If you could bring back one non-titlist heavyweight to shore up the era...

Lyle.

And bring Quarry back at cruiser.

 

The Hurricane Peter McNeely!

 

Yeah Tua in his prime is a good shout.

 

Prime Golota would be fun.

 

This...

 

' Life is like a box of golotas, you never know what you're gonna get' . Golota would be a handful at the top right now! Until he had his customary brain melt.

 

Well, in the traditional sense, yes he would have been small to match up with the current guys. However, that is not how I look at fantasy match ups for fighters of vastly different eras.

In general, I believe most of today's fighters in any weight class would top the fighters of 1940, to pick a random year. Overall, fighters now are more athletic, with better nutrition and training and, in a lot of cases, better technique. To me that doesn't matter. I believe you have to consider the bout based on skill and accomplishments within the boxer's own eras and not on time machine travel where a fighter from the past is suddenly transported to 2021 with his 1940 body type and skill set.

If Oleksandr Usyk was fighting in 1910 against Langford he would probably be three inches shorter and weight 30 pounds less. He also would not have had all the amateur training to have honed his skill set. If Joe Louis was fighting now, he would most likely be bigger and stronger that he was then. You really can't know what it would have been like if they fought each other as fighters from the same time frame. The only true way you can judge a fighter is by how good they were within their era when they were on equal footing with their contemporaries.

Based on how good Sam was during his time, Langford would give all of today's top heavies a real run for their money.

 

As far as the current British Heavyweight scene goes I'd like to see how far the likes of Joe Bugner could do in this era. Also to a degree Henry Cooper, even though he'd probably make Cruiser in this era.

 

Ike Ibeabuchi and Zora Folley

 

Tua or Lyle to test the chins, a slick boxer like Jimmy Young would be interesting as well