If Armstrong Had Become a Four Division Champion...

see the above posts by myself and more importantly by stonehands.

 

If Henry fought today he would be 20 weight champion, all jokes aside, he was special.

 

What gets me is how skilled he still looks on film.

His mix of defence and attack even today looks staggering and not many guys from 80 years ago stand the test of time.

 

Skill, or technique however you put it has largely been lost when you look at modern day fighters.

Look at Toney success despite being out of shape most of time and you get an idea how a Charles or Walcott would do now in the heavies.

Watch Khan, whilst physically very fast and sharp, has no real boxing skill of any value and this is why Peterson was able to crowd him and win that night.

Joe Louis was another, even Jack Johnson on tape you can see the insane skills he had.

R. Duran was awesome, in fact when you think about good technically some fighters were and what you see now its a total shame.

 

atsch Sorry. I didn't read much posts in the thread before mine before posting. Still, Armstrong beat him before and that rematch doesn't diminish anything from Armstrong's already great before career. Thought he won anyways.

 

JC Chavez too and I like when Sanchez is at his best he blends the two beautifully aswell. Not forgetting Gomez either.

 

There's more of an emphasis on style over substance now which probably comes from the amateur program rewarding pitter patter.

In the 20's boxers seemed to get a lot better. Since then there hasn't been a huge jump apart from the size of the heavyweight.

I think that like for like today can compare fairly well (level of journeymen, level of contenders etc) but at the top level there's noone now who can rival someone like armstrong.

However we had jones jr and sweet pea in the 90's. They're two of the most skilled fighters in all of history.

 

Although I wouldn't question his MW title claim, I'd agree with you about Garcia-Armstrong II being overblown. Garcia had some pretty damn surprising wins (Apostoli, Marshall) but at 5'6 was more of a welterweight than a middle.