Louis, Marciano, Dempsey fighting now.

Louis wouldn't need to bulk up. He'd slay these robot fatties if you took him right out of the Baer fight.

 

Why in the world would Jack Dempsey or Joe Louis want to take away from themselves the one main asset that made them great ? Their great forte was in hand speed and in Dempsey's case , foot movement. Dempsey was big from the waist up and had great success against bigger men,as he alway's got
there ,"fustess with the mostess",to use the phrase of a Civil War General.
And Joe Louis absolutely destroyed big dreadnoughts as Primo Carnera, Abe Simon and Buddy Baer, because of the speed of his trip-hammer blows. Both of these men were very strong,with no synthetic muscles to slow them down.
Marciano, would have also been slowed down from uneeded weight more so than Dempsey or Louis... Remember the old adage : Speed Kills...

 

They might be a touch muscle-bulkier if they were fighting today, but I don't think they should add a lot; they should take care not to loose quickness.

Also, American's tend to be taller nowadays than in Louis's or Dempsey's time, so they might be a bit taller, too.

I think they'd weight more now, for both the above reasons -- maybe the shorter 12 round duration would factor in, too? -- if they were born into our millieu; but they shouldn't over do it.

 

G, the fact of the matter is when Dempsey took on a Fulton, Morris, Willard,
Firpo, Jack Kearns, a wily old coot had no need to bulk him up, or years later
when my idol Joe Louis took on and DEMOLISHED big boys as Carnera, Abe Simon, Buddy Baer, Jack [Chappie] Blackburn, never bulked Louis up. Were these two great boxing men Jack Kearns and Jack Blackburn somehow less
astute handlers than todays trainers ? Hell No.! What a fighter gains in extra
unecessary weight, he loses in speed and mobility. Kearns and Blackburn knew that in Dempsey and Joe Louis,they had exceptionally strong men for their weight as their records prove. Kearns and Chappie knew the ropes !

 

They would only need to add enough bulk to make the 200 lb limit.

If you follow the tale of the tape, modern heavies starting with Liston developed much thicker thighs, and were overall heavier. This is the only real difference as guys like Dempsey, Louis, and Marciano are comparable in every other measurement to modern heavies. Just bulk up their legs a little, they would be fine.

 

Would they bulk up?

Almost certainly.

Would they be better for it?

Not necisarily.

 

Louis could easily fight at 215+ lbs. He believed for a long time that 200 lbs was the ideal weight for him but it became difficult to make by the Conn fight, when he was 26. Months later he was weighing 208 and looking close to his best form again Abe Simon. With only 12 rounds to go nowadays, taking something away from his great stamina by bulking up would not hurt much. He looked like he could have gone another 15 after most of his fights due to his conservative style. Even an old Louis went a fast 15 rounds against Charles, and looked relatively fresh by the 12th round despite weighing nearly 220 lbs.

Weighing over 230 pounds would be a gross mistake though. That just takes away from a fighter who is not 6'5+ like the Klitschko brothers. A lot of the heavyweights today aside from the top two are not really any bigger than Louis in stature.

 

Well, Louis wasn´t small.......

 

He'd also be on the talented side with the ability to fight 15 hard rounds. That isn't something you see from most of todays heavyweights.

 

:-(

both klitschko beats them easily.

 

I doubt very much that Marciano would.

 

Regarding Louis :

He might have slayed Wladimir , and just because we have an extremely weak division now (Valuev , Ibragimov , Sanders , McCline , Byrd and Puritty retired , Tua , McCall , Holyfield and Brewster shot )
he may/might have been a champion , but then Wladimir could have slain him just as well , I know it escapes your understanding )

Vitali might have been floored but up to take his vengeance like he did against Sanders , while Louis was probably a somewhat harder puncher than Sanders , he was slower and about as vulnerable , and since he was also a bit smaller combined with these facts , he would have found it harder to land flush against Vitali.

Regarding Marciano :
he would have never competed above 200lbs these days , and if he had , he would have fought the Chambers' , shot Peters' and Aguilera's of the world , possibly Ruiz too.

If he dared to move up to 200 , he may have won a belt or even 2 of the belts there , and remain content at maintaining them until an upset would come , or just retire undefeated near his peak like he did :yep

He would have probably tried to lure the Dawsons' , Froch's and Johnson's of the world to fight him at a 170/172 lbs catchweight which he would have easily made.

Dempsey :
would have accommodated his technique to be just ordinary , may have probably win 1 or 2 belts at 168-200 .
At HW , just like I stated about Marciano.

 

:rofl