Couldn't possibly have existed how they are.

You are a legit idiot and I am actually punch drunk.

 

OK, Billy Conn verse Carl Froch... because that is how you would accurately pair them.

 

Mark your post does not really respond to the substance of the 2 passages you quoted.
Which claim that there were always big guys (yes during Ali's time too), but they argue that if they would have been better, they would have been uncovered & trained & champions before.

You could have argued that there are many more people now, hence a critical mass of bigger men were available-that maybe they could have been better on average 1 to 1, but there were so few it was unlikely to happen.
You could have argued that training technology is better for bigger men these days, as others have.
You could have said that the conventional wisdom that a certain size was too big was always wrong, that it had to be discovered over time.

But what you typed did not respond to what they were saying.
As for your comment: that itself seems contradictory.
You seem to propose genetics, then mention nutrition-which is correct, but that is utterly distinct from genetic potential.
There is virtually zero odds that folks are genetically taller, there is no differential survival/strong selective force for height.
Yes better food & fewer diseases increased average height, but not dramatically since say mid-century.

Oh you coul have argued maybe the biggest thing of all: rule changes, such as glove sizes, rounds, & how rules are enforced vis a vis clinching could always tip the balance towards bigger, longer, stronger men!
Even if they tend to be slower with less endurance, given what traits are favored with current rules & how they are applied-or not enforced.

 

Yeah. While the general assumption is that a person is a product of the era they were born in, fantasy fights need to bypass that rule. If we make a hypothetical match up then it should be with the understanding that athletes are exactly as they are. Other wise you’re matching two totally different people who never existed. It’s like me saying that if I were born in 2004 rather than 1974, I’d be five inches taller and hence could have played basketball competitively. Pointless argument