Which one of these past champions would have the hardest time today?

He was also a guy who was easy to tag with his style. If he fought a more lateral movement style, then it'd be different, but walking right in makes him a punching bag; a skilled one, but nonetheless.

 

Tyson was extremely subtle with his elbowing, Holyfield was even more sneaky and adapt with his head, hence why he got away with it for decades.

Marciano... Crude. Violent. Not too terribly subtle. He elbowed, hit below the belt, and could headbutt himself. Neither of the above did all three on a regular basis.

If there wasn't a very lenient ref and the order to let the fight get rough in Rocky's interest, I think he'd get DQ'ed here and there.

 

Johnson would have a massive problem getting fights.. Everyone would just get the DVD , see what he brings, and say NO THANKYOU.. he is the Number 1 member of the who needs em club...............

He would be like a needle in a haystack...... Hard to find..

 

I will go with the concencus and pick Johnson to be the most handicapped in a modern era.

Joe Frazier and Marciano, both possesed styles and workrate levels, that would at least give them a good chance against superheavyweights. Johnson's main asset was his size over smaller opponents, which would be virtually moot in today's heavyweight division. In fact, he'd be facing men who would literally dwarf him, and were arguably stronger. His holding techniques, in an effort to wear down his opponents, would not only be to no avail, but would likely work against him. Lastly, as already mentioned, the rules of his era were too dissimilar to those of today.

 

Rocky Marciano.

 

Thank you. I've pointed this out in past threads, that all things being equal in these hypothetical matchups that why shouldn't the greats of the past also have access to modern advantages in training and fighting techniques as well? An Emanuel Steward training Max Schmeling and tweaking his style and giving him extra added strategies to impart to his game, for example. It swings both ways in these mythical, "what-if" bouts of the imagination that we indulge in.

 

The obvious answer is, because now you're no longer talking about " the greats of the past, " but rather something that you're trying to morph them into, making hypothetical matches meaningless.

 

I am confident that any of them could clean house today.

 

Not one of them would find it difficult, those guys had more heart in there little finger than what the whole division has today. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a numpty.

Mind you imagine Jack Johnson fighting Wlad Klitschko that would be the most boring fight in history (yes even worse than Wlad klitschko's last turn out)

 

If they sought out FDA approval, they could easily market DVD's of that fight as the safest, most effective cure for insomnia imaginable.

 

Johnson IMO.

He relied largely on the fact that he was bigger than most of the heavies of his era and had somewhat "ahead of his time" skills.

Marciano would have the easiest time IMO because he'd be fighting in the cruiserweight division, and a rather indistinguished one at that.

 

If we're talking 2008 then none of them. The HW division is in a sorry state. I recently watched a rerun of the Peter/Toney fight and was disgusted at what I saw. Two overweight slobs who threw pittypat punches at each other all night and were exhausted doing it as well. If we're talking about the 70's/early 80's then I think all of them would have a hard time due to the quality of HW's from that era(except Frazier of course...I'm talking about Johnson and Marciano). Be that as it may, if we could take all three and time travel them to today then I would have to pick Johnson from a stylistic perspective. He certainly had the size and strength to cope even though he would'nt be a big heavy today but the way he fought would be problematic against a big skilled man with a good jab aka Lewis or Vlad. Leaning back like Jack did might make it a little difficult to reach him but it would be even more difficult for Jack to reach them as well. Frazier and Marciano would find it easier with thier ducking and crouching to get underneath and come up punching whereas Jack is going to have to reach to try and catch a fighter like Lewis or Vlad. Even though Jack is bigger than both Frazier and Marciano, his style(Leaning back with chin exposed) might give him problems against a skilled big man even with his good reflexes. Boxing was alot different in Jack's day than today. Little jabbing and alot of holding. In the HW division back then it was a waiting game for the most part and in todays fast paced world people wouldn't appreciate that style of fighting even though it had it's merit Jack would have to tweak his style abit and get a little more busy. A modern ref wouldn't allow all that holding. If he can adapt his style a little bit then he does very well given his natural ability.

 

Marciano would be murdered at heavyweight ...

Johnson would be a better Chris Byrd ... stronger and harder hitting ...

Frazier would kick ass ...