Why doesn't Lennox have universal approval ?

Holyfield was definately on juice but Bruno was clean he was a fitness fanatic he used to do 4'000 push ups a day after his career was over

 

Well said.

Bottom line re thread title: A clean champion for the ages started young, peaked young, and garnered respect, a following, "universal approval" along that natural development process: Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Ali, Tyson.

Lewis was never - and will never be - such a hero.

Recent athletes, from Lewis, to Armstrong, to Serena, are "different". In all sports, performers are bigger, stronger, faster, longer-lived. Some key greats have excelled way beyond prime youth years; some have even peaked in old age. Is it all clean sports science? How I wish!

It's a testament to past greats like Ali, Tyson, Louis, Holmes, that, even with all the enhancements today, they would still kick butt against modern behemoths Lewis, Vitali, Wlad, Holyfield.

I suspect newer generations will elevate Lewis over Ali, though.

 

Lance was a monster in the saddle without the gear. It's just that the demands are that high it's hard not to take something to get by.

Lewis matured and apparently had a VERY good S&C coach. I doubt that he was on anything.

 

While I applaud the tone of the post and the nobility it suggests, every single one of the past greats you mentioned had access to numerous PED's (Mr. Louis had the worst selection, but there were still amphetamines, strychnine, and cocaine).

Even common steroids were available from Mr. Ali's career on, with no testing until the sport was already infiltrated for decades.

This is no recent phenomenon.

 

This is an extremely poor ****ysis. You're essentially saying you know for sure, when boxers started taking PED"s and who those boxers were. Prove it!

And with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, you've decided that Tyson for example was clean and Lewis wasn't. Again Prove it.

All you did was spew out biased hate with no ****ytical foundation, no proof, no nothing.

 

My point exactly, you can't simply draw a line in time and say those before this date were clean and those after that date were on PED"s, life hardly works this way. Rather if there were things fighters could do to get an edge in a fight, they've tried it since the sport began, this includes taking whatever PED's might have been available at the time. No every boxer would have taken them, but to try and separate those who did and those who didn't is a fool's game.

 

:good:yep

 

"Clean" is extremely subjective. Almost every elite athlete pushes the envelope for advantages he can have over his competitor. The various agencies decide (and change decisions) regarding what is permissible and what is not. Meanwhile, everyone is up to the limit they propose... and some just a small step over.

 

Louis was only given approval because he was the antithesis of J.Johnson. A black guy who wasn't, flash, brash, and escorting white women publicly in a racist society. His own government fuked him by giving him a tax bill for money that he GAVE to the US troops during the war, for decades afterwards.

Are you even aware the world has 7 continents, and not just the Murican one? Universal approval my ****. Of course Ali had such approval his own government took his living away for 3 years, and tried to lock him up.

And you seriously believe the rap ist has got universal approval? You must drink tequilla for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

:roll::roll:

 

Murican was on the Tommy speed dial for not one but two World wars, if Murica would have stayed out without any material, intelligence and troop supply you would have been fluent in German since the day you were born.

But I admit, the Brit Empire was pretty tough when facing barefooted savages and dealt with them accordingly in ruling their Empire. Now they are as soft as they come rotten from the inside out from socialism.

I do have a extensive library of Brit Big game Hunters from the good old days, Karamojo Bell, Sutherland and Pondoro Taylor etc etc , top guys in the professional ivory hunting days, fascinating reading and pictures.

 

And this has what to do with boxing??

And as a complete aside, you have nerve touting the Murican political system which is essentially dysfunctional by any measure.

 

BINGO!! This post is required reading !!!

 

Err ... no, I wasn't saying that at all.
I was pointing out that the WBC's public stance on allowing steroids was WAY out of step with the rest of the sporting world.

You know nothing about PEDs, so I won't bother.

Besides, I'm not singling out Lewis at all, so stop being so sensitive. :good

 

He also did cocaine after his career was over. ... and admits he smoke weed when he was boxing ...

 

To say, "every past great had access to PEDs", is misleading.

Sure, stimulants have ALWAYS existed in human history.

Anyone who knows heavyweight boxing history, though, knows BULK took a back seat to COMING DOWN IN WEIGHT - until the late '80s.

Two reasons: 1) championship distance from 15 to 12 rounds. 2) mainstream proliferation of PEDs: sports fans my age can recall how in the Olympics in the '70s, the Big, Bad Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc usually bettered U.S. athletes, no matter how hard the latter tried. It was a given that those hefty, sullen Communist performers were on the juice. But, note: as a general practice, PEDs were the province of the secretive East, and knowledge of their safe and effective use in high-performance sports was still being perfected.

In the '80s, PED use - like any worldwide phenomenon - evolved, and we eventually had Ben Johnson from Canada and American Florence Griffith-Joyner cheating in the '88 Seoul Games.

In boxing, old-school trainers - who always insisted weight training would cause muscle-bound issues - left the scene. With Rounds 13, 14 and 15 out of the picture, a new paradigm emerged: BULK! POWER! "ROCKY" REALITY!

Mr. Ali was Mr. Ali when under the Nation diet. As ALL past greats, who were so good all they needed was proper nutrition, he did not mess with pork nor any stimulants and poisons.

Let's not dump all past greats in with today's freak-show athletes and say the playing field and conditions have been basically the same.