Quote Originally Posted by landmine950
Quote from hulk "
"Also Why the fuk did you say Chris Byrd was twice the boxer of prime Ali, as another poster has you sayin in his sig, why would you say something so stupid? Little off topic, but I just gotta ask."

I just gotta answer.

I just feel that in general, modern athletes are WAY better than guys in the old days. People seem to look back and see Fighters as wayy.. better than they were. If some old fighter was so great then EVERYONE he fought must have been great too. Rocky Marciano fought 49 times. The guys he fought had 600 combined losses. THEY were bums!
Modern athletes are so much better it's not even funny. Ali was great in 1970. This is 2007. Chris Byrd would beat him easily, in my opinion.
Boxers today are FAR FAR better than old boxers.
I remember when I was 21 years old (1980) I bench pressed 440 pounds . The world record for under 200 lb body weight was 497 and the Unlimited record was 612 held by Bill Kazmier. The record went to 661 then 705 then 750 then 805. now its over 900 lbs!!! BENCH PRESS!!!! Its the same for every sport. Football players now weigh 300 pounds and are faster than running backs from the 60's in the 40 and 60 yard dash . A big strong lineman was 250 pounds. Now O- linemen are 400!
Even College teams have 10 guys over 6'6" and 330 lbs, bigger than ANY player in the NFL in the 60's and those are just the guys who made the team! In the Olympic javelin throw they had to redesign the javelin because guys were throwing it into the stands!
Look up any athletic contest that has a long history of record let's try ....say the mile run.
History of the World Record for the Mile Run
Time Athlete Country Year Location
4:36.5 Richard Webster England 1865 England
4:29.0 William Chinnery England 1868 England
4:28.8 Walter Gibbs England 1868 England
4:26.0 Walter Slade England 1874 England
4:24.5 Walter Slade England 1875 London
4:23.2 Walter George England 1880 London
4:21.4 Walter George England 1882 London
4:18.4 Walter George England 1884 Birmingham, England
4:18.2 Fred Bacon Scotland 1894 Edinburgh, Scotland
4:17.0 Fred Bacon Scotland 1895 London
4:15.6 Thomas Conneff United States 1895 Travers Island, N.Y.
4:15.4 John Paul Jones United States 1911 Cambridge, Mass.
4:14.4 John Paul Jones United States 1913 Cambridge, Mass.
4:12.6 Norman Taber United States 1915 Cambridge, Mass.
4:10.4 Paavo Nurmi Finland 1923 Stockholm
4:09.2 Jules Ladoumegue France 1931 Paris
4:07.6 Jack Lovelock New Zealand 1933 Princeton, N.J.
4:06.8 Glenn Cunningham United States 1934 Princeton, N.J.
4:06.4 Sydney Wooderson England 1937 London
4:06.2 Gundar Hägg Sweden 1942 Goteborg, Sweden
4:06.2 Arne Andersson Sweden 1942 Stockholm
4:04.6 Gunder Hägg Sweden 1942 Stockholm
4:02.6 Arne Andersson Sweden 1943 Goteborg, Sweden
4:01.6 Arne Andersson Sweden 1944 Malmo, Sweden
4:01.4 Gunder Hägg Sweden 1945 Malmo, Sweden
3:59.4 Roger Bannister England 1954 Oxford, England
3:58.0 John Landy Australia 1954 Turku, Finland
3:57.2 Derek Ibbotson England 1957 London
3:54.5 Herb Elliott Australia 1958 Dublin
3:54.4 Peter Snell New Zealand 1962 Wanganui, N.Z.
3:54.1 Peter Snell New Zealand 1964 Auckland, N.Z.
3:53.6 Michel Jazy France 1965 Rennes, France
3:51.3 Jim Ryun United States 1966 Berkeley, Calif.
3:51.1 Jim Ryun United States 1967 Bakersfield, Calif.
3:51.0 Filbert Bayi Tanzania 1975 Kingston, Jamaica
3:49.4 John Walker New Zealand 1975 Goteborg, Sweden
3:49.0 Sebastian Coe England 1979 Oslo
3:48.8 Steve Ovett England 1980 Oslo
3:48.53 Sebastian Coe England 1981 Zurich, Switzerland
3:48.40 Steve Ovett England 1981 Koblenz, W. Ger.
3:47.33 Sebastian Coe England 1981 Brussels
3:46.31 Steve Cram England 1985 Oslo
3:44.39 Noureddine Morceli Algeria 1993 Rieti, Italy
3:43.13 Hicham El Guerrouj Morocco 1999 Rome, Italy

Its self evident isn't it?

Boxers benefit from the same kind of improvements In health ,nutrition,larger pool of athletes to draw from, training etc.etc.
I don't dislike old boxers. A gold medal in 1960 is a great thing but only a fool would say that the gold medalist in 1960 in the mile race or shot put or javelin or what ever was better than the 2004 gold medalist. You'd looklike an idiot. A track time from 1960 wouldn't get you a spot in a high school track team. (current high school mile record is 3:53:43 ! better than the world record from 1964! The year Ali beat Sonny Liston.) 1965 is a LONG time ago. The improvements athletes have made in every sport are obvious, Why would it be any different for boxing?
Damn you're 46 now!
But seriously now, you cannot compare running to boxing. Running, and times are pretty straight forward, boxing does is not so simple. Boxers are unique athletes, in a complex sport, where many differnt variables play out. But no matter what, Ali would KO Byrd, there's no doubt bout it. So does that mean that Wladimir Klit would KO Ali and George Foreman, and Fraizer and Liston too Cmon man, Gimme a break!! And you were benching 440, I find that hard to believe man. Did YOU weigh under 200lbs as well? That is an extradordianary amount of weight to bench press.