The greats of the past should never be surpassed, because of the human cost woudl be too high?

I agree to a extent. Fighters can't fight at the rate they used to and there isn't 15 rounders let alone 20 rounders and 40 rounders anymore.

The sport has changed and looks after the safety of fighters way more.

 

Yes i agree.

I hope Usyk and others like him have happy post fighting lives.

I will say this about Louis: a lot of his problems stemmed from what the IRS did to him. He actually didn't take that much damage in his career barring the first Schmeling fight, the Marciano knockout loss, and maybe a few knockdowns here and there.

He had drug issues because of what the IRS did to him.

 

Agree. There still to this day some fighters who are lingering around who shouldn’t be. I know Derek Chisora isn’t a great by any means but I really wish he’d retire. Same with a bunch others.

 

I'm always glad Archie got to live so long and healthy.

 

I agree. Say what you want about Floyd, but he is an intelligent man who understands the ins-and-outs of the sport. He understood that the casuals are easily fooled and easy to anger, that he could be his own promoter marketing himself as a villain, and that the worst thing he could do would be to squander his money on drugs/alcohol/women etc.

He also understood that defense and accuracy wins fights, and that this would also help his brains remain intact in the long run. Had Floyd tried to be an extreme safety first boxer like Jimmy Young, he wouldn't have had nearly as much success with his fights. If the opponent is dictating the pace, throwing a lot more, and making an effort, that can sway the judges over an overly cautious fighter who isn't doing much. Floyd made sure to develop a sharp jab to stop a guy dead in his tracks, a check hook to escape corners, strong counters to make people think twice and ruin their momentum, and head movement to both evade dangerous shots and set up his own. He was superb at keeping track of punches landed and knowing if the scorecards were close, and he was a master of ring generalship/mindful of the ring itself.

All these ingredients combined led to Floyd arguably being the smartest boxer who ever lived. He had fame, a good record, wealth, and health. While there are arguably more than a dozen boxers you could name who had more remarkable careers or better wins/achievements, absolutely none of them retired proud of themselves in all 4 of these categories as much as Floyd.

 

I'm sure Shakur Stevenson will be Twittering well into his 70s

 

I do not think a fighter having 50 fights with 30 title wins is preventing them from surpassing someone with 100 plus fights. If they were the best that'd be enough. Louis was the clear cut HW GOAT by fight 40. If they are "the one" it doesn't matter. If people are complaining about a fighters longevity it means something else is the issue and that they didn't prove enough in that time.


Even with an Usyk whose got an absurdly short resume the problems not really the 7 fights its the losing 25 rounds and fighting 4 guys from the same island over and over. If Usyk went through Fury, Joshua and Dubois like Foreman went through Frazier and Norton I'd be tripping over myself excusing his lack of accomplishments.

And yeah I'll second the point @dmt had that Louis dying young because he fought too long is kind of odd. Louis took more damage than Floyd(everyone did)but Louis was going years at a time without taking any damage. Especially the repetitive kind.