Joe Louis vs Alexander Povetkin

That's the worst part - I can understand people who believe that size difference is too big to overcome, but posters who say that modern HWs are more skilled than Louis, Walcott, Schmeling, Conn, Moore or Charles... I just don't have the words for that.

 

He'd begin at LMW and take belts all the way to HW that is if we took him as he was. Billy would be the chosen one to end the forum wars about size vs skill!

 

Fury really does get lots of mileage out of his size. Without his towering height and heavy blubber to lean on people whenever he's hurt, it's not inconceivable that Wilder knocks him out in the first or third matches. Fury's entire style is tailored around his size and not the other way around.

 

I've followed the whole thread.

A match-up between Wlad and Schmeling has zero bearing on a match-up between Louis and Povetkin.

It's like bringing up Leonard vs Robinson in a thread about Hearns vs Gavilan. It means nothing, it's just connecting the two losses.

 

Rocky Marciano looked better in the ring to me in terms of overall skill honestly.

 

Look while I respect the fact you think Duran beats Napoles, Monzon would crush Hearns much easier then Tommy did Duran but still lose to Leonard who I think has a very good shot of beating Napoles.

 

The "eye test" is basically a lie.

The people who fall back on this argument, have the least understanding of boxing technique.

From there, the head to head criteria, becomes an excuse to play god.

They become the god of their fantasy universe, and if they decide the Joe Grim beats Sugar Ray, then they can simply assert that!

 

Walcott definitely has an argument for being a better "boxer", but he also lost to people worse than people Povetkin KOd in 1-2 rounds. Walcott looks absolutely amazing in terms of technique, but as an athlete he was very inferior to Povetkin. Undersized and not nearly as strong, despite having a better physique.

It's kind of the same with Baer, but flipped around. He was athleticly matched for Povetkin (due to Pov's secret sauces) but inferior by far in terms of technique.

 

He's the same height, if not just slightly taller. Povetkin is the only actually 6'2 guy in all of boxing, he's about the same height as Whyte, actually.

Clenelo is wrong on Schmeling though, I don't think anybody at my gym would have delusions they could beat Schmeling after watching him fight.

 

In fairness, Schmeling does have a very unmodern looking style. I can see why some who aren't used to seeing earlier boxers wouldn't like it because it looks different from what they know.

 

I think Pov might've been the best HW technician from 2016-2019. He was really brilliant, people don't realize how genius his boxing was. As an amateur he beat everybody he ever fought, won the Olympic gold medal, the World Championship, and the Euro. He was just an inferior athlete to Wlad by far and then as he aged his athleticism let him down vs Joshua. (Although I think 2014 Povetkin would have done Joshua in)

 

His loss to wlad had less to do with athleticism and more to do with an insane amount of excessive clinching and rough housing.

I do believe Wladmir might've won anyways, but if similarly sized guys like Brewster and Peter can give him such a hard time, I can definitely see Povetkin pulling something off if the ref actually docked points for too much hugging.

 

Pov was doing pretty well early on and would have done even better if Wlad wasn't allowed to clinch every time he got in. So I agree, he would have done a lot better, and he might have won. But early 2000s Wlad was very inferior to 2013 Wlad. Wladimir in 2013 would have beaten those guys without much trouble.