Quote Originally Posted by Andre View Post
Quote Originally Posted by greynotsoold View Post
I thought that the skill level in Vitali/Lewis was abysmal. That is one of the fights that hardened my heart against modern boxing, another being Mosley/DeLaHoya I. The HWs are always the least skilled division: that is why, historically, LHWs, even middles, think they can move up and beat them.
The Ks use distance well, and that is a huge part of being a good fighter. If they let a Marciano or a Louis control the range, they'd get eaten alive. The skill involved in such a fight would be the ability to maintain space vs the ability to close it. Dempsey feasted on big slow HWs so who knows. I belive that either K would have an easy night against Ali; he had trouble with a "tall" guy that jabbed (Norton) and either K is much taller and a better jabber (and fighter) than Norton.
I can see what you are saying with the distance thing.
Im probably a bit biased but I think old school were a tougher mix mentally and in upbringing that would make them step through to their desired distance and stick there, so I dont think long distance controllers would last there either.
Im of the school of thought that Lennox Lewis would have come to the same problem against a younger hungry harder Iron Mike for similar reasons.
Something that struck me in the Lewis/Tyson fight...In the first round, Tyson's best, he landed punches that, years earlier, would've ended that fight. But his legs were shot.
As to the older guys being tougher...Jack Dempsey said that, between fights, he enjoyed being a 'mucker' in mines. That meant shoveling rock into 1 ton ore carts for 10-12 hours per day. That makes for a hard man. (Incidentally, in the town where I live, in the early 1900s, they used to have a variety of 'miner olympics' type contests. One guy shoveled a ton of rock into a cart and then pushed it 50 feet in something like 40 seconds.)