Roland Lastarza V Today's heavies?

Its hard to say, How big was the Klitschko's father from the pictures he looks to be around 6 ft, I dont know about Bowes father or Lewis or Rolands son today

 

My father was 6-5 and couldnt jump over a piece of papet. I am 5-11 and jumped 6-7.

Explain the logic.

 

Well in reality they were all less than 230 in their early fights apart from Vitali. And that's WITH modern training.

Give them the boxers training programme and diet of the 1940s I would expect they would all be debuting at even lighter than that.

I have personally met Tony Tucker and Frank Bruno in retirement and they were thinner and lighter since their training days. Lennox Lewis is thinner too.

I can't think of a former heavyweight who wound up thinner or smaller in retirement before the super heavyweight era.

 

I'm talking at fully matured points in their careers. Ali fought as low as 188 or so early on but in prime was a natural 212 or so. As far as post career every athlete that no longer trains tends to loose muscle or gain fat or both.

 

ALI was a big man but for the Cooper rematch in London he got down to 199, he was fully matured by then. How heavy do you think Ali would be now if he boxed in this era with the big gloves, shorter rounds and body builders training programme and dietician?

ALI fighting at 200lb as a champion does not make him a cruiser. He just trained the way they did then.

 

How tall was your mother, you may have gotten the shorter more athletic genes

I have seen sibling where all the children were taller than the parents and then one child is as short as the grandparents....those genes pop out and they may be the stronger genes.

For the most part people have children that are taller with every generation unless there is a large contrast of height between the parents

I just took a genetic test, it gives you a breakdown of your genetic history going back 30,000 years but the best part of it is you can check your mutant genes, it can be helpful in finding some of our genetic strengths and weakness........It is pretty new to me but interesting and it is a field that has been making great strides

 

Here's the thing with these kinds of threads.

Since the mid 70s at least, no contender has had to clean house to be successful and get a title shot.

If you are as well managed as LaStarza he didn't even have to do that in the 50s, a time when most contenders notoriously were matched up agianst each other in a never ending cycle.

Povetkin has been the long time #2 guy behind Wlad or his brother, he's achieved this by stay busy against journeyman and fringe contenders, and along the way has beaten the likes of Byrd, Chambers, Chageav, Huck, and recently Takam.

I see no reason LaStarza couldn't match this run, though I think he would lose to Povetkin in a close fight and would be vulnerable to the odd upset, he would probably still hang around the ratings and get a title shot. He's good enough to stay above water against the fringe contenders and journeyman of this era.

 

good post I agree :good

 

Povetkin didn't beat "fringe contenders or journeyman (sic)" by staying busy. He beat a 27-1 recent beltholder in Ruslan Chagaev, a hot undefeated prospect at 30-0 in Eddie Chambers, another very recent beltholder in Chris Byrd among some servicable trailhorses... all within his first 21 fights. It's the most impressive run to contendership in the division in recent memory.

 

You pick him to beat Chris Byrd, who fought much better fighters and held his own with pretty much almost all of them , why ? How do you qualify it ? What fight or performance are you making this claim based on ?

 

How many post 1964 fights did Ali fight at 200 or less ? IT is clearly recognized that the 60's championship Ali was a 210 to 212 fighter .. why he was so light for a fight, who knows what happened .. average out his title bouts .. also he was clearly still physically maturing at 24 for Cooper ..

 

Based on what performances ? No one answers this .. other than the first Marciano fight which some think he won but many don't , what's his biggest win, a split decision over Rex Layne ? Hardly a major list of accomplishments .. who did he beat ?

Now you want to talk about a mismanaged fighter that had the possible best shot, match up wise against Rocky based on size and style we should all think of Earl Walls .. the man was tall, had a huge reach and was a monster two handed puncher .. he destroyed Layne. There was talk ( or so I read ) about a match up w Rocky but his (Marciano's) management wanted no part of it .. risk/reward for sure ..

 

LaStarza had some good wins prior to the 1st Rocky fight with wins over Cesar Brion,Gino Buonvino,Keene Simmons,Ted Lowry but beat Dan Bucceroni in the rematch and had the win over Rex Layne who had beaten Ezzard Charles 2 fights before

Earl Walls had been Ko'd in 1 round in 1950 by Abel Cestac (who Archie Moore stopped) then lost to Jimmy Slade, he had some good wins but split 2 fights with Tommy Harrison (who had lost to Bucceroni and Ezz Charles) then split 2 with Edgar Romero (who lost to James J Parker and Joey Maxim in the same time frame) Then Walls fought a draw with fellow Canadian James Parker in1955 (who was already KO'd by Bucceroni,just lost to Nino Valdes and was stopped by Archie Moore in 1956

 

Hi mcvey; your hyperboly (sp.) is noted.
But Roland would have been a bit bigger and these newbies would have been smaller in the 40's and 50's, simply a matter of fact.
I've seen film of LaStarza, in training and in fights.
Good that you've brought him up in a thread.
Great technician, with a good punch, at least good enough to keep the big boys off of him for awhile.*
I always like to tell folks he was the only fighter to beat the Rock (at least on one judge's scorecard)
Not saying Roland would have beat Rock in the rematch but Marciano was winging his shots and low-blowed Roland on more than one occasion.
*Always thought a Young-LaStarza scrap would have been a chess match pvp and...given the eras difference.

 

Excellent point. Getting a fighter ranked has more to do with shrewd management and timing than it has to do with actual ability.
Who in the heck has Wilder fought to be ranked as high as he has?

And that said, LaStarza may do better than some anticipate. While obviously we cannot project him to be larger today than he was, there is no reason why he could not add some bulk for increased robustness. I think he has better skill than most of the contenders today to be frank; all he lacks is bulk.

He won't beat a Klitshcko, but he could certainly be a relevant name in this era, matched correctly.