Design the "perfect" fighter

Whoa, there. Slow down and read the rest of the thread before replying. (Please).

This isn't a typical "what would you get if you combined Robinson's left hook with Shavers' right hand, and Ali's charisma, and..."


No.

Instead, I want you to imagine a once-in-a-millenium intersection of the perfect genes and training for boxing.

I'm looking for oddities. Given our current knowledge of human capabilities, what would the fighter with the maximum number of standard deviations from average look like? The guy who could easily surpass Robinson or Armstrong?

This means you can't just fit together pieces of the best fighters you like -- Greb's ring brains plus Walcott's footwork plus Ali's whatever. You need to explain how your hypothetical fighter would have these abilities.

Armstrong already showed one way to do this: get a physical abnormality like a slow heartbeat. What else?

 

PHYSICAL: The guy might want to be born with a slow heartbeat (a la Armstrong). He definitely wants a brain that's extremely difficult to concuss (I have no idea how some people take tons of punishment, but apparently they do), and amazing reflexes. The Soviets figured out "optimal" fast/slow twitch muscle fiber percentages for amateur boxing; presumably this guy's profile would look pretty similar.

He should probably be taller than average for his weight class. Short guys often wear out before they get the massive amount of experience that this guy will want.

MENTAL AND CULTURAL: This one's harder. Slums often provide incentives for "hungry" young men to take up boxing, but too much poverty cuts down on sponsorship and nutrition. Our hypothetical perfect boxer probably comes from a downtrodden minority in a generally well-to-do, first-world country.

Yet he should also be a student of the game and a perfectionist. No Roy Jones flashiness here -- he should be technically sound but adaptable like Hopkins or Moore. A trustworthy, old-school trainer would do wonders here.

I don't know whether resistance to concussions is incompatible with high intelligence, but I suspect that it isn't. So we'll say he's smart. Again, this is mostly genetics, but we can also assume some sort of wise mentor like D'Amato who instructs him on the finer points.

MANAGEMENT: Probably should get VERY extensive amateur experience, where it's safer and easier to make mistakes. Once he enters the pros, lots of ring experience and sparring would help him keep an edge.

STYLE: The guy needs to be able to hit hard and box well. To achieve optimal results, he needs tons of experience. This, in turn, means that he can't wear out quickly. Being able to avoid punishment and inflict lots of it himself would probably help reduce his wear-and-tear. Swarmers need not apply.

His style should age well. It must depend more upon subtle shifts and traps than speed, youth, or aggression, since otherwise his skills may deteriorate faster once the initial decline sets in. No one, not even abnormal people, can stay young forever.

Taller fighters, as mentioned above, have an advantage.

 

Yep. Just posted a few preliminary thoughts above.

 

Seriously, though -- I suspect that Roy's abilities owe something to a genetic gift rather than just intense training. He reacted very, very quickly.

With that being said, training from childhood would probably help, yes.

 

I thought you were going to say "Duran deserves a mention", but this works too.

 

Psycho dad it is, then. As long as he doesn't get abused too much and become skittish.

 

I'm wondering whether "psychopath" might help, but that road is a double edged sword.

On one hand, low response to stimuli means that he's probably not going to get stressed out very easily. Calm and collected in the ring, plus probably higher pain tolerance.

On the other hand, I wonder if lower response to stimuli conflicts with blazing fast reflexes...