Ali,Louis,Tyson,Marciano...The Facts

There's some truth in this, but comparing age difference doesn't tell the whole story of course. Certainly the Tyson comparison, because Tyson was extremely young in his prime, so of course there's a huge age difference.

If you're 32 and you fight a 43 year old man, it's a 11 year difference.
If you're 21 and you fight a 33 year old man, its a 12 year difference.

If current Vitali (39) fights a guy 11 years older he would be ridiculed, beating up a 50 year old grandpa :deal

 

I didnt even know just how significant the age difference really was

 

TboneNYC you are reaching a bit don't you think ??? You can't just pick and choose a fighter you wanna put in your equation. Why don't you change it and put Fraizer, Foreman in it ???

Another thing, fighters don't age the same way. Some peak in their middle thirties, some are by then completley shot.

And what Robney said :good

 

good makes sense.

 

Holyfield turns 48 this month, he's pretty close...

 

Hahaha alright alright I may be a noob post wise but i was dwelling on this forum for a long time I think ESB kind of grew on me

Anyway, people have different definitions of greatnes, for some it means overcoming adversity and for others beating the best. I love the way he fought (not boxed) and there is nobody who could change my perspective, even though his biggest wins were against over the hill fighters (and Ali's weren't).

 

Assuming the four fights chosen for each man are the right ones (debateable), I believe two major problems still exist with this argument.

1) Age gap and age are not equivalent concepts. A 10 year age gap from 20 to 30 is clearly much less significant than the 10 years between 30 and 40. Fighters deteriorate much faster after 30 and even more so when then have the kind of miles on the clock that Rocky's opponents did. The problem is Rocky's guys were old, not older.

2) As time goes on athletes' medical treatment and training regimes evolve along with many other aspects of their health and fitness. We know better with each new era how to preserve fighters and allow them to fight on longer.

Rocky is still one of my top 10 ATG HWs but he's probably bottom of the pile for these reasons.

 

Ali, Tyson and Louis were in their early twenties for their 'four most important fights' and were fighting guys in their early thirties...Tyson was the youngest champion ever...Marciano was late twenties/early thirties for the comparisons...I think this guy did a pretty good job of disproving his own point...

 

Good I'm not going crazy