From what I recall, a lot of Levinsky's footwork was primarily backward, even if he circled a bit. Either way, his footwork mainly consisted of him moving away and waiting. Nothing wrong with that but it's not in the same ballpark as the mobile jabbing and punching of guys like Holmes, Tubbs, and Williams, etc. Watch and see if you can spot the differences. You seem to be ignoring most of what I wrote in my previous posts...
Is that what you see here? This is the first minute of the first round: https://streamable.com/bc2d What I see is Levinskys footwork here being lightyears better than Page or Coetzee.
Sorry for not looking at your other examples yet. I only have so much time, and I will try to check them out. Levinsky doesn't look better than Holmes. But the era, or some kind of evolutionary discrepancy is not the cause of that.
Most of those Baer punches aren't sharp at all. He's not getting leverage on them and they aren't having any real impact. More importantly though, Baer would get eaten alive if he tried to fight the more modern fighters with that style. Eating jabs like that is a huge liability against 220-lb men who can jab, throw fluid combinations, and move while using head movement and angles. His style would be tailor made for far "less great" heavies of more recent years. This is where the evolution of the sport is most obvious. No offense, but I honestly suspect that you'll see a lot of the older fighters' offensive techniques in a less favorable light as you progress in your own training (especially if you spar).
Again, a detriment of the footage. Those jabs are definitely doing damage, and keeping Levinsky off of him. Baer punched like Foreman. He was a slugger that didn't need to lean into punches. Nobody would ever accuse Foreman of throwing punches that have no real impact. Saying that about Baer is incredulous. Baer didn't use the same tactics for Carnera, who could jab. He demolished him!
And yeah. I'm fully aware that I still know nothing about boxing. I never will. And I will always keep an open mind. I'm just expressing what I see, and pointing to the content and material that gets me to arrive at those conclusions. I have a feeling that as I box more, my opinions will only get more validation. But I'm not ruling anything out. Golovkin doesn't quickly bring his fist back when he punches. I think being a great puncher negates the necessity for things commonly emphasized in modern techniques. But again I could be wrong!