The Biggest WHAT IF THEY Were Both in Prime

[McGoorty]

I bet it's condomboy.

I think it's a race between two candidates,..... both of them hate pre=70's greats, and he's getting back at me because I win all of our debates with logic.

[Sugarj]

Prime for Prime alot of these fights are tough calls:

Holmes vs Tyson: I edge Holmes by close decision over 12 rounds but I think he has some serious scares over the first 6 rounds. You could not write off the possibility of early knockdowns in Tyson's favour pushing this the other way. In a 5 fight series I could see results being swapped.

Willard vs Johnson: I don't see this any way other than a dominant display from Johnson. I've seen extended highlights (or whatever exists) of their first fight and it didn't look close until the end. Prime for prime and over a reasonable championship distance this is a shocking mismatch.

Marciano vs Louis: This is almost too tough to call for me. Louis has just about every advantage except punch resistance and workrate. I'd favour a Louis decision in a very competitive fight with the possibility of a stoppage win if Marciano picked up some serious facial damage. This is another matchup where I could see results swapped if Marciano detonated with his suzi q at any point.

Corbett vs Sullivan: Different champions of different sports! I'd doubt that Corbett would be pleased about the idea of fighting prime Sullivan bare knuckle. But without greater video footage, in a gloved era over a reasonable championship distance Corbett has to be favoured for his superior boxing.

Johnson vs Jeffries: Johnson was just too far ahead of his time. Too skillful! Prime Jeffries greater conditioning would surely see him through more rounds than the 1910 debacle, but I think that he is still heading for a beating. Johnson could have ended the 1910 fight much earlier but chose to hold, prolong and punish Johnson whilst laughing and gloating. I once read an interview with Jeffries where he was asked how he would do if he were to have met Johnson in his prime rather than after that huge layoff. He answered that he wouldn't have found it any easier to get to Johnson even then. I think that says it all.

[McGoorty]

Prime for Prime alot of these fights are tough calls:

Holmes vs Tyson: I edge Holmes by close decision over 12 rounds but I think he has some serious scares over the first 6 rounds. You could not write off the possibility of early knockdowns in Tyson's favour pushing this the other way. In a 5 fight series I could see results being swapped.

Willard vs Johnson: I don't see this any way other than a dominant display from Johnson. I've seen extended highlights (or whatever exists) of their first fight and it didn't look close until the end. Prime for prime and over a reasonable championship distance this is a shocking mismatch.

Marciano vs Louis: This is almost too tough to call for me. Louis has just about every advantage except punch resistance and workrate. I'd favour a Louis decision in a very competitive fight with the possibility of a stoppage win if Marciano picked up some serious facial damage. This is another matchup where I could see results swapped if Marciano detonated with his suzi q at any point.

Corbett vs Sullivan: Different champions of different sports! I'd doubt that Corbett would be pleased about the idea of fighting prime Sullivan bare knuckle. But without greater video footage, in a gloved era over a reasonable championship distance Corbett has to be favoured for his superior boxing.

Johnson vs Jeffries: Johnson was just too far ahead of his time. Too skillful! Prime Jeffries greater conditioning would surely see him through more rounds than the 1910 debacle, but I think that he is still heading for a beating. Johnson could have ended the 1910 fight much earlier but chose to hold, prolong and punish Johnson whilst laughing and gloating. I once read an interview with Jeffries where he was asked how he would do if he were to have met Johnson in his prime rather than after that huge layoff. He answered that he wouldn't have found it any easier to get to Johnson even then. I think that says it all.

Good post,... but youre wrong about John L. Sullivan being more of a bare knuckle fighter. Sullivan ONLY had FOUR LPRR fights, In FACT John L. demanded that his fights were to be only Marquis of Queensberry rules. 9 tenths of his career were gloved fights, they had you sold on a myth, I assure you that I'm Right.

[Sugarj]

Good post,... but youre wrong about John L. Sullivan being more of a bare knuckle fighter. Sullivan ONLY had FOUR LPRR fights, In FACT John L. demanded that his fights were to be only Marquis of Queensberry rules. 9 tenths of his career were gloved fights, they had you sold on a myth, I assure you that I'm Right.

I suppose its because I tend to think of prime Sullivan being ten years before the 1892 fight.

I'm sure you are right about him having more gloved fights, but I'm not sold on the gloves being that well padded. Nor am I sure that all his bare knuckle fights were recorded.

I'll dig out some of my old books and refresh my knowledge on the guy though.

[McGoorty]

I suppose its because I tend to think of prime Sullivan being ten years before the 1892 fight.

I'm sure you are right about him having more gloved fights, but I'm not sold on the gloves being that well padded. Nor am I sure that all his bare knuckle fights were recorded.

I'll dig out some of my old books and refresh my knowledge on the guy though.

Judging by what I read this week he had four, but it was John L. who is most responsible for gloves being popular, he had gloved fights in the early 1880's. No the gloves were like 4 oz, so they were hard. Sullivan did not like to risk Gaol terms by fighting bare knuckles. Gloved boxing was NOT considered at all as real fighting. It was John L.s popularity that allowed him to fight with gloves, without him nothing would have happened.The man responsible for gloves was the Great Jack Broughton of the mid 1700's who wanted students to protect their knuckles. A brilliant Idea. it took Cricket until 1978 to provide helmets, but too late, Jeff Thomson had already done enough damage to skulls with 100 mph cricket balls. ---------------- I don't blame you about the Sullivan thing, it is only relatively new to me too.

[The Surgeon]

I like Tyson over Holmes but i think Larry showed enough in the fight that they did have to prove he'd have been at least a real handful for Mike. I see a distance fight with Mike coming out with a close but clear points decision perhaps scoring a KD along the way

Louis id like to think would put it on Marciano in his younger years and stop him with some of those vicious short range combinations on an oncoming Rock. KO 6-8rds

Johnson i fancy to outpoint Willard tho the bigmans size might still cause some problems down the stretch

Im going to go for John.L by KO over Corbett

I think a Peak Dempsey would have enough to get Tunney out of there but Gene would Always give him problems and i could easily see the result remaining the same

And i like Jack Johnson to remain the victor over Jeffries, probably on points

[gatorDelux]

one reason i picked tyson over holmes is cause they trained tyson for holmes.....

or so atlas says so ....

[gatorDelux]

who is condomboy?

[The Surgeon]

who is condomboy?

Was thinking the same thing lo

[StarshipTrooper]

who is condomboy?

Was thinking the same thing lo

SCTrojan ie. Trojan condoms