athletes" should be on when they were at their peak anyway.

 

Terry Norris comes to mind. Aside from his insane hand and foot speed he was known for his incredible strength. The guy could bench 300 pounds which is pretty damn impressive for his weight class.

 

Roy Jones Jr.

Obviously there was more to him than just his athletic gifts but those gifts were still insane.

Barbados Joe Walcott.

I understand that some may not want to put here due to lack of film but welterweights just simply don't do what he did. It's just not supposed to happen.

Sandy Saddler

Not only incredibly smart but also very gifted. Insane punching power and height for a featherweight.

Panama Al Brown

Imagine fighting a 118 champion whose taller than some heavyweight champions. Mostly mentioning him because he's underrated here imo. He deserves this shoutout and much more.

Fighting Harada

lot of special things about Harada but the one I'll mention here is his unreal stamina. Oh speaking of stamina Henry Armstrong is an obvious pick. Not sure why I didn't think of him sooner.

 

Ali was slow of foot in regards to running for what it is worth.

 

Larry Holmes. Not only that jab, but what normal human can bound over car rooftops like a Marvel comics hero and then pull off a dropkick Ricky Steamboat would have been envious of?

 

Wilfred Benetiz…he apparently never trained

 

George Foreman is one of the strongest athletes I’ve ever seen.

 

When i think of freak athlete in boxing i try and stay boxing orientated i.e. comparative to other boxers. Of course incredible ability in other sports is worthy but it's secondary to me personally.

I mean Ken Norton's ridiculous all round athletic ability is well known by those that know him well. His Illinois school supposedly brought in "The Ken Norton Rule" to limit participation to four events such was his dominance.

I look at the strength of a George Foreman in a boxing ring as freak. I look at the insane stamina and aerobic recovery times of a guy like Salvador Sanchez as freak and i'd add Armstrong's stamina and workrate with it. Jeff Fenech had freak strength in virtually every division he fought. Ali's overall speed and reflex vs size is freak. Same with Roy Jones and you can add power into his box as well. Tyson Fury's speed and movement is freak for his size. SRR's overall package of everything boxing is freak. Harry Greb even without footage had a freak combination of athletic ability pertinent to boxing. The ability of a tall lean guy like Thomas Hearns to have such power, speed and coordination at 147 was freak. When he poleaxed Pino Cuevas he was described as akin to something created in a laboratory. The durability of quite a few guys from all different divisions is freak. Joe Louis' offensive abilities are freak.

The list is endless really.

 

He's absurd really. The movie has a couple of examples of this.

 

The term Athlete perhaps has an open definition.

One interpretation could be “as applied” in respect of multiple sports - so a Ken Norton would be a nice fit in that regard.

To a lesser degree in terms of variance, Marciano was an excellent ball player and Henry Cooper a respectable golfer.

Cooper himself noted that while a lot of boxers had dabbled in other sports - he never knew Ali to be involved in anything but boxing and from a very young age.

At any rate, in boxing, the term athlete seems more often applied to highlight those fighters who relied more on their natural physical gifts such as hand eye coordination, reflex, speed, flexibility rather than their application of “conventional” boxing techniques.

While prime Ali was supplemented by many natural attributes, I think his conventionally applied boxing technique is often underrated in order to better highlight the natural features of his prime game.

In the early days, including amateur, it was said Ali would spend hours upon hours in the gym perfecting his punches.

I think this is well borne out in his first fight v Liston in which Ali threw a great variety of text book punches - as announcer Steve Ellis famously noted “Sonny is getting hit with ALL the punches in the book”.

Roy Jones Jr is probably one of the best if not the best examples of highly successful application of sheer physical attributes.

Perhaps in support of that view is that, as compared to most other fighters, it would be more difficult to fit Roy into a substantive style - which also lends itself to being unpredictable.

Prince Naseem might be considered of a similar mould also.