Was there any boxer in history more athletic than Mike Tyson?

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

Athleticism... Hmmm that's a toughie but a great question at the same time.
Because athleticism is something that IS entirely measurable, I think I might of devised a crude system of assessing & comparing a fighters Athletic ability.

To begin with... I could break this down into two main categories:

Hand Speed over Punching Power & Strength over Mobility which I shall name Balletic Ability (I think I'm naming my own abilities here )

If you use these two categories to comprise separate lists of fighters and then cross reference those two lists, it should look something like this (these are just vague examples btw):



Hand Speed over Punching Power The amount of power delivered with speed or visa versa but with no bias to either
1. Mike Tyson
2. Manny Pacquiao
3. Roy Jones Jnr
4. Shane Mosley
5. Naseem Ahmed
6. Sugar Ray Robinson
7. Muhammad Ali
8. Floyd Mayweather
9. Sugar Ray Leonard

Balletic Ability remember that this is my comparative assessment of a fighters strength over his mobility, no bias to either
1. Muhammad Ali
2. Roy Jones
3. Floyd Mayweather Jnr
4. Naseem Ahmed
5. Sugar Ray Robinson
6. Manny Pacquio
7. Sugar Ray Leonard
8. Shane Mosley
9. Wladimir Klistchko

I think becuase Boxing is primarily a combatant sport, in relation to cross-referencing the two categories, the bias should naturally favour ''Speed/ Power'' as supposed to ''Balletic Ability''. With that being said, a list of the top athletes in boxing (in no order) would appear to look something like this: (Again, this is very vague)

• Roy Jones Jnr.
• Naseem Ahmed
• Sugar Ray Robinson
• Shane Mosley
• Muhammad Ali
• Manny Pacquiao
• Floyd Mayweather

Now, where it becomes very interesting is where & how you establish the bias with regards to weight. By that, obviously I mean how you distinguish between fighters of different weight divisions.

This I would do by utilizing a new catagory; Stamina over Weight. This is simply because IMO it is acceptable to assume that the fighter who is able to consistently carry the highest level of Athleticism (consistency in form of any kind) while having to carry the highest amount of bulk on his frame should be deemed the most Athletic P4P.

So with that in mind, the most obvious picks for me would be:

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Roy Jones Jnr.
3. Manny Pacquiao/ Sugar Ray Robinson can't separate the two

However, if were were speaking in terms of simple Speed over Power then Mike Tyson is your man

[Truth]

a bit off topic but since people have brought in athletes from other sports HERSCHEL WALKER how many people do u know who built up a frame like that by doing bodyweight excercises and to reply to an earlier posts saying that you need to be more in shape to play football than box is criminal. Football requires little more than the need for a slight ability to be able to recuperate in the 30 seconds between each play. Boxing is much harder because it taxes the aerobic system as well.

[generalbulldog]

a bit off topic but since people have brought in athletes from other sports HERSCHEL WALKER how many people do u know who built up a frame like that by doing bodyweight excercises and to reply to an earlier posts saying that you need to be more in shape to play football than box is criminal. Football requires little more than the need for a slight ability to be able to recuperate in the 30 seconds between each play. Boxing is much harder because it taxes the aerobic system as well.

Exactly. Boxing is an hardcore cardiovascular exercise. Let's stop comparing NBA or NFL players to boxers, it's two different sports. NBA and NFL players while being athletic for their sports also get significant rest time, with only playing half of the time, in spurts, having timeouts, halftime as in the case of the NFL and in the NBA it's not like they are running 48 minutes nonstop, they also get little bit of extended breaks like when a foul is called, timeouts, halftime, ball being out of play, etc. In boxing they are constantly moving with their hands held high and also throwing punches for 3 minutes, with a short 1 minute rest between rounds. IMO boxing is just more taxing when it comes to cardiovascular activity, not to mention the damage the body accumulates from the opponents blows.

Just because a guy does well in a particular sport does not mean he does well in another, you can speculate all you want, but that is all it is speculation. Everyone remembers when Michael Jordan tried to play baseball? Everyone was saying he's going to be greater than Babe Ruth or just as good and that baseball would be easy for him to play because it's not physically demanding as basketball, well how did that work out?