No; that is not what I said. I said that most great heavyweights fall within it just now. Lewis and Wladimir both fall outside it (at a guess; it's not something i'm actually going to spend any time looking it). Not hopefully; definitely. Even if boxing only lasts another 50 years, there will be more great heavies. Things don't need improving. It's in your mind.
if being "harder to beat" is as high value as being "great" then there is nothing wrong with heavyweight boxing right now. i just dont think fans in the future are going to chose watching the reign of klitchko over the reign of Joe Louis.
There's great for being "great" and then there is great for "being hard to beat". which do you like best?
It's not rocket science to work out why fighters are that bit heavier for their height than they were back in the days of Louis and co.....
If adding weight helps increase chin then why did Jake Lamotta get knocked down at light heavyweight but not middleweight? He fought Sugar Ray Robinson like 5 times and plenty of other great fighters including Marcel Cerdan. They couldn't floor him once.
Being hard to beat is absolutely unarguably the key to being great. You are right about that; just as fans in the future aren't going to watch the reign of any defensive specialist over the reign of the greatest puncher in the history of any other division.
Nardico* Not really. Robinson was a better puncher at middleweight than Nardico was at light heavyweight. Robinson probably hit harder than Nardico h2h anyway. Outside of Lamotta, Nardico didn't knock out really anyone of note other than Reynolds who was at the end of his career anyway. Just like Lamotta. So no Nardico did not hit harder than Robinson.
If that was true just as many people would watch a motorcycle being smashed up with a hammer as they did to watch Evel Knievel trash his bikes in stadiums. the end result is the same to the motorcycle.
I agree. being hard to beat is essential to greatness. There are great fighters who simply put were great. These guys ultimately did great things, great to watch, and were great at being hard to beat. Then there are those guys who wound up being great only because they were so hard to beat. It's just not the same. yes nobody will prefer to watch a magnificent defensive specialist over a hacker v Hearns type fight other than real students of clever boxing, but at least they are enjoyed by somebody. This SHW period is the dark ages of boxing history.