Absolute Truths of Boxing

Low hanging fruit, how about that everyone below middleweight laughs at LHWs?

 

There are aspects of this that are so undermined by elitists and absolutely outstanding for us fans but the best fighters aren’t around these days imo.

 

Absolute truth in boxing? Gerald McClellan's power is F*CKING overrated and will always continue to be the most overrated power puncher in boxing history. A light heavyweight sized middleweight who only knock the living crap out of bums, past prime, over the hill, smaller and not so durable opponents. Here are the opponents he knocked out:

- Washed up, John Mugabi (natural jr middleweight)
- Past prime, Not so durable Julian Jackson (who's also a jr middleweight)
- Over the hill Gilbert Baptist (also natural jr middleweight)

When simply fighting people his own size, he couldn't knock them out (nigel benn) and did I mention that the guy he fought was never known for having the best chin in boxing? Yeah. Love G-Man's style, truly but power? nowhere near top 10 let alone number 1.

 

Ha!

Along the same line, some use fantasy fights to extrapolate their favourite fighters into victories they never achieved in their actual careers or gave much hint of achieving as per their actual resumes.

Let’s just say some “accrued” fantasy records are far more impressive than the actual material records of said fighters.

 

I watched Mayweather vs Paul, therefore I am not.

 

Ali over Louis a seemingly lock result perpetrated and advertised mainly by Ali himself.

Louis does so much better than generally afforded IMO. A very live chance to win and badly hurt Muhammad along the way.

Perhaps too abbreviated but Folley might’ve given a hint to the potential success of Louis - Zora not pointedly mobile but reached Ali pretty good with textbook jabs and right hands - success amplified dramatically when you sub in The Bomber.

Ali’s dancing was really pretty and effective…to a point… but Folley’s no nonsense successes illustrated the sometimes superfluous and impractical degree of Ali’s extravagant mobility.

 

1/ Johnson faked the knockdown against Kecthel
2/ the Hagler/Leonard fight has split opinion like no other
3/ Liston dived in the 2nd fight
4/ JCC is the greatest Mexican ever
5/ Don King bribed official's and stole from fighters
6/ Seen in the cold light of day, Boxing should be banned.
keep well.

 

That Riddick Bowe has truly buried the hatchet with Lennox Lewis. Time will tell.

Next week Riddick’s alarm clock will go off in the morning and he just might wake up randomly throwing punches at an imaginary Lewis goading him to “Bring it on, maaan!”

Game back on.

 

Rather than be placed below their springier, ever ready battery counterparts, HWs should be afforded more “reverse” credit for managing their greater size disadvantages.

Put a formula one driver in his preferred vehicle and you’ll see some unparalleled speed and manoeuvrings. Place that same driver, same skills, in a Mack Truck and maybe not so impressive BUT still great driving given such a BIG truck - read: moves very well and is very fast for a HW.

Big Ali had a little Lewis Hamilton at the wheel.

Bad analogy? Okay, but I did do my best.

 

I think they decimate anyone from 2010s the skills of boxing has deteriorated badly from 1910s to 2010s

 

I think some of our intuitions break down the further removed the fighters are from one another in time.

It's harder to even visualize Jack Johnson in his herky jerky black and white film fighting Tyson Fury. Then add that their heavyweight divisions are removed from each other by over a century. Neither faced anything like the other stylistically. Neither fought guys trained like the other. Neither fought the guys the other fought, or even the guys-who-fought-the-guys-who-fought-the-guys. Eyeballing it probably isn't as useful as one might think, either, since they're not even playing the same game, and you've never seen a Johnson era fighter adapting to a 2022 guy. Or vice versa. You might as well debate "Gorilla vs Dimetrodon."

It's tempting at that point to try to approach the matchup obliquely, by looking at broader social trends like the size of the talent pool, financial support, training, etc. typical in each era.

 

Boxing has become somewhat of a joke in the modern era and has been going downhill post 90s.

Alphabet titles should be abandoned, one champion per weight class. Amount of weight classes should be reduced, perhaps 10-12 at the very most.

Fantasy fights and ATG rankings are subjective for the most part.

 

Shavers is the hardest hitting heavyweight in boxing history? Depends if you wanna believe it or not BUT Shavers definitely hit harder than Foreman I don't think there's much to debate. 3 people got knocked out by Foreman and Shavers and they all said Shavers hit the hardest (Norton, Polite & Caldwell). Another one got his faced smashed by both of them defeated Foreman and was knocked by Shavers said Shavers hit harder (Jimmy Young). Like seriously tho, how many quotes do you guys need to get convinced?

 

Why does this idea still persist? Idiots like Rick Glaser have made people believe that McClellan was draining himself by 25 pounds or so to make 160.

He had massive shoulders, otherwise his build was not thick. For the Benn fight McClellan came in at 165.

Even Nigel Benn mentions this in The Fight Of Their Lives.