If I showed you footage of one of these men shadow boxing, and they looked awful, would it lead you to radically reevaluate your opinion of them?
POOR Quality Film, movement, speed and gaps in movement... MOST of the OLD Footage is just the same, but we KNOW it is NOT Representative of Real Life. we know that from the MINORITY GOOD Footage that show Boxers from these Era's RIGHT, some can't be right and Most others aren't... I myself, have posted many examples of the odd Good Quality Footage and the Fighters look perfectly normal, as you would expect them to look.
So if Greb's shadow boxing session had been filmed in modern, HD quality... would that have made him look any less silly?
Greb has the greatest resume in the sport relative to his era. Are we thus to believe that Greb's era was a million times worse than that of Floyd and Manny?
Possibly, I won't contradict you there. No, but it was way way worse nonetheless. The level of boxing was nowhere near.
Why do you suppose? These guys were beyond full-time boxers. The amount of rounds some fought are mind-boggling. The conditions they performed in were downright medieval. They had few of the benefits of scouting and prep that modern fighters take for granted so they had to develop a style around this itinerant career path.
Yes, they were full time boxers, but they simply lacked the skillset modern boxers possess. It's just the way things are, sportsmen evolve, boxing is no different.