Former HW Champions Who Could, and Could Not Compete in Today's Era?

FightGuyOpenMind said:
The guy was 7'0. I've seen the shorter guy outbox the giant, but Ali was an outside fighter. I think he'd be fighting the wrong fight. His size may have been bad for Ali's style.
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Valuev was slow as molasses, Ali was a lightening bolt by comparison and he was smart as hell. He could work out a way to box up Valuev. Ali would pick him apart even if he couldn't stop him.
 
FightGuyOpenMind said:
Good assessment. You think Smokin' Joe would do good with his style? I've heard arguments that his style wouldn't have crossed over to the modern era well. Too square, and too flat footed.
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Joe could move his head really well though. He could be a nightmare to catch for some of these modern heavies. I think he'd make a lot of them look stupid.
 
JayE said:
Holyfield was clearly a smaller man than Ali
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How was Holyfield smaller? They were pretty much equal.

JayE said:
I'd actually say that Ali was clearly a bigger man than Haye is (ignoring when Haye tacked on a bunch of pointless muscle late in his career), and it goes without saying that he's levels above Haye.
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Again, David Haye is the same size as Ali. I think he would give Ali trouble style wise as he was fighting off his back foot. Ali wanted you to come right at him... Chris Byrd would be a difficult fight for Ali as well.
 
defjaam said:
How was Holyfield smaller? They were pretty much equal.
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Holyfield was 6'1" Ali was 6'3". And Ali had a slightly longer reach at 78". So Ali was a bit bigger than Holyfield. Weight wise Holyfield packed a lot of muscle on his smaller frame but still weighed the same as the much less muscled Ali so that's why I think Evander was the smaller framed man.
 
aries said:
Holyfield was 6'1" Ali was 6'3". And Ali had a slightly longer reach at 78". So Ali was a bit bigger than Holyfield. Weight wise Holyfield packed a lot of muscle on his smaller frame but still weighed the same as the much less muscled Ali so that's why I think Evander was the smaller framed man.
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Holyfield was 6'2 1/2 officially, Ali was 6'3 officially... Ali said in severel interviews though that he's 6'2, which you can find on Youtube... So they're pretty much the same height.

Here you have Ali's reach measured at 78:



And I'm pretty sure that Ali gained muscle too during training. Ali weighed in between 192-195 pounds for the first 10-15 fights of his career... It took him years to get up to 210 pounds.

In the ring they would look similar to Ali vs Norton.
 
defjaam said:
Holyfield was 6'2 1/2 officially, Ali was 6'3 officially... Ali said in severel interviews though that he's 6'2, which you can find on Youtube... So they're pretty much the same height.

Here you have Ali's reach measured at 78:



And I'm pretty sure that Ali gained muscle too during training. Ali weighed in between 192-195 pounds for the first 10-15 fights of his career... It took him years to get up to 210 pounds.

In the ring they would look similar to Ali vs Norton.
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There is a lot of divided opinion on how tall Holyfield was and it seemed to be that he was regarded as 6'1" by most that have looked into it and the 6'2.5" was overstated. Yes there isn't much in their heights but Ali was slightly the bigger man.
 
aries said:
There is a lot of divided opinion on how tall Holyfield was and it seemed to be that he was regarded as 6'1" by most that have looked into it and the 6'2.5" was overstated. Yes there isn't much in their heights but Ali was slightly the bigger man.
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Didn't look like there were 4 inches between him and Bowe / Lewis. More like 3.
 
Usyk is going to answer all of these questions about the big guy v the little guy
 
Lol at people saying guys like Holyfield and Tyson wouldn't do exactly what they did in their own era.
 
Today's HW era is a sorry show. The HW greats, minus small guys like Marciano that wouldn't be HWs today, are the greatest to ever do it. Just watch the guys fight. Wilder can barely string together a 1-2-3. Joshua is a robot. Fury could fight in any era because the man is big and can box, but his lack of a consistent KO threat means punchers can hang with him. Not a complete fighter in today's HW division.
 
B0mbSquad said:
Today's HW era is a sorry show. The HW greats, minus small guys like Marciano that wouldn't be HWs today, are the greatest to ever do it. Just watch the guys fight. Wilder can barely string together a 1-2-3. Joshua is a robot. Fury could fight in any era because the man is big and can box, but his lack of a consistent KO threat means punchers can hang with him. Not a complete fighter in today's HW division.
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I'd have to agree with that. The one thing that's weird though is that a lot of people come out and say NOW that Wilder sucks, as if you couldn't see through the years. He always was terrible.

A rusty Fury beat him with his B-game after three years of drugs, alcohol and food.
 
defjaam said:
I'd have to agree with that. The one thing that's weird though is that a lot of people come out and say NOW that Wilder sucks, as if you couldn't see through the years. He always was terrible.

A rusty Fury beat him with his B-game after three years of drugs, alcohol and food.
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Don't excuse Fury. He looked as good as he ever has. Wilder has immense power but he's more puncher than boxer. Smokin' Joe would have ended him with that left hook. I can see him slipping that lazy, exaggerated jab and POP! Wilder is on the canvas.
 
defjaam said:
How was Holyfield smaller? They were pretty much equal.



Again, David Haye is the same size as Ali. I think he would give Ali trouble style wise as he was fighting off his back foot. Ali wanted you to come right at him... Chris Byrd would be a difficult fight for Ali as well.
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Holyfield was shorter and had a smaller frame. It's pretty clear-cut. Haye is shorter (he's like 6' 1'', maybe 6' 2'') and clearly has as smaller frame, as well. He's also not close to the boxer that Ali was.
 
borntoloseNOT said:
Lol at people saying guys like Holyfield and Tyson wouldn't do exactly what they did in their own era.
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They'd probably do more, as their eras had a fair bit more depth.
 
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