Please point to the guys on the list I have been harsh on with "skills" in deep advance of a modern boxer?
It's difficult because many of them weren't actually renowned for them were they!!
But I'll take the liberty of selecting Walcott. He has been termed, the "defensive" one of the bunch.
Let me tell you, he was good but Chris Byrd, he wasn't, and Byrd would have been BIG compared to him as well!
Now I'm not arguing with size altogether, that is 1/3 of my angle. I am saying that the total package that all those fighters represented combining size, athleticism and skill was less that what is required by the modern division.
How could it be otherwise?
What about say, Sultan Ibragimov? Could you really see Sultan being seriously challenged by Sonny Liston? I seen that guy weave into a fucking giant wall of muscle and chop him down like he was nothing! Yet slo-mo Liston is somehow magically gonna catch him with one of his mail order shots!
Chris Arreola! HA! Imagine a guy the size of George Foreman but 20lbs heftier and with good stamina, faster, punching in combination and with real skills and an even better chin, THAT'S Arreola! And how do you suppose Mr. Muhammad would "rope a dope" this man??
I tell you how, he'd jump through the ropes and fuckin run for the friggin hills mate and forget all about ever taking up boxing as a profession.
And please I hate to bring it up, but when Arreola was beaten by Adamek, Adamek WAS a HW. He was in fact the same size as the HEAVY 70's version of Ali (the guy I give credit to a bit). Adamek was also a 7 time world champion boxer! before moving up to HW and he did not do it in Ali style by flipping around the place avoiding a fight, he did it by effective counter-punching.
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