Which fighter adapted best to age/I'm shot

Went back to boxing lessons the other day and at 34 I can confidently say that I am shot. I am always in good shape but my reflexes have gone, my timing is off, and my energy is at 1 bar. Its pretty hard to take but thats life, I can still get it up so its not all bad.

Which fighter can you think of who adapted well with age. Ali, Forman, Moore? Maybe Holy, Toney, Leonard?

I think your missing master time himself mate in the form of a certain Bernard Hopkins.

47 plus, world champion etc etc. Does not act or look his age at all. A credit to the sport.

ONETWOFOREVER wrote: I can still get it up so its not all bad.

The Russian twins will be over the moon. You would have to say Hopkins has adapted remarkably well to his diminishing mobility. Whilst a lot of his stuff now is painful to watch and in many cases such as the Calzaghe fight borderline cheating there is no denying he is absolutely masterful at buying himself a breather when he needs and in parceling out his movements and action in rounds.

You can't get much more of a change than fleet-footed dancer to rope-a-dope'er.

Hopkins is a good shout too, his style has changed a lot to adapt to not being able to keep the same activity.

Ali didn't adapt ........more as had an incredible chin.........He had no choice in the matter as he was crud going forward...

I'm disappointed though the thread title said "I'm shot"........unfortunately it was boxing related when I clicked on it!!

It's got to be between Hopkins, Moore, Pep and Jofre, old man Foreman is a bit of a myth based on one punch, the others could outbox you for a full 12/15 rounds.

Ali took more punches in the latter stages of his career then he did before the ban. I don't think he adapted that good. Hopkins is one I forgot about but for me Archie Moore is the perfect example.

Hoppo is a guy who has adapted perfectly as mentioned above.........

1. He knows his own body well and paces himself perfectly

2. Spoils and makes it look like the other guy is spoiling..

3. Rallies at the right time during rounds..to catch the judges attention.......

Hoppo has to be the perfect adapter..

I thought Hearns adapted his style well in later years in fact if he had used some of them tactics earlier in his career he may well have survived a couple of the sticky moments from which he got stopped in big fights.

hogey wrote:I thought Hearns adapted his style well in later years in fact if he had used some of them tactics earlier in his career he may well have survived a couple of the sticky moments from which he got stopped in big fights.

Hearns learned to hold when hurt......

hill win is one he should get more crdit for.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Hearns learned to hold when hurt......

If only Bruno learnt that much.

Oddly enough, even though he's had some good wins and performances from his mid-thirties onwards, I've never really considered Toney to be an 'adapter' so to speak.

Guys like Ali and Hopkins resembled very different animals at the end of their careers than they were at the start. Toney, on the other hand, has always fought basically the same way as his all-round skill set has generally been good enough to get him through. He was never a dancer or runner, so his legs getting heavy with age was never going to effect him too badly, and he was never a fighter who relied on throwing a shed load of punches and overwhelming opponents either - instead, he's always gone for the quality over quanitity approach and boxed at a steady rather than hot pace, which usually allowed him to save enough in reserve to have a big finish, which often made the difference in his fights; Nunn, Reggie Johnson, McCallum (I), Jirov etc.

He's always preferred to stay in close, concentrate on the body and look to counter, and has left it up to his opponents to adapt to him, rather than the other way round. The Toney who beat Jirov in 2003 was a nigh-on carbon copy to the one who beat Nunn twelve years before.

... a smudged carbon copy