The last traditionally trained elite heavyweight?

Old time training was more sophisticated than generally allowed, pre-1900 fighters had dumb-bells, pulley weights, special diets, sprinting, handball(alley, for hand-eye cordination) wrestling, spas, wood chopping, LSD running/walking, it's not like humans suddenly got brains in the 1980's, just more scientific and , moniterable.

 

Andy Ruiz

 

Personally, I think that it started in boxing in a meaningful way, in the 70s, or perhaps even the late 70s.

As with any other accusation, the burden of proof falls on the accuser.

I am certain that Sam Langford beat Hall of Famers, from lightweight to heavyweight, without ever touching steroids, or even knowing that they would later exist.

Even today, I never label a sportsperson a drugs cheat, unless they fail a test, or there is economic evidence of them buying steroids.

Having said that:

I am a keen ultra runner, and at one race I met a woman who had been a professional cyclist, who had trained with Chris Froome.

She had been winning races occasionally, but she was losing more than she won.

One day she was told:

"You need to take some stuff, or you will not advance in this sport!"

Instead she chose to quit, and run ultramarathons, with idiots like me!

 

They were taking LSD and running (or walking)?

 

You probably can't completely rule it out from the 50s on, because they theoretically had the opportunity.

Put it this way, I think that it is highly unlikely that Lennox Lewis stole the gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in 2019, but I cannot assert as an absolute certainty that he did not.

I can assert as an absolute certainty, or as near as makes no difference, that Jack Sharkey didn't steal it.

 

Haha, LongSlowDistance!

 

Andy Ruiz by the looks of it

 

Ali abused thyroid medication to artificially boost his metabolism. He was trying to lose weight.

 

Sugar Ray in his autobiography, if I remember correctly had something he admitted to, in one of the Basilio fights. Read it 9 months ago.
Might have been a painkiller, will check, book not at hand.

 

Tyson pre-prison seemed to do old school training, but it's hard to rule out steroids since they were rife in sports in the 80's and there weren't any testing in boxing.

Marciano is probably the last elite HW that I'd feel certain to rule out steroid usage for. It didn't seem to be a thing in the early 50's in the US at all. But by the 1960 Olympics the weight lifters popped it like candy, so it's hard to rule out with any certainity that it didn't spread quickly into boxing and other sports as well.

 

That's actually a great answer.

 

Amen to that!