He probabily was...Ali was notorious for taking beatings in sparring. It's probabily where he got his incredible ability to take punishment from. I think the rigorous sessions he had in the gym did more damage to his health then anything else.
Not really matey, Arnie is the best one really. I'm a little out of the way here in blackpool. Kenny Anderson did incredibly well sparring with Froch in the run up to the Abraham fight. I cornered him for six rounds and though it was a fairly light spar he was impressive and that was part of the reason why I fancied him to beat groves. ... Frampton sparring with John Simpson was ****ing sensational- as was Tyrone Nurse sparring with Ricky Burns. Very,very good to watch- Simpson-Frampton more so genuine 50-50 stuff and thats not a slight on John- it was pretty special.
Bernard Dunne and Nate Campbell supposedly had a couple of wars when Dunne was training at the wildcard.
You have me interested a lot in the Frampton vs Simpson sparring now Would be good to see how Carl was doing in that match up against a top domestic fighter if not better in Simo. Not seen Nurse in a while now good to see he is keeping busy and getting quality sparring in maybe sky will finally show him soon.
check out nigel benn v duran and young de la hoya v chavez on you tube worth a watch i agree sparring is different kettle of fish and been told paul hoko always seemed to be saving that extra bit for the fight paul smith used to get the better of matthew hatton no suprise due to size and before vast improvement in matthew hatton witnessed by friend but smith got beat up by macklin(questionably source) although ricky hatton said that macklin was like a bear in sparring and ricky always knew he had to be on his toes i agree with alot of people who believe sparring is not always a true reflection as there have been 100s of fighters who have looked a world beater in gym and never achieve barely anything domesticly also relevant unknowns or novices getting the better or even spars with top world fighters off subject a little but danny williams by many even with his later sucess in his career is often regarded the biggest waste of talent thats how highly regarded he was in his younger days due to nerves crying before fights etc etc
seen some good footage of paul spadafora getting the better of floyd mayweather a long time ago.also james toney against a young danny green was quite interesting as well.no matter what green was throwing toney always seemed to roll with it agree with others here that sparring and fighting are not the same.depends on what different guys are working on at different times. got an old,old betamax of marciano . some footage that was found in an old television studio as it was closing down.there is footage of rocky and ali talking after their "computer" fight filming.don't know about a knockdown but ali did say that an out of shape 47 year old rocky really hurt him to the body and left him covered in welts when he got mad.said he must have been really strong in his prime.
Interesting how Anderson and Froch's spar is described as 'light' by Mr Jeff Thomas and Anderson did well yet apparently his ribs were all bruised which caused his loss to Groves. Which is it?