So we watch a past prime Dempsey who had not fought in 3 years ,boxing against one of the fleetest movers the heavyweight division has ever seen and that tells us Dempsey was stationary and slow? Dempsey chased down Fulton,Brennan 1st fight ,and Levinsky, and Norton 3rd fight and stopped them early . In his prime, he had fast feet and good lateral movement.
What has never been proven though is How (what you correctly call) a "240lb roid monster" fares under Jack Dempsey era rules, diet and training. I think what you are left with then is a guy who never beat the best in his own time, who never was proven in his own time, minus pounds of artificial weight against an all time great champion. The result might look exactly like Joe Frazier v Manuel Ramos With Ike playing the part of the Mexican! This content is protected
Ike was never a natural looking specimen in the traditional sense. He certainly did not train during an era where it was more advantageous for a fighter to be lean and mean. This BS notion that modern functional weight gain is cancelling out the all time great prowess of legendary champions needs to relegated to the tiny factor it should be. Especially when it's proven champion versus unproven prospect. We can no more prove fighters of the classic era were as big as they could be than prove the laughable idea that Tua or Ike were as small and as naturally developed as they could be in the roid era. If the difference between two boxers from separate eras is huge gulfs in level of achievement you can't bridge those gulfs with stuff that was not available at the time of one of the fighters. Yes, We have weight classes for a reason, but what if that weight is artificially achieved? What if the weight achieved in one era is more functional than weight achieved in another era? It means the usual argument of ruling out smaller fighters is not possible in a level playing field. The answer is to relegate the weight advantage factor of a bigger man as a lesser issue when the level of ability, proven all time acheivement is with the smaller man.
Ike shouldn't have won and he shouldn't be considered an atg beater because of narrowly winning a decision in a close boring fight.
You have the inability to accurately examine history. Don't get mad at others for your shortcomings. You are a classic case of someone trying to argue that their generation was better than all others.
not a fair match up. one guy had no clue about nutrition and weight lifting, let alone roids, while the other guy was a roided weight lifter. too much difference in size and strength here. like a lightweight fighting a middleweight.
This is true. it's often suprising actually how some of the strongest most muscular boxers don't have any special strength or power in the ring. I know some guys who have started out as muscle-heads, bodybuilders and powerlifting and are pretty good amateur and some are pro boxers (and, yes, they do 'roids I'm sure), hugely muscled for their weight class, and they just don't translate anything special in the ring. Boxing is boxing. Punching is punching. Weightlifting and bodybuilding have absolutely nothing to do with it all.
Artificial weight is the functional weight to height gain heavyweights have made since training trends changed. As guide I would say anything that does not make the U.S military weight requirements is down to modern training. Since until the 1960 -1970s a vast majority of in shape heavyweight champions met these requirements. They no longer do. Can you imagine a heavyweight champion not meeting military weight requirements on the day of a fight?
