Joe Joyce vs Rocky Marciano

But how many “athletic monsters” did we see before heavyweights began to fail drugs tests?

 

What is your theory, exactly? That all athletic, muscular big men in sports are presumably on steroids?

 

My time in this forum has convinced me that a lot of hardcore classic boxing fans would benefit greatly from learning more about basketball and American football.

 

Why?

 

How many times have we seen Foreman, Lewis, Bowe, Wlad, Wilder, Joshua fail drug tests?

We have seen the wee folk like Toney and Holy (all but) fail them for sure.

 

This is what Joe Louis looks like at a 1lb difference from Deontay Wilder:

https://imgur.com/a/e1NTi

 

Rocky v a 6'3", good punching, mobile southpaw.Yep great fight.

 

Innocent until proved guilty. I accept that. We must also accept the scope for cheating when Frans Botha, Hughie Fury, Tyson Fury, Ortiz, Tony Thompson, Pulev, Povetkin have all failed tests. It puts suspicions on the others dosnt it?

 

agree, and replace southpaw Mildenberger with big, fast, southpaw Usyk in 1966 and heavyweight history might be completely different.

 

The difference being Ali was also 6'3"and had a longer reach than Usyk, was faster with a great chin and was 204lbs for that fight.
Usyk was 200lbs for Breidis.
Whereas Rocky 5' 10.5" with a 68" reach ,was typically 185/7lbs , was not fast, and was susceptible to cuts.Mildenberger was the first rightie Ali faced as a pro [Dunn was the 2nd] .
Did Marciano meet any? I don't know.

 

Consider that we didn't really have drug tests of any value until the past 20 or so years.

If there's no test, there is no failed test.

 

Usyk's reach is listed at 78", we know Ali's was also 78", it was measured on Wide World of Sports by Dundee. Usyk weighed 206 for a fight in 2013 so he cuts weight to make 200. Usyk would be a bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled southpaw than Mildenberger.

Usyk, a big, highly skilled southpaw would be a test for anybody, especially fighters prior to 2000 who seldom faced a southpaw. He and Gassiev will both be tough fights for any of the current heavyweights when they move up.

 

I find it funny that we're putting Joyce against Marciano at all, and what's worse, the thread has lasted 13 pages. Regardless whether what you think about size and "modern training", sometimes matchup are just silly to even ponder at certain stages, and this is one of them.

 

But like I said at the beginning The Americans were the tallest nation walking the earth until about WWII ...then other parts of the world caught up.

Even now, According to stats, Neither the UK, Polish or Russian populations have noticeably surpassed the height of the Americans. They’re recorded as 5’9”ish as well.

Non boxing nations like Montenegro and the Netherlands are taller than Americans. So let’s wait and see how many champions they churn out?