Which recent 160 pounders could have been a Harry Greb or Mickey Walker?

:thinknot sure if they qualify as recent but i'd say jones and hopkins could have with proper nutrition and conditioning

prior to that, hearns could have with careful matchmaking

 

J, the obvious answer is ,"if they could have, they would have ".
Truly because of Greb's unique style of blinding speed, toughness, and stamina,and Mickey Walker's bulldog tenacity and strength,which made
Walker able to absorb the cruel punching of a prime Max Schmeling,they broke the mould after their retirements.
These two along with a Barbados Joe Walcott, Jack Dillon[the giant-killer],
Henry Armstrong,were only a few great fighters,able to cope with men much larger than themselves....

 

very much agreed though a modern shout out should go to pacquiao:good

 

I agree J :good

 

Pacquiao would beat Jean Pascal's ass lol:

 

Styles are all wrong, but the slick and savvy James Toney and Roy Jones are perhaps the most successful ex-160 pounders to fight fights at 200 pounds or more, and do so to win...

MR.BILL

Guys like Greb and Walker of the 1920s would not enjoy fighting Toney and Jones of early Y2K when both men were 175 to 200 pounds depending on the opponent and fight, etc...

 

I think i disagree with this statement.

We currently have four champions in virtually every single weight division. One of those is good enough to unify the titles and therefore make an awful lot more money than they already do. Very few will. Some of this has to do with changed times and circumstances more than ability.

Obviously i am not saying that any fighters currently are as good as Greb and co. Nor they could do exactly what they did. But with regards to competing and beating top heavyweights, i think there are definitely plenty.

I think light heavys speak for themselves. At the moment we see Adamek, a very good but not great or unbeatable light heavy step up and compete as a heavy. Moorer is another. In fact, i cant think of (except arguably foster) of any World light heavyweight champions who have not competed decently at heavy when they tried.

James Toney competed with some top heavyweights and won the world cruiserweight title. He was in far better shape as a middleweight than in some of his heavyweight fights and much younger. I find it astounding that some people think that the middleweight version of himself could not do what the heavyweight version did.

And if Toney could do this, why couldnt Hopkins, they were not that far apart in ability in fact some probably think Hopkins is a better fighter. I suppose then it gets really difficult. Several fighters fought Hopkins and Toney at the lighter weights and were not completely outclassed, who is to say that some of those could not cause a few surprises.

Roy Jones, Chris Byrd, are two former middleweights who not only won world titles at heavyweight, but followed these by dropping back to fight light heavyweights and had less success and were beaten. Is it really certain that the whole reason they lost these fights was because of weight drain and not old age. Is it not possible that their opponents would have beaten any version of them (at that age) .


There are other examples. Roberto Duran as an old man was competive against cruiserweights. Do you not think that the lightweight young version of himself would beat the old version of himself? Tommy Hearns was another. In fact nowadays, when good fighters move up to Heavyweight, they do so at an age where they are so old that they have little hope of competing in their own weight division. In fact it is quite astounding, that they can go up in weight and compete against cruisers or Heavyweights at all. It is even more bizarre that some people think they can do it at this age and so overweight but not in their prime and at their best weight.

In reality, there is no doubt that the heavys are the best fighters, but if the top 10 heavys at the moment had to fight the top 10 Light heavys, middles and welterweights, yes the heavys would win most fights, but there would be some upsets in there.

 

Good post, boiler.

 

"they don't do it because they don't have too"

thats right and you make a good case for some of todays fighters competing with bigger fighters, it's still a shame they didn't do it in their younger lighter primes...

however the single biggest fact which too many people forget or conviently leave out is "the demands of the times", fighters fought more often and at top level and up against bigger men, because they had too!!!

and as I've said many times that changes a whole lot
- these men never have to prove themselves again, it's been done and sealed for all time!

on the other hand how many of our modern greats, with their hand picked opponents, fighting 2 times a year, not month, a year and fighting below your natural weights, would still be the top boys (?),

trust me many would have fallen away and the modern history would be full of different names, some that might even surprise, simple perhaps because they were more durable and made for the rugged long haul.

anyway, using the same RJJ who got exposed for having a questionable whisker, well with a much busier run against honest top men and fighting bigger when he wasn't, well I think the same great RJJ is one fighter who would have been a fizzled out hopeful quite early on in his career!