Now there are a lot of hypothetical matchups between greats (esp the HW division) on threads. Now I have often wondered what are the rules. Since many of the modern greats would have watched footage of the past greats. Tyson watched all of Jim Jacobs video collection of past HW greats wouldn't they have an unfair advantage in a hypothetical matchup. Prime Ali or Marciano have no idea who Tyson or Lewis are. While Tyson and Lewis have probably grown up watching hours of footage of Ali and Marciano. When I think of a hypothetical matchup I always imagine the fighter from the previous era getting extra time to view the footage of their opponent. So one fighter gets 3 months training time and the guy from the previous era gets maybe 4 months just so its not so unfair and they can catch up on current events. It would be like the Klit brothers having to fight a future heavyweight who they have no clue or information about. Even if they are superior fighters the lack of knowledge about the opponent could decide the fight. One of the reasons I think prime Larry Holmes would have a great chance against 67 or 71 prime Ali is that he sparred with him for four years. Even if prime Ali got to watch al the footage of Holmes the sparring knowledge that Holmes had would help him a lot. While prime Ali hasn't sparred one round with Holmes. Holmes has so much knowledge about him he can use in a real match. Holmes also would have huge motivation to beat Ali as he was very resentful about how much more attention Ali got. While Boxers like Tyson and Lewis really admired Ali Holmes thought he was overrated and would love to beat him in his prime just to prove he was as good. While prime Holmes has more chance of beating prime Ali than Tyson in my opinion. I still can't see prime Holmes beating prime Tyson I just see him getting ko'd again. Sure if they fought 100 times Holmes I think would win some but not many. So when you guys do Hypothetical matchups do you have any particular rules like the past era guys getting up to speed on their opponents with videos of their fights or do they get into the ring without any knowledge.
I think that since most of the great fighters of the past worked in NYC, they would have been able to talk to someone that sparred that opponent or just go and see them fight at some point. That is what I would have done. Not to mention talking to trainers that definately would know everything to know about his fighters opponent. Those guys had to do thier homework. On top of that they fought each other more than once to prove mettle. One time was not enough in a lot of cases. Everyone has a plan until they get hit. Sooner or later you are going to have to fight your opponent if he is of equal measure. Once that line is crossed the fighter will have to listen to his trainer and his innerman to figure out the best way to deal. All I need to see is enough fights, enough times to get a good idea of how a fighter would do against another fighter.