Do Modern Boxing Fans Write Off Old Heavyweight Too Easily?

Guys I know many of you love the old-heads too much to admit it, but if we are being 100% honest here, Marciano would legitimately get beaten to death by Dubois.

 

It depends on how far back take the 1960s-1990s they still stack up well in most debates.

 

Like who fights at the pace Usyk with great technique that weighed 210-230 in boxing history? Only Holyfield and Norton for my money. Ali and Frazier and maybe Holmes come sort of close. But Ali really only had good stamina at 210 and Frazier 200lbs. And Holmes and Ali used to take breaks and not fight 3 minutes a round in their primes.

Pre-1960 there's no one

 

I think old heads write off modern boxers more often.

 

Except in his own time Marciano's manager chose not to put him in with the 6'3 no1 contender Valdes and also skirt around the similarly sized Baker. These guys weren't that good and Marciano should have won, but they were swerved because the manager didn't like the risk of putting a smaller man in with a bigger one.

 

I seem to remember James Toney, a former middleweight champion, moving up to heavyweight and doing quite well/more than holding his own. Roy Jones, Jr. was 156 as an amateur, won his first belt at 160, and managed to win a title at heavy. Chris Byrd fought at 165 in the Olympics and went straight to heavyweight as a pro. Moorer was 175 for a while. Spinks was 175. Of course they gained weight, but the point being is that naturally smaller men always have and still can fight bigger guys and do well. It is possible that they could do it at 185 - 190, but they just haven’t tried it of late.

 

It should be first noted that while every heavyweight was a middleweight for some part of their life, it doesn't mean anything. No one comes out of their mother weighing 210lb and their mothers can be thankful for this. Jones Jr and Chris Byrd were weight drained and consequently battered when they moved back down. They were not LHWs in the ring anymore.

None of them were fighting the elite big guys either and Toney was on steroids, which certainly helped him have neck and trap denisty to absorb and roll with the HW punches. And now he's slurring all his words. Toney seeminly ducked the Klitschko's, although I'm unsure of the backstory

Jones Jr weighed 193lbs in clothing. But his speed, power and defensive ability is unique in LHW boxing history. And then we only have him against Ruiz. Jones wanted past prime versions of Holyfield and Tyson. But wouldn't face the Klitschkos IIRC. There was talk of Lennox fight but it was seen as laughable.

Spinks beat an old Holmes and a shot inactive Cooney and then stayed away from the rest of because his management thought it was safer to cash out against Tyson.

Adamek and Eddie Chambers also deserve mentions as 2 of the smallest guys in the last 20 years. They did okay in the fringes of the division as gatekeepers to the top 10 or so and were brave enough to get in with the Klits.

Then you have Patterson who went to HW to play for all the chips and did very well against good HWs of the time but the bigger better ones dominated him. It should be noted around this time Bob Foster fought between LHW and HW. Foster just didn't have the strength to keep the HWs off him and not just Ali and Frazier but Terrell and Folley too. This was the last generation where LHWs would take on all comers.

 

I wrote the long post defending the old heads and I agree Marciano would get beaten to death by Dubois. Marciano has the shortest reach of any HW contender in the 140 year history of HW boxing. Hundreds of people. Marcianos like life on Earth could only succeed in very specific conditions.

Marcianos not a stand in for fighters of the past hes a unique case.

 

This. Dubois is strong and has power, but he's green and makes so many mistakes that a master like Bivol would exploit all day long. Dubois would have a very hard time landing anything clean on Bivol and at the same time Bivol's handspeed would also be a major problem for Dubois.