This content is protected In the first two minutes of this video the great Muhammad Ali explains why he is better than Joe Louis using the EXACT same arguements that ppl make today when making a case for moderns against the old timers. Just thought it was funny since so many reject this line of logic when used against people from Ali’s era. Not picking on anyone in particular. I just thought it was a funny example of how some things never change.
Ali definitely makes some of the same points that many of us make. Not sure I've ever seen anyone use those arguments against Ali and the people from his era though.
There's a bunch of good material on the HOF channel. Even has an interview with Barbados Joe Walcott.
I have read articles where people used the modernist argument to argue that Jeffries would have beaten beat Sullivan. The modernist argument, is the oldest in the history of boxing!
I love Ali, but I agree with you. One thing that probably hasn't improved since the post war era when Ali grew up is the food and kids habits in general, though. Fast food and computers have caused a decline in health and physical standards. There's also the argument that the pool from which to recruit fighters have decreased and that this was true also in Ali's era compared to earlier ones. But then there is of course always the benefit of learning from previous generations and the improvement in medical and sports science. And let's not forget steroids, that probably didn't play much part at least during the first half of Ali's era.
Well, Roy Jones made them against Hearns, so he obviously would against Ali as well. He said something to the effect that "if we today don't improve on Herans and the best of his day, we aren't doing our jobs". Hearns was obviously a fighter he watched a lot when developing as a fighter, just as Hearns probably watched Ali. Floyd also seems to have studied Ali - the lead right, jab to the body and the pull counter being obvious takeaways. Not that Ali invented them, but he was a great proponent of these moves.
Good video, ive seen it before and have always thought Ali oozed respect for D'Amato big time..A lot of respect between them in there
Yeah, that's the one thing that jumped out at me, food is 1000% not better, pesticides on its own blows that out the water. Organic was standard back then, none of the crap sprays
It's mostly about what people choose to eat and drink nowadays. Fast food and sugar products like soda and candy are consumed in a far higher degree today while kids at the same time are way less physically active. But when Ali said this, in the early 70's, nutrition had definitely improved since the depression in the 30's in that people had more to eat. Jack Johnson, if he had been born when Ali was, would probably have been an even more impressive specimen in his prime. But if Ali had been born in the late 80's, early 90's, he'd quite probably had a lot more crap food and less physical activity growing up than he in fact had. On the other hand he'd have the benefit of sports science and steroids more than he had.
Your standard food on the shelf in a supermarket back then compared to now would be scary if under testing..
