Dokes didn't need more muscle, just a better chin and more stamina. So yeah, he probably would have been better.
Even if steroids gave zero benefit, it would still be better than using cocaine. Although cocaine is technically sometimes considered a performance enhancer as well.
I often lament that the greatest boxer to ever come from my hometown was a cokehead smh. That handspeed was something else, he really overachieved and underachieved at the same time
I got the impression he did both. Cocaine in the early 80s, steroids later (I heard he got really into the roids in the 90s).
When do you think steroids came into boxing on a more common basis? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it were very commonplace in the 80s. I can’t imagine how cocaine really helps a boxer. The high lasts like 15 minutes and then you feel like ****. If you do some bumps in the dressing room, the high will be over by the time the fight begins. I don’t see how you can administer it between rounds. Drinking it with your water will probably make you puke. Same thing with football players, when people talk about LT. Unless LT found a way to snort it on the sidelines with his helmet on and nobody noticing, he would have to go back to the Giants locker room every change of possession to get high. I would imagine that using speed was more likely (it obviously was widespread in baseball)
Dempsey's wife accused him of using cocaine as a PED, for what it's worth. Not that that's all that reliable. I seem to remember bumping into an article or two about cocaine use for performance, though I only glanced at the abstracts. Amphetamines were apparently popular as PEDs; banned even during the Rome Olympics, IIRC.
