Your top 10 greatest Heavyweight of all time?

And, indeed, the statements of experts ARE evidence. It's called testimonial evidence, and experts in a field are permitted to give their opinions as evidence.

 

At 34, I ran a few 4.35-4.4 40 yard dashes at a football camp. It was probably about as fast as I ever ran, at least over those short distances. I only really noticed a decline after a couple knee injuries playing basketball.

There are guys like Troy Douglas, a sprinter out of Holland, who clocked a 10.27 at 41 years old or Johnny Gray going 1:43 in the 800 at 36. These are rareties but so were Foreman or Walcott.

My point is that it is possible to delay the sharpness of the decline while in the meantime, mastering a different skillset (the pace management style of a Hopkins) that can lead to high level success. You need the luck of the genes in this one but it does happen.

 

I don't disagree. I just don't think a 35+ year old athlete will be better than he was at 25 physically.

 

Not on raw athleticism, no.

But boxing is so much more than that, so much... infinitely more than track or many sports which are closer to being a pure expression of speed and power...

 

Yep, I agree with you. Did I give the impression that I thought otherwise somewhere? :huh

 

Nope. Actually this conversation was begun on another thread and seemed to carry over here.

 

I'm really surprised so many more people have Ali as their #1.

 

Well, it's not proof, but it's certainly evidence.

I got bored... For the curious:

Average age of Annual Ring Top 10 P4P:

2013: 33.7 years.
2008: 32.9 years.
2003: 31.6 years.
1998: 27.7 years.
1993: 27.5 years.
1989: 26.2 years.

No cherry picking; I started with the most recent year and went back every 5 years (until 1989, which was the first year they did annual P4P).

 

Louis should be much closer, if not #1.