Could Max Baer Get A KO Over Berbick?

Hey fair enough. He fought in explosive spurts here and there but never sustained anything.

He's got a good enough rigth hand to have some sort of punchers chance here. Berbick could take punches from Holmes and plenty of others all night but once the power got to a certain standard bets became shaky. He'd be favored to crowd Baer and outwork him but on a good night I'd like to see what Baer could do.

 

The 1930's were not the 1880's ... there were were a ton off highly competent training options by that period of time ... Depression era American was swamped with fighters in gyms trying to earn a living ... Baer's style had nothing to do with lack of training ..he was a big punching , charismatic fighter who people fell over to try and manage ... Baer's problem was he was a screwball who choose to never focus on the game but to rely on his size chin and power and avoided training ..the challange by the 1980's is that 6' 2" and 210 pounds was average to smaller and he'd not have the overpowering advantages he did fighting mostly cruiserweights .. I believe isnt if Bare had the potential to be better but if they were matched ..

 

Speculation.

 

Big Power advantage to Max, he'll clobber Berbick inside 5

 

The entire premise of the thread invites speculation out of necessity... as do most threads in this forum.

 

Yes, but you are introducing a massive assumption.

Namely that the A tier from the 30s, would loose to the B tier from the 80s.

That is a massive sell.

 

Was Berbick really B tier vs Baer's A tier? Trevor beat an excellent champ and beat numerous contenders. Both had their share of losses. Tho Baer was lineal he was there for 5 minutes and was lucky to miss Joe Louis by just months. If Holmes was champ over Baer's era does anyone really think Baer would have been champ?

The difference between Baer and Berbick for me is definitely less than A vs B tier.

 

That's not an assumption. That is 50 years of watching and participating in the sport applied to watching the film of those respective fighters.

Take it or leave it, I could give a S less. But the vast majority of trainers and boxers would agree with me. And the nerds would be sitting on the opposite side of the room.

 

Whatever anybody thinks of the 30's heavyweights Max could certainly hit hard enough to stop Trevor unless Trevor avoided getting hit solidly somehow. At their best I'll go with Max by TKO or KO.

 

Then at best Baer is the A+ team, and Berbick is the A- team.

Baer might have been champion for five minutes, but that needs a bit of context.

When Baer launches his assault on teh title, there wee two schools of thought.

One was that Carnera was the champion, but the other was that Schmeling was the champion in all but name, because of the way he lost the title.

Baer resolved both issues back to back, within a few months, and is was widely thought that he might be champion for a long time.

Give him his due for his five minute title reign.

 

I really don't see anything between the most skilled heavyweights of the 30s, and the most skilled heavyweights of the 80s.

 

Context is exactly what is needed. Louis absolutely annihiliated him about three months after he'd lost the title, even before losing to Schmeling. Baer would never have won the title if Louis had been in his way.....like Holmes was in the way of Berbick. Do you think Baer would have nabbed the strap facing the peak Holmes that Berbick had to? I'll grant that he was lineal while Berbibk wasn't but ackowledge the context too.

I like Baer, he was a good fighter who had a couple of big nights but his heart was never really in boxing. He very likely had the talent to do more but it wasn't to be.

 

Among some other things that required sharpening, if Baer had reasonably incorporated a decent jab it would’ve been a major uplift to his game.

He didn’t appear inherently fast but more sound technique would’ve shortened the travel/time required for his punches.

For all his natural physical attributes, Max would’ve been a nice project for a top trainer to work on IF they could get him to listen and seriously apply himself.

However, there’s a lot of woulda shoulda coulda fighters who might’ve been this if not for that etc. and we’re only left with Max as he actually was.

Dedication and discipline are no mean traits - and they’re only so easily afforded in the realm of fantasy.

Best Max could get over the top of Berbick by points I would think and achieving same by way of KO is certainly possible but not a lock, just imo.

Then again, for Max to beat Berbick, some might think that it might only be possible by way of KO.

 

Yeah, that's kinda sad.