May 1973 ~ 'Heavyweight Rankings'

[Max Power]

There you go again degrading Foreman as a plodder and Ali as just a punch bag.

You think today's fighters are superior because of their weight.

You are wrong.

No I don't, I consider Foreman inferior to todays plodder sluggers, because he was a far lighter, less powerful, slower and less skilled and less defended version of them and he proved himself against far smaller and worse opponents.

I consider Ali inferior to todays skilful opponents because Ali had no punch by comparison and could not defend himself against a punch either, where as today's skilled oppoennts can bend around shots and not get hit often and can counter far quicker.

I consider both inferior to the champ, because of BOTH reasons combined.

They were both smaller, less athletic and less skilled than the average Klitschko opponents overall, let alone Klitschko himself!

I do not mean that they were all 3 of these at once. Foreman might be stronger than some opponents and Ali might be faster or more skilled than some opponents. But the TOTAL PACKAGE of Foreman and Ali was generally LESS than the TOTAL PACKAGE of the average Klitschko opponent (let alone Klitchko himself, again).

Today's heavyweights are not more athletic, just because they weigh more. In fact a lot of them have poor technical skills that they should take up another profession.

This is where exact clarity is needed and exactly where nostalgic fans overlook it..

There are sluggers with less skills, and skilled fighters of lower calibre in all eras. The champs of all eras have generally combined both features accounting for their success.

At HW you can be a chubby or an athletic boxer, both types can be successful at HW and always have been! It's boxing, not running!

The ATLETIC boxers today are more athletic than the ATHLETIC boxers of yesterday.

There are skilled boxers in every era and less skilled ones which make up for lack of skills with other qualities in every era, today and yesterday.

The SKILLED boxers today are more skilled than the SKILLED boxers of yesterday!

The problem with you is you like to make inappropriate comparisons like prime athletic Muhammad Ali to Chris Arreola in terms of athleticiem, where the correct comparison would be David Haye. (who is more athletic by far).

You also would try to compare the skills of Kenny Norton to those of say Lucas Browne, where the correct comparison would be to someone like say, Bryant Jennings.

If you want to make a comparison in size, you should compare someone like Frazier to Povetkin or Stiverne (who are also better skilled)

Of course the simplest comparison is champ to champ. Klitschko is bigger (by far), more athletic (by far) and more skilled (by so far it's beyond a joke).

I look at the total quality, the big picture. You seem only be able to focus on a single attribute at a time.