Which heavyweight was the most "Era dependent"?

Rocky Marciano.

Also, probably guys who ruled the so called "weak eras": Louis, Holmes and Wlad.

 

Fighters of the last 30 years, if dropped into earlier eras, would no longer have PEDs available to them. So size, musculature, speed and stamina would have to be attained naturally. Take an Ernie Terrell, for example. The same size as the monsters of today but was known as the 'Chicago Stringbean' because artificial enhancements were unavailable. If they were, everyone back then would be using as well. No one wants to be at a disadvantage when its widely known that everyone is using.

Trainers back then, pre-usage, concentrated on boxing-friendly workouts. No weights, just boxing. I recall a piece Ferdie Pacheco did before the Renaldo Snipes v Jumbo Cummings 10-rounder and comparing Snipes' boxing muscle to Jumbo's weight-created muscle and how Jumbo's kind of training impedes stamina. And sure enough, Jumbo was gassed after 3 rounds. Also, I recall reading about the Marciano-Moore fight and how Moore was actually heavier than Rocky in training for the bout. Moore stated he wants to get down to about 181 for speed. Today they would be concentrating on weight increasing.

Finally, the fighter of today would have to increase his productivity exponentially. None of this once or twice a year stuff unless you were the champ. And even then, sparsity in your activity was reducing your earning power, which is another reason they fought so often. But as for the contender, inactivity severely hindered your rating with the competition of the era. I have Ring mags that showed a dramatic drop in a fighter's rating over a couple of months just because he was a bit inactive, not because he lost. Man, you lost your place in line unless you were going to the post every 6 to 8 weeks or so, or had something lined up. Also, it was contender v contender. Fighters fought and fought each other, not just a bunch of journeymen.

Long-winded today, guys. Must be all the Turkey and ham.

 

One could make a case for a lot of people simply being products of their own era. One that I’ll also mention is Floyd Patterson . While he might have had some success in other periods it’s unlikely to me that he’d be champion in very many of them

 

The color line guys, including Dempsey. We will never know, but things may very well have been different if they had to fight Peter Jackson and Harry Wills.

Anyone saying Dempsey...just stop. He'd of beaten most of the guys before Liston, and had a chance against any of them.

 

Everyone in the 19th century and Marciano.

 

Johansson, Braddock, Fitzsimmons

 

Corbett, Braddock and Marciano

 

Jeffries might nit have done so well post 1970 ....

 

Marvin Hart and Tommy Burns are two who are considered weaker than their predecessors and successors.

 

Almost all heavies pre-Holmes would be severely affected trying to compete in the post 1990 heavyweight landscape. Many of the luminaries and champs, some even considered ATG's, would not make contender status, and some not even past prelim fighters.

 

Floyd Patterson, Ingemar Johansson, Joshua, Wilder, Martin.