Name 1 athlete from the NFL or NBA that you think could have been a boxing great

[mmp7]

Derrick Rose. Explosive, strong, great hand eye coordination, good feet. Honestly a lot of guys would be good as basketball players are the best athletes imo. if you can't play basketball you move on to different sports.

[Tom Cruise]

I reckon the big black fella would have done pretty well. What was his name again?

[pacmanis1]

AP all day baby.

[CubanGuyNYC]

because you don't know what you're talking about. you want no talent fat guys over gifted athletes. it's not an opinion to call that silly.


you are discounting talent and taking tony thompson over great athletes because you think he has some intangible that does not exist. great athletes don't have intangibles that tony thompson does? how the hell does that even make sense?

tony thompson?
chris arreola?
how about they show up less than 30 lbs overweight? hell, arreola used to be 40-50 lbs overweight. oh, but they've got intangibles.

you can take the fat guys with zero drive, who didn't ahve the talent to play football or basketball. i will take the talented kids. the guys with speed, power, and fleetness are coming to my gym, and the sh#T athlets like arreola are going to yours. in 10 years my fighters will f#cking annihilate yours.



you'd really pick tony thompson over a great athlete (herschel walker, michael jordan, len bias, bo jackson?)



not every gifted athlete is a gifted fighter. you're a hell of a lot more likely to find a kid who is the goods among a group of gifted athletes than you are to find him among a group of tony thompsons. the NBA and NFL drag great athletes away from HW boxing. arguing against that is plain ignorance. you're a nice guy, and i like you, but you're so f#cking wrong to think that tony thompson is something special that you couldn't find in those leagues.

Those "no talent fat guys" are better natural fighters than the gifted athletes whose talents you continually, and misguidedly, equate with fighting ability. As someone else put so succinctly, "Fighters are born, not made." You wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) expect Mike Tyson to have been a great running back, had he chosen football, or a great catcher, had he chosen baseball. Why must it be that Michael Jordan, or any other great athlete, would've been a great fighter?

I agree that a group of gifted athletes are likelier to produce a great fighter than a group of lesser athletes. Where your argument fails is that you assume that it must follow that the better athletes must therefore have more potential as fighters than anyone else. There are plenty of men who suck as athletes, but will kick your ass all day long. I've personally known people like that. Those are the kind of men that become great professional fighters. The others become basketball players, football players, etc.

[New England]

Those "no talent fat guys" are better natural fighters than the gifted athletes whose talents you continually, and misguidedly, equate with fighting ability. As someone else put so succinctly, "Fighters are born, not made." You wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) expect Mike Tyson to have been a great running back, had he chosen football, or a great catcher, had he chosen baseball. Why must it be that Michael Jordan, or any other great athlete, would've been a great fighter?

I agree that a group of gifted athletes are likelier to produce a great fighter than a group of lesser athletes. Where your argument fails is that you assume that it must follow that the better athletes must therefore have more potential as fighters. There are plenty of men who suck as athletes, but will kick your ass all day long. I've personally known people like that. Those are the kind of men that become great professional fighters. The others become basketball players, football players, etc.

these two statements completely contradict each other. in the first you say that the gifted athletes have more potential, and in the following you say exactly the opposite. a group of talented athletes are more likely to produce great champions. american HW champions were once great athletes. now all of our great hw athletes play other sports, and we have no great hw champions.


again, you can take tony thompson because you think he's got some magical powers, i am taking muhammad ali, a gifted athlete.


i don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but there's no defending whatever stance you think you've got. it's flat out wrong. i honestly think you are confused.

[silentscoper]

I reckon the big black fella would have done pretty well. What was his name again?

LOL. I don't even

[CubanGuyNYC]

these two statements completely contradict each other. in the first you say that the gifted athletes have more potential, and in the following you say exactly the opposite. a group of talented athletes are more likely to produce great champions. american HW champions were once great athletes. now all of our great hw athletes play other sports, and we have no great hw champions.


again, you can take tony thompson because you think he's got some magical powers, i am taking muhammad ali, a gifted athlete.


i don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but there's no defending whatever stance you think you've got. it's flat out wrong. i honestly think you are confused.

Let me clarify: Because a random group of men have better athletic ability, it doesn't necessarily mean that they'll produce a greater fighter than a random group of lesser athletes.

You chose to focus on a couple of confusing lines, but you've ignored the very valid points I made.

I don't think much of Tony Thompson as a fighter at all. I'm simply willing to use him (your example, by the way) as a case in point. Tony isn't a special athlete at all, but he has had success as a fighter. Why? Because he evidently has more ability as a fighter than the vast majority of superior athletes. You really think every exceptional athlete is competing in the NFL or the NBA?

I'll use another name you mentioned: Muhammad Ali. He may have been a great fighter, but that doesn't mean for a moment that he would've been a great football player if he so chose. If Ali had chosen to be anything other than a boxer, we might very well never have heard of the man.

The notion that there are no great American heavyweights anymore because the pool has been ****** up by the NFL and NBA sounds good, but it's wrong. Those sports have such limited slots that there are thousands of tremendously athletic men doing something other than playing football or basketball for a living. And what about the lower weights? Americans aren't exactly dominating those either. Who's stealing all the smaller, talented athletes?

[New England]

Let me clarify: Because a random group of men have better athletic ability, it doesn't necessarily mean that they'll produce a greater fighter than a random group of lesser athletes.

You chose to focus on a couple of confusing lines, but you've ignored the very valid points I made.

I don't think much of Tony Thompson as a fighter at all. I'm simply willing to use him (your example, by the way) as a case in point. Tony isn't a special athlete at all, but he has had success as a fighter. Why? Because he evidently has more ability as a fighter than the vast majority of superior athletes. You really think every exceptional athlete is competing in the NFL or the NBA?

I'll use another name you mentioned: Muhammad Ali. He may have been a great fighter, but that doesn't mean for a moment that he would've been a great football player if he so chose. If Ali had chosen to be anything other than a boxer, we might very well never have heard of the man.

The notion that there are no great American heavyweights anymore because the pool has been ****** up by the NFL and NBA sounds good, but it's wrong. Those sports have such limited slots that there are thousands of tremendously athletic men doing something other than playing football or basketball for a living. And what about the lower weights? Americans aren't exactly dominating those either. Who's stealing all the smaller, talented athletes?

i picked that line because it was a representation of your very fragmented argument. if you're presenting a coherent argument the bolded would not be there, as it was completely incoherent. the rest of your posts have tried to support the idea that thompsons are "natural fighters," and better than jordans.

great athletes are more likely to be great fighters. period. it seems like you're finally coming around to this, because there is no denying it.

[Mike Haynes]

Please.

Imagine all of these future six foot five plus athletes were gravitating to boxing at age 6-7 instead of basketball and became pros.

[CubanGuyNYC]

i picked that line because it was a representation of your very fragmented argument. if you're presenting a coherent argument the bolded would not be there, as it was completely incoherent. the rest of your posts have tried to support the idea that thompsons are "natural fighters," and better than jordans.

great athletes are more likely to be great fighters. period. it seems like you're finally coming around to this, because there is no denying it.

You're focusing on my perceived flaws in presentation and avoiding my individual points, which are valid.

The notion that Michael Jordan would've been a great fighter isn't far removed from saying that Muhammad Ali would've been a great basketball player. Both notions would probably be wrong. (Of course, there's no way of knowing for sure.)

Yes, there are natural fighters. Point blank. If they happen to be great athletes, all the better. I remember seeing guys like Joe Frazier and Carlos Palomino on the old "Superstars" show. They were terrible athletes! Yet, they were great fighters(at least in Joe's case).

In the end, my point is that one thing doesn't necessarily equal another. Being able to vertical leap an insane height, lifting ridiculous weight and running a 4.4 40 doesn't mean that guy could become heavyweight champion. I'm sure there are at least a couple of amazing natural American athletes that simply didn't like football or basketball and chose boxing. Where are they?