Old time fighters who would have been acused of taking steroids today

The number of people who DON'T look like they're on steroids in the olden days is far more striking, IMO. Compared to, say, the 90s.

 

Abe Simon

 

I'm not sure if he's been mentioned before, but Tom Sharkey was definitely on the juice.

 

Yes, but not at all common in boxing until the 1980's.

 

You do kind of wonder why it took so long for somebody to decide to take steroids and clean up, if they're as much of an advantage as advertised. The Olympics would provide at least one vector for steroids to enter the field, with amateurs carrying the infection into the pro ranks. Doctors would be another avenue.

 

Your lack of tact (and, verifiable support) for your position is only supplanted by your lack of intelligence.

 

Funny, I initially mis-read you as referencing Jack Sharkey, The Boston Gob.

From that mistake I’ll note that the other Sharkey, Jack, was quite heavily built in the upper body - something which author Peter Heller commented on when interviewing older Jack for Heller’s book IN THIS CORNER.

Sailor Tom was a ball of muscle also. I don’t know that Tom was even the height listed (about 5’ 8 1/2”?). Years later he was clearly shorter than Harry Greb. Loss of height in older age maybe but even in the line up before the Johnson - Jeffries match, Sharks was dropping a lot of height to Bob Fitz- so much so he didn’t look much taller than 5’7”.

Do roids cause you to lose height?

 

Remember what you likely heard-that old line boxing people & trainers always believed that even just weight lifting would make you muscle bound, stiff & slow. With no insight in the type of training that would mitigate that.
Also it did not penetrate widely into the general culture, where sometimes it seemed like everyone & their Grandpa was lifting, until the 1980's.
Baseball believed a very similar ethos & mythology. And thus it was only in the later part of that decade when Jose Canseco became the "Godfather" of steroids. Before that it was stimulants like "greenies" that some players popped like candy for energy.
Then in 1994 the offensive era really exploded, until in the mid-00s mandatory testing & penalties brought things more back to earth.
Ballparks & bat technology, some say juiced balls, were a smaller encouragement for favoring power.

It seems that Eastern bloc countries hit the juice earlier in terms of the Olympics, the 1950's in some sports.
Western nations I believe were commonly juicing at the games starting in the mid-late '60s.
But it is easier to see direct gains in sports that directly measure strength & speed.

Boxing has many other elements involved including general technique...
And rule changes re: the size & weight of gloves, clinching more permissable, 20% shorter matches made the advantages of size & strength larger.
Plus training advances & many more people meant the bigger guys-or those that could PED temselves larger, made drugging up more tempting & rewarding.

Fair enough?

 

Johnson was the first name I thought of.Cleveland Williams? Emile Griffith?

 

Thanks for that, I shall remember you in my prayers

 

Sonny Liston. When you see him on film it's hard to believe he only weighed 212-215lbs. He was a powerhouse, he made Clay/Ali look like a scrawny stringbean

 

Interesting, I always felt that Big Cat, though notably well muscled, had a natural appearance. I know you’re not saying that roids were in play, just highlighting Williams’ as having one of the more uncommon physiques which might give rise to suspicions in a roid prone era.

Likewise with Norton who himself was well defined but didn’t really have huge muscle mass ( Big Cleve appeared to have more).

Would’ve been interesting to see them side by side. Norton, for all the definition and muscle he did have looked that much smaller when he faced Foreman in Caracas.

 

Yes I have commented on this before.
Since he was not much over 6', that weight as his maximum would make sense-if he had quite low body fat like The 'Roid Deal did.
Or if he had relatively skinny legs/lower body like Evan Fields did. Neither condition appears to apply.
And/Or maybe if say Saddler trained him & so he came into the ring dehydrated like Foreman tended to in his first career.

With his visible muscle, moderate body fat, bone structure, very long arms...
I dunno how his real weight was not a good 20 lbs. heavier.

 

Trying to imagine a 235 pound Joe Louis and the angry look of genuine disbelief that you wouldn’t believe him.

 

theres a video of him at 230 lbs and 220 lbs in an exhibition against bob Foxworth.. he looked pretty good at 220 and no out of shape