Freak athletes of Boxing history

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.

 

In all respect, Ali had very, very little fundamental boxing skill he was intelligent in the ring but not very good at “pure boxing” very reliant on his reflexes and speed but in terms of athleticism, I actually agree with you he wasn’t some freak of the Hamed, Jones and Langford mold. Ali had freaky gifts like durability and stamina in fairness…

 

Good list, I’d like to add Langford to this crew if you wouldn’t mind.

 

But Ali's reflexes & speed ARE aspects of Pure Athleticism.
They were & are freakish, especially for his size.
His punch being significantly faster than SRRs & the 2/1000th speed blow he spoke about in "when we were Kings" were freakish, not just stamina & duranility.

Also his lack of basic boxing skills can be overstated.
Some things he did or eschewed were conscious or instinctive choices that were better given his style & gifts.
Leaning back arguably.
Holding his hands down low for greater visibility, reactions/accuracy & speed, definitely worthwhile for *him* to employ.

 

For something very specific to boxing; an iron chin.

Joe Grim is a 'freak' worth mentioning.

 

Not worth much in terms of boxing. I can't even believe there is even a question in terms of Ali being a freak.

 

I think you forgot to mention his unreal hand speed and the way he moved around the ring.

 

I literally mention all of those things in one way or another. I just think his durability, mindset and stamina are his biggest freak factor. Whose alt are you, you post 23 times a year?

 

You're right, I missed part of it but I'm not sure how given all those things you could conclude he wasn't a freak.

 

But I did?

 

Sorry if I misunderstood as you seemed to be somewhat agreeing with the original poster who questioned if Ali was a freak.

 

Ridiculous hand and foot speed, stamina and punch resistance.