How important is it? Anyone who's boxed before or watched a little bit can see where it's useful: on the inside and clinches, in helping to generate clubbing, "heavy" punches... Who are the strongest fighters you've ever seen and who applied it well? Who's underrated and overrated here? Is strength as important in today's fight game as it used to be back in the day with more infighting?
Ali is grossly underated here. You can see him doing very well with Foreman up close. Nobody really muscled Ali. Enormously strong human being. Pep, too. I bet it's about the balance.
I agree, McGrain, which is one of the reasons I think he could have been a bonafide power hitter given the right adjustments. Langford and Dempsey also impress me with their film-proven ability to muscle it out with other guys with a lot of pounds on them at fight night. Lot of functional strength there. I think Monzon was also very hard to beat in this category, I actually think he used his strength better than any MW i've ever seen probably. Yes, even more than Hagler. Leverage and balance are tops; can't wrestle without proven chops in both.
Monzon was tops as well as Emile Griffith..he handled Dick tiger pretty well despite being outweighed by 10 lbs..I thought Jim Watt was a pretty strong guy as well, to name just one of so many.
Ali was very underrated strength wise, as i said in another thread his performance in fotc was a precursor to the Foreman fight, in that he was pushing Joe back with relative ease. He handled Foreman very well in the clinches too in their own match, which is no mean feat given Foremans obvious strength. I also thought Chuvalo was one of the few other guys who was able to hold ground against Foreman, which was imppressive. Tyson is overrated because of his physique, he used to constantly get pushed about in the clinches.
Jack Dempsey was, for his size especially, a very strong dude...and this was the opinion of Archie Moore that I saw in an interview with him.
I agree, I'm not sure if it was a technical, mental, or physical thing but he was never all that on the inside. I suspect that his naturally limited stamina(asthma) may have had something to do with it for sure. Holyfield(senzu bean version) bullied the **** out of him, and it's another reason why I think Ali would absolutely dominate Tyson.
RC very true about Jack Dempsey. He was described by Nat Fleischer as "amazingly strong ". Though about 185-90 for his bouts, from the waist up he was built like a strong 215-20 pound heavyweight. As posted before,look at how he grabs the "sleeping" Luis Firpo, under the arms ,and bending down lifts Firpo to his feet. Yes,amazingly strong ! Probably pound for pound our strongest heavyweight,I reckon !
strength isn't important in boxing like in other sports.look at wrestlers,nfl players,weight-lifters...beasts
sonny liston is maybe the strongest hw ever.look at his physique,he had huge shoulders,back and hands,and he never lifted weights
I don't want to turn this into a Marciano-Dempsey debate, but I personally think Marciano was stronger than Jack Dempsey. I think Marciano's strength was his # 1 asset. Yes, over power and stamina.
Strength is also very important for holding a solid guard, especially for a high guard (like Pac often uses for example). Without enough strength a guard will be smashed to bits even if it's technically correct.
You and I have discussed before how developing his physical strength was an obsession of Marciano's from an early age (ditto Chuvalo, who stood his ground against Frazier, Bonavena and Foreman until getting hurt). Rocky was a center on the scholastic gridiron, indicative of how powerful he was from an early age. Marciano-Chuvalo would have been a brutal collision for as long as it lasted. Rex Layne's entire strategy was based upon trying to bull Marciano into reverse, putting him on the back foot and taking away his punching power, only to utterly fail. What Foreman did that set him apart was to use his physical strength aggressively, in illegal fashion to shove his opponents back. Jeffries also did this, but against significantly smaller, lighter and weaker competition. Like Tyson, Hagler's physical strength is overrated due to his impressive physique. There's evidence that Antuofermo, Minter, Hamsho and SRL were all stronger than he was. Marv stood his ground impressively against Duran, but El Cholo was a former LW. Immediately after Hamsho handed Czyz his first career defeat, Bobby explicitly stated that Mustafa's greater physical strength and bodily maturity was the specific reason for his win. (Czyz was still just 20 years old, and would eventually wind up a 220 pound HW.)