What about their techniques? the shoulder rolls, the rising jabs and straight right hands? Wouldn't you have to practice things like that in shadowboxing/bags/mitts etc? And yes Hopkins, and Toney (Toney not so much later on) were big time gym rats. I know that Hopkins is also a big time tape collector and Bill Miller (the man who taught Toney everything) fed him a steady diet of old flims. Lots of Charles and Moore.

It seems like the thing to do is to immerse yourself in the world of boxing. Not just hitting bags and things like the other guys do, but actually turning your entire world into boxing so that you become a real full time student of the game.