Would you consider Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield fitter and more athletic than 70s/80s fighters

Terms like "conditioning," "fitness," and "athleticism" get thrown around from time to time in Classic.

So I'm curious.

Would you consider Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis in their 90s incarnations to be fitter and more athletic than their predecessors in the 1970s and early 1980s?

 

It's an interesting (and ironic) question whether Old Foreman beats Holyfield in a fight to the finish.

Ironic because prime Foreman would have probably needed to KO Holyfield in 8 or he'd be choking on fumes.

 

My own contribution to the thread:

Lennox and Holyfield both competed in the "Superstars" competition in the 90s, which included running and weightlifting (apparently push-press/jerk) events. So did some 70s and early 80s heavyweights. You can find the whole list of links to a website that collected performances here: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...t-workout-routine.426652/page-8#post-21656210

Short version of their performances (sometimes estimated), by year. Note that some of the estimates assume that they chose to compete in all the events --


Lennox Lewis

Push Press - unspecified, but 200 pounds at most (Year 1998)
Half Mile Run - 3:13.9 (1998)
100 Meter Dash - unspecified, but no faster than 10.59 (1998)
75 yard swim - unspecified, but no faster than 1:12.01 (1998)
EDIT: Not on regulation track, so results may not be comparable.


Evander Holyfield

Push Press - 220 pounds (Year 1993) 215 (1990) 240 (1989)
100 yard dash - 11.25 (1993) Unspecified but no faster than 10.7 (1990)
50 yard swim - 31.34 (1990) 30.5, 29.53 (1989)
Half Mile Run - 2:23.6 (1990), 2:15.6 (1989)


Joe Frazier

50 Meter swim - 1:42.05 (couldn't swim; tried anyway) (1973)
Push press - 160 pounds (arm literally couldn't straighten due to childhood injury) (1973); did 170 as an old man in 1982.
100 yard dash - 13.5 (1973)
Half Mile run - Unspecified, but slower than 2:36.6 (1973)

John Conteh

Clean & Jerk - 95 (pounds? Kilos?) (1974, 1976, 1981)
Push press - 220 (1977)
Standing vertical jump - 26.5" (1974)
Gym test chinups - 16 (1977)
Gym test dips - 35 (1974)
Gym test squat thrusts - 85 (1976)
100 yard dash - 11.81 (1977)
100 Meter dash - 12.0 (1974)
Half Mile run - 2:17.48 (1977)



Joe Bugner

Push press - 220 (1973) ("adjusted to body weight," whatever that means...but he's given 220 elsewhere, so I assume it's accurate)
Squat thrusts: 68
Parallel bar dip: 22


Ernie Shavers

100 yard dash - 10.64 (1979)


Jerry Quarry

50 Meter swim - 46.97 (1974) 49.5 (1975)
Push press - 210 (1974) 200 (1975)
100 yard dash - Unknown, but no faster than 13.06 (1974) Unknown, but no faster than 11.22 (1975)
Half Mile run - 2:38 (1975; noted elsewhere as "personal best"), Unknown, but no faster than 2:30.8 (1974)


Ken Norton

Push press - 220 (1976)
Half Mile run - Unknown, but slower than 2:21.25 (1976)
100 yard dash - 11.26 (1976)


Marvis Frazier

100 yard dash - 11.54 (1982)
Push press - 210 (1982)


Michael Spinks

Push press - Unknown, but under 210 (1982)


Mike Weaver

50 yard swim - Unknown, but no faster than 39.06 (1981)
100 yard dash - Unknown, but no faster than 10.01 (1981)
Half Mile run - Unknown, but no faster than 2:17 (1981) Unknown, but no faster than 2:11.95 (1982)
Push press - 210 (1982)
100 yard dash - 10.61 (1982, noted as "personal best" elsewhere), Unknown, but faster than 10.9 (1982)


Bob Foster

50 Meter swim - Unknown, but no faster than 41.44 (1974)
Push press - 140 (1974)
100 yard dash - 12.54 (1974), 12.46 (1974)
Half Mile run - Unknown, but no faster than 2:30.80


Bonus: Anthony Joshua

100 Meter dash - 11.53

Rudie Lubbers

100 Meter dash - 13.8 & 13.4
Long jump - 5.00
50 Meter swim - 47.5
Gym test - Parallel bar dips - 18


Jean Pierre Coopman

100 Meter dash - 14.2
50 Meter swim - 52.0
Parallel bar dips + squat thrusts - 25 bar dips, 60 squat thrusts
100 Meter dash - 14.2

Tim Witherspoon

Push press - Less than 250 pounds
50 yard swim - 35.61
Half Mile run - 2:36.22
100 yard dash - More than 10.4 seconds

Old Brian London (1981)

Parallel bar dips + squat thrusts - 18 Parallel bar dips, 54 squat thrusts

Old Floyd Patterson (1979)

50 yard swim - 1:16.85




...Make of all that what you will.

 

What I glean from the above is that you really don't see an overall quantum leap in athleticism from the 70s/early 80s guys to Lennox and Holyfield.

1973 Frazier is the outlier, with some very bad performances due partly to less than ideal circumstances. Amusingly, though, even Frazier does better than Lewis at the half mile run. Lennox, for whatever reason, didn't do very well at all in the 1998 competition, according to the webpage's numbers.

In terms of strength, Holyfield put up the best number of the bunch (240), but his 1993 figure (220) wasn't far off from what a lot of the 70s guys were doing. None of these heavyweights are unbelievably strong men by modern standards. Many of them cluster above the 200 pound mark. Holyfield had been coming to Superstars since 1985, by the way, and was a veteran competitor compared to everyone else in this lineup.

Shavers, Norton, and Weaver, IIRC, were former track or football athletes, and their 100 yard dash performances are better than many of the rest. Norton actually looks almost like a mirror image of Holyfield. Since both were fitness nuts in their eras, that makes sense.

All of this is subject to change if the actual footage of these competitions reveals something different. (For example, if Lennox was sick or something, Holyfield chose not to lift more weight because of gamesmanship, etc.)

EDIT: Lennox may not have competed on a regulation track, so perhaps that performance wasn't as bad as it sounds.