Quote Originally Posted by hitmandonny View Post
Agred on Holmes, would've loved to have seen it.
It would have been excellent to see young Mike vs. Prime Larry as for me it would have given the young Mike that opportunity to truely prove himself.
As we know Mikes opposition at his peak was less that stellar.

Its an age old debate; old vs. new methods.
However, although fighters were extremely hungry back then, conditioning was simply not on the same level.
In other sports we see sprinters shattering records, jumpers going higher and longer, seconds peeled off old distance runs.
Modern athletes avail of a much greater knowledge on how to train the body and as a result competition is heightened.
Boxing has really only revolutionised in the past 20 years, but even in the amateurs, fitness is far more scientific nowthan in the days of Armstrong, pep and SRR.

That competition was commendable, certainly huge merit to his record.

We actually seriously differ here....I see Hagler take SRR out. Hagler in his prime...simply a force!
Duran may have been undersized for SRR, I'm not sure.

Ali's word is actually a viable arguement. He had a great respect for the man, which was representative of the huge respect and adoration that was held for SRR within the boxing fraternity.
Unfortunately my doubt lingers.

For me.....GOAT would be Pep
I think in their respective primes, I think Holmes is the better technical fighter & I think he outpoints Tyson in a fairly close fight, as if you can take a Shavers punch you can take Tyson's. However, I've often thought that he struggled with guys that maybe he should have dealt with better & quicker, perhaps because of a loss of concentration. Thinking particularly of the Weaver fight, & as high as I rate him, I felt that he lost to the only 2 real prime & elite boxers he fought in Norton & Spinks (although I think he won the rematch).

I don't think conditioning was on the same level, especially as they had less preparation time. I agree on the basis of scientific improvements to an extent, however, I think boxing has probably seen the least 'improvement' in conditioning in that it was always superior in most respects to other sports (not saying there hasn't been any, but skipping, padwork, bagwork, roadwork have all been mainstays for nearly a century). There were also of course no 'supplements' to aid their training back then

I certainly don't see Hagler taking SRR out, he had a solid chin & heart to get up when dropped, his only loss being as a result of dehydration in a fight in which the ref retired before he did. He was winning btw. I think Hagler would have given him a lot of trouble, but I see Robinson just edging it on the scorecards. I think he would have disposed of Duran handily as long as he's focused, the biggest problem he seemed to face in his prime was himself. Also I've remembered on the corruption, I believe the reason SRR struggled to get shots at the title was because he didn't co-operate with the mafia. Makes his record all the more impressive.

Have you seen more of Pep than SRR? Because I've found him difficult to find any footage of. I have heard the 2 of them fought in the amateurs. Nowadays that fight would get made at catchweight