General fitness: Which atheletes are better conditioned than top boxers?

Seriously you people are really dumb putting Soccer/football/tennis and other sports as the fittest. The fittest athletes in the word and long distance runners. Anyone can kid play football 90mins easily and then go on to be world class. Less than .000000000000000001% 0f the world can train to go on to be world class marathon or long distance runner.

I dont give a **** how Ronaldo/ Nadal or Williams looks fit - Let me see them run 3 hours at an intense pace and come back to me.

The acid test is simple - give a kid a tennis racket or football and let them play with their freinds for 1 hour. Now the next day tell the kid to go run for 1 hour - i'd be surprised if he can do 15mins.

The reason why Marathon/long distance runners don't get the celebrity status is because few westerners are winning most races. And the few who do are glamorised - i.e Britains Paul Radcliffe. She trains every single day on Christmas day she still did 1 hour running and was out training 1 week after birth. She cant afford to have off days like those ***** footballers who go out drinking and smoking every weekend.

Just reading this thread confirms the narrow minded western thinking.

 

Any sport that requires prolonged periods of explosive activity will require a high level of overall conditioning.
Top level boxers certainly rank amongst the best conditioned athletes around. Naturally multi-event athletes like pentathletes and Gymnasts will be up there too.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned rugby players yet. They are often required to endure long passages of high impact activity.

 

Rowers, tennis players (maybe), long distance cyclists.

 

Rowers are animals.

Great to see Tennis players getting recognition. You need it all to succeed in that sport.

 

Your comment is not entirely true. If you're looking at endurance alone then sure, marathon runners and cyclists will certainly be at the top of the pile, but the thread refers to conditioning in general.

I have been running marathons and ultra-marathons for ages and I can honestly say that I found it much tougher to spar 8 rounds in the ring with a good opponent then to run 50 miles.

 

The answer is from a sport nobody has mentioned yet.

F1 Drivers.

 

I call BS on basketball, as I've played it all my life. You play for about 2 minutes max before there's a pause in activity. And you get breaks from playing all game. And most of the time, you just slowly jog from one spot on the court to another, especially if you play zone ball. At any rate, what constitutes a 'best conditioned' athlete? Best conditioned at what? Every sport requires you to use different muscles and stamina in different ways. Overall, I'd say sports of tennis, triathlon, wrestling, and boxing get you most 'fit'.

 

:deal

 

What like knock him out? With punches..

But trust me, if you ever shadowbox/spar properly and throw punches properly you'll see how much it takes from your legs, it's more than you think.

 

My record in chess club was like 5 wins- 18 losses and 12 draws. Brutal. There is no single sport that would have a lock on being the most conditioned athlete. Because everyone on this topic seems to want to point to the outliers (both best and worst) in the respective sports that they're mentioning. The answer is it depends. There are too many factors to consider. Explosive strength, stamina, durability, endurance, technique, raw speed, the list is endless.

 

Boxers are probably at the top, and pretty comfortably too, in terms of power+endurance; I suppose gymnasts would fall into that category. Basketball players are probably the most fit out of the "major" sports. You need explosive power, stamina, finesse (heck, even someone like Shaq had really good finesse for his size), etc. Watching a bunch of 6'6+ people run around like gazelles is something cool.

IIRC, motocross riders might not necessarily be powerful, but they haven't been mentioned and they should. Their heart rate (sustained) is over 180 bpm for 10~ minutes at a time. That's actually pretty freaking nuts.

 

the absolute best rugby players yes.

but the sport has been so niche that the vast majority are fatboys who think they are better than they are. Even at international level, whole teams from countries competing in so-called international cups are an appallingly conditionned set of middle aged fat baldies.

I absolutely deplore the university niche of rugby [players with their delusions of grandeur about themselves - but when you turn up to watch them, they are huffing and puffing and stopping after running half a length of the field. Bunch of utter fools, though inevitably theres a few good uns in the pack.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK5TQSKmS3o

I win monther****ers!!!
Chess ****ing boxing. :deal

My friend was a "pro" BMX rider and his legs and arms were in exceptional shape for a guy who drank all day and never worked out.
His jump ability far exceeded everyone we knew including basketball enthusiasts.