If all of the NFL and NBA players took up boxing, how would the greats fare?

[kiDynamite92]

Have you seen Joe fraziers fights? Cause theyway you described him it sounds as if he's some bum, if that's the case then some bum beat Ali? The GOAT? yeah right! No one gave Grant a shot in that fight, he was almost knocked out in his fight before that. Frazier would take apart Lewis, Klitschko or anyone in the past 20 years.

[Tommo1]

Frazier is famous ONLY because he beat Ali once and Ali struggled with him in 3 fights. That is a sign of Ali's limitedness, not Frazier's greatness. I find it hard to rank Ali in the top 10 and I there is not a HW in the last 20 years that Frazier COULD beat imo.

Frazier vs Foreman is an accurate picture of how Frazier would perform at modern HW.

Grant would not even be allowed to KO Frazier because Joe would not get a licence to box as he was handicapped!

Frazier is not a bum, he has a winning record but who did he fight? He fought absolutely nobody of relevance except Ali and Foreman!

Grant had a straight record against REAL HW opponents. Frazier fought mainly Cruisers and ducked all punchers except Foreman who was his mandatory. Grant struggled with Andrew Golota, a 6'4" 240lb HW of good skills, speed and power with a good record as well before he met Lewis. An opponent who would also KO Frazier in 1-3 rounds.

Lennox would KO Frazier in the first quarter of the first round.

See the article http://www.heavyweightblog.com/2272/...-vs-joe-frazer

[kiDynamite92]

So why did Lennox Lewis get brutally KO'd by a journey man in Oliver McCall and hasim Rahman? why did he get out boxed by Rey Mercer? Why did he draw with little evander holyfield? why didn't he turn pro earlier on when tyson was in his prime? why did vitali klitschko quit against a tiny chris byrd and be scared to give him a rematch? or the way he ducked rahman for so many years? Wlad was flattened 3 times by journeyman. Grant was brutally Ko'd by lennox in 2 and then ko'd several times later on. so Lewis, wlad, vit and grant are limited too right?

[kiDynamite92]

btw Galota was beaten up by a cruiser in adamak and if lewis took 8 rounds to KO a smaller and shot mike Tyson, do you really think he could bomb out Joe? Foreman was only able to do what he did because he was able to take Joe's best shots, see how many left hooks he at to get his shot in, If joe landed his left hook, he'll break Lennox' lil cheek bones!

[Tommo1]

No boxer is perfect, you have given an account of the major dramas of hw boxing in the last 20 years. Upsets happen at modern hw boxing because the punches are so hard. Vitali quit (which I agree was shameful) because Byrd is so slick and made him miss that much he tore his shoulder.

All of the modern boxers you mentioned were beatable as demonstrated. But they were NOT beatable by Frazier! Rahman and McCall were good boxers and had great power. Frazier was not a good boxer and did not have the power. Frazier could not make Vitali miss. Frazier could not knock Grant out. Frazier could not box with Lewis to decisions like Evander and Mercer did. Sanders, Brewster and Puritty all had big shots. There is NO HW of any relevance which Frazier could trouble in reality.

[kiDynamite92]

Frazier floored Ali and broke his jaw, he stopped the iron jawed jerry quarey who took earnie shavers best shots and stopped him. you call rahman and mcCal good boxers and not Frazier? yet he was the one who out boxed Ali? yeah right. Ali had enough trouble landing on frazier, how much harder would it have been for Vitali? Mercer got stopped by an old and shot larry holmes who was a poor man's version on Ali, yet frazier can't box as well as him? Evander wouldn't have landed a glove on Ali, Frazier would beat him down. NO HW in the past 20 years could beat frazier.

[kiDynamite92]

btw look at that combination that brewster finished wlad with, can you really tell me that Frazier can't land like that?

[Tommo1]

Wladimir suffered hyperglycaemia during that fight and was rushed to hospital nearly in a coma. He would have collapsed regardless whether Brewster hit him or not.

Me and you are done mate. To suggest any of those golden age boxers bar a few exceptions hold any real weight compared with the giants of the 90's and today you are crazy and we're pretty much as logger heads.

[Foreign Soil]

NFL players are garbage for boxing. NBA players are mostly *******.

[Szef]

Listen carefully as this is a pretty obvious post.

If the NBA/NFL players started their careers as boxers they would not BE NFL/NBA players, they would BE boxers.

If NFL/NBA players switched today to boxing late in their development as sportsman they can be good but never champs, they get exposed like Michael Grant for instance and Seth Mitchell.

With modern training as these days a giant like an NBA player CAN become balanced enough and tactically trained to be very effective at HW statistically.

However statistically in the past, such giant boxers never performed that well even when they were exclusively boxers because they were not trained specifically. Historically being around 6'2" has been the optimal for a HW boxing champ. Much larger guys have been oafish.

However, finally, it's true. If you take an NBA/NFL player and put them back in time as a boxer as they switch careers today (Michael Grant/Seth Mitchell etc) OF COURSE they are going to knock every single opponent out and become HW champion of the world. Last champ that probably could have stopped them was Muhammad Ali. Earlier than that I see a blood bath!