Wouldn’t put Dempsey Tunney or Sharkey in that statement but I generally agree. Those fighters you named would dominate today as well. I just don’t think the average Joe fighter would be able to handle them. I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Jack Johnson and james Jeffries although lacking modern techniques were tough men in their own right and had some skill to go along w their athleticism. Just not relevant styles in today’s fight game. Not much had changed 30s onward as far as mechanics go. I’ll also add what you call lack of fundementals it slightly unorthodox way of doing things isn’t a bad thing if it’s affective. Marciano looked awkward and “unskilled” for example. But that’s not true. He was one of the hardest to hit men in the hw division. Was a custom built fighter to his strengths. And the stats back up his defensive prowess. I’m ranting off topic now. Good convo though
I honestly cannot believe what I'm reading here. A man, who ended his amateur "career" as a 16 year old, thinks he would easily knock out a former HW world champion. This has to be some kind of epic troll attempt. The most hurt I've ever been sparring was against a featherweight who had once fought for the British title. His punches were far too quick for me to even think about avoiding and his movement was far too quick for me to even think about landing .
Amateur level and pro world level are totally different even if you think guys back then were less skilled. It's not even like you were some sort of national AAU, golden gloves, or Olympic level boxer, you just had a few local fights and sparred with your friends and never got a significant ranking or won a major tournament. The only way to truly know how skilled you are is with results: either in the ring or in a street fight. You have neither. Size alone is not enough when there's a grand canyon sized difference in skill and experience. There's stamina (guys in Sharkey's era did 15+ rounds, amateurs rarely go half that amount), timing, accuracy, defense, parrying, finishing ability, footwork, etc. Even if for the sake of argument you don't think Sharkey looks impressive on film or you believe that you are more skilled, Sharkey has still fought literally dozens of more professional boxers at the world level. You could hypothetically have amazing skill but without opponents to actually try it on you won't have the muscle memory, reflexes, and confidence that comes with actual experience. To know what combos are effective, to get the timing down for your jab, to learn how to deal with multiple different styles, sticking to a game plan from start to finish, these are all things you can only gain by competing in actual matches. Since you like analogies I'll use one: it's like if you're a tall 7 foot former high school basketball player who used to dominate a few amateur league matches with a nice jump shot that was hard to block due to your height and skill. For whatever reason you never pursued a college or pro career, but you continue to practice that jump shot 2x a week and play with your friends every now and then and they have a hard time stopping it. This does NOT mean you would have an easy time bullying 6'1 Isaiah Thomas (even the current retired one) with your height and reach. If you told that to anybody with an ounce of basketball knowledge they'd laugh at you.
This turned out to be waaaaay better than I expected. Based on the number of times I have heard the "I'm too big, no small guy could beat me" talk over the last 35 or 40 years I thought that this guy would have a couple fights, boxing for 8-18 months. But no fights in over a decade, sparring with some friends once a week or so...but has maintained the "elite" skill mastered as a 12 year old.
Not to mention his bone crushing power, proven from coming third in a local amateur tournament as a kid
Here we go again: Lost knowledge, lost ability to feint, lost skills, boxing is dying! Will the silliness never stop?
If you don’t think boxing is dying you live on another planet. It’s not easy to find a good boxing gym let alone one with half way decent trainers. Maybe over seas it ain’t but here in the states w the best athletes it certainly is.
You think that's the silliness, in a thread where Walter Mitty, who's biggest achievements is coming third in a local amateur tornament as a kid, and some light sparring sessions with some out of shape people in his gym, thinks he could beat Jack Sharkey, who went toe to toe with Jack Dempsey, battered Harry Wills, knocked out Tommy Loughran and Jack Delaney, outboxed Max Schmeling, Primo Carnera, Young Stribling and George Godfrey, all in serious professional matches