Max Baer -With Modern Training And Discipline?

He was too crude. A modern Max Baer would have more success than a Wilder since he was more durable BUT his technique was crude.

In an alternate universe, Max could have developed good boxing skills under the right coach but then we are talking about a completely different fighter and not the actual Max Baer as he existed.

In the modern era, he would win a belt and beat some top guys but he would also lose to elite fighters.

 

No twitch. A smaller Mariusz Wach.

 

All those guys are in different orbits than Baer. And they would all destroy him.

 

Nothing changes the fact that he was a small heavy who liked banging filmstars and goofing around more than he liked thinking about boxing technique. He was big for his day and well built, but nowadays most heavies are his size or over and often even better built. It's hard being "the big man" as the small guy.

 

Giving him the former would be easier than giving him the latter.

 

If Max was around today he would find the same distractions maybe more. His problem was he was undisciplined see interview with his son. (Son also said he got a bj right before right before the Braddock fight). If he had stayed in the gym and worked at his craft the way Holmes and Spinks did and became a skilled Wiley technician he could have given Louis a run for his money instead of a pathetic effort. New or old training not helping it wouldn’t change what was in his heart.

 

And now I respect him more.

 

I legit laughed out loud at “Banging film stars and goofing around”

 

The OP is asking for a laser focused, well trained version of Baer, not the same easily distracted version that we know. With an early enough start, and the right trainers in place, he'd obviously have to be better than the actual version of him that we've seen. What would that look like exactly? Not sure if he'd be closer to Gerry Coetzee, or a slightly better version of Vinny Madalone. He'd probably be entertaining either way.

I think the problem with Baer, even a focused, no nonsense version, would be his defense. I can't think of many fighters at all that had absolute crap defense early in their careers, and improved to the point of being average or better in that department. Defense for the most part seems to be an instinct that fighters either have or they don't...and Max showed no signs whatsoever of having it, and I'm not sure there's any amount of training that would have sufficiently fixed that problem. I do believe that a focused, well trained Baer may have held on to the title for awhile in his own era if Joe Louis wasn't around. Even with his defensive liabilities, his size and power should have been enough to beat a lot of the rhythmless stiffs that passed for title challengers around that time.

 

He had the power, chin and the grit for the game so you never know.

 

Ok so since we re at it why don’t we give him 6 inches in height so Fury doesn’t have an advantage. Let’s let’s extend his reach 4 inches same thing so Fury doesn’t have advantage. We could give him leather like skin so he doesn’t cut.
Not trying to be a wise guy it’s just once you start changing characteristics of the fighter you can literally make them into whatever you want. It’s impossible to know what would have happened the variables are infinite unless you just want to write the script and make it whatever you want. It’s hard enough to say how would Baer from Canera fight do against Chuvalo from from Quarry fight. But at least there you can look at the videos and compare them also look at tale of tape common opponents etc.

 

I get what you're saying. It is very difficult to say what a focused Baer would have looked like, since he just wasn't that guy in real life. We're just left to guess, just like with all the other imaginary scenarios on this board (inter-era match-ups, etc) .Him finding some sort of discipline and focusing on the sport would have at least been a possibility though, unlike tacking on 6 inches to his height, so the OP's question isn't that outrageous, at least IMO.

The Braddock fight is a good example of Baer just screwing around and squandering a winnable fight. We're just left to guess what a focused Baer would have done. I'm guessing he would have been good enough to at least reverse that outcome anyway.

I do think he underachieved in his own era, but you're right, very difficult to say what he might have looked like with more modern training, fighting Tua and the like. He wasn't completely without tools, and I've wondered myself what he may have looked like if he was more serious about it.