If you were a young boy, what all time great would you like to be taught by how to defend yourself?

Great post Kid. Yeah, when younger, I probably would’ve opted for Ali also.

With exposure to more footage, Louis became my more favourite fighter and it would be awesome to be able to emulate The Bomber’s power punching technique.

As to Lil Arthur, his grappling might not have been strictly boxing as we know it today - but damn, he was so good at it and I love the way he nonchalantly locked up his opponents - and that kind of skill would help in the street. Old Jack was a very cool cat.

 

Dmitry Bivol.

 

" defence always wins in the end,if its good enough."Johnson.

 

Realistically, I'd much rather receive self-defense lessons from an MMA fighter.

 

The thread title reminds me …

When I was a little boy (when I was just a boy)

And the devil would call my name (when I was just boy)

I say now who, who do you think you’re fooling? (When I was just a boy)

I’m a consecrated boy (when I was just a boy)

I sing in a Sunday choir

My mama loves me, she loves me

She get down on her knees and hug me

Boy, she loves me like a rock

She rocks me like the rock of ages

She loves me

She love me love me love me love me

 

Jack Dempsey and John L would most likely destroy many MMA fighters at there own game.

 

thank you, but my answer was a paradox. because, of course, i would not know what i know today, if a was a young boy right now. and i sure wouldn´t search for advice from an old retired fighter like chris eubank, who would be as old or even older than my father.

so if i answer the question exactly as it was asked, the answer is unspectacular and mundane.
if i was a young boy (today), i would probably simply turn to the most popular, loudest and best known of today´s champions, which would be ... tyson fury.

 

Chris Byrd, the art of not being hit plus a southpaw stance with the ability to beat much bigger fighters than himself. As a kid I read he trained in a room that was no larger than a sparring ring, with his back against the walls just as though he was fighting off the ropes. One tough hombre, the only knock was when he went down to light heavyweight, the weight loss made him weak.

 

Sure, that’s how I understood it on first read. That’s why it though it to be such a good post -

We can take the OP question several ways.

One of those ways could be that it is allowing for an old head, in part, to be placed on young shoulders.

I guess the question itself can be viewed as paradoxical - since it requires us to at least know enough of about all the ATGs (as we do now) in order to choose one and then have them teach us from an early age, during our formative and most impressionable years.

If I was a literal young boy now I don’t even know if I would find the sport compelling enough to follow or even know any of the names going around now. Lol.

 

I'd expect the old timey boxers to be able to destroy modern boxers in a street fight due to the level of grappling they did, but a good MMA fighter is going to be better than any of them on the ground. Of course, you set a boxer up against a MMA fighter, there's always the chance the boxer takes the MMA fighter's head off before the fight ever gets to the ground.

For a pure street fight, I'd think John L would be a total beast with his bare knuckle prowess and his greater grappling ability than a normal boxer.

 

What about Mikey Tyson? 1 left hook to the head 2 right cross upstairs 3 left uppercut 4 right hand uppercut 5 left hook to the body 6 looping right hand to the body 7 jab to the chin 8 jab to the solar plexus !

 

If I wanted to learn to be a boxer and a good man and a gentleman, I’d choose Archie Moore. I cannot think of a finer example to want to follow, nor a better teacher.

If I wanted to learn how to survive in a bar or street fight, I might choose Tex Cobb. He seems the type who would know how to handle himself pretty well in such settings and wouldn’t bother with a lot of niceties.

Not to mention, it would be a hoot going to train with Tex and listen to his stories and his infectious laughter.

 

“9” - A nibble on the ear? Ouch!

 

It would be very cool to hang out with Ben Dover.