How were old timers so good?

I think Wladimir Klitschko (vs Puritty) might disagree with that notion.

How many times have we seen a comparatively average fighter upset a future champion due to an advantage in experience? Countless times.

Experience is not all about competing in a hundred fights though (see Wlad's 24 fights before Puritty). It's about taking on quality opponents and learning from those experiences. A fighter who competes a hundred times against the same type of opponent won't learn much more than he would have from his first couple of fights, that much I can agree with.

 

A son does not necessarily possess the punching power, toughness and determination that their father did, as was the case with Marvis Frazier.

It's not difficult to understand, especially when you also take into account that Marvis grew up relatively well off while his father grew up relatively poor, as a result of Joe Frazier's hard work and success.

The sons of notable boxers rarely had to fight their way through poverty when their fathers had usually done so already, and were likely motivated to take up boxing due to their name recognition and the money that was going to be in it for them. They didn't have to carve out their names, wealth and fame by fighting. Motivation can be a huge factor in a sport as grueling as boxing.

 

I didn't say anything about achievements, titles, who's beating whom or how much interest the sport generates. I'm saying there are plenty of skillful technicians nowadays. And I doubt they have learned it by watching the film of old-timers. Anyway, my point is, it all depends how you gonna look at this, whether you gonna look for the positive or for the negative about this or that timespan or this or that fighter.

 

Read the rest of my posts and you'll see I pretty much agree.

My point is that there are less

I also never said anything about great trainers making average fighters really good.

 

Joe Louis' "Bum of the month club"?

 

A good amount of amateur fights also brings in a lot of experience.
Good sparring partners.
And a good trainer.

 

That's just an opinion. We can't count them, also we'd need to come up with a criteria how to compare them and how to choose the timespan we gonna compare.

I only used it to point out that the importance of great knowledgable trainers is somewhat overrated, in my opinion. It's more about the boxer, than about trainer, IMHO. At least to me it's easier to find good technicians who didn't have a great trainer, than to find examples when great trainers made good technicians out of ordinary boxers.

 

Who are these "most" and how much research have they done studying that era?

 

this is somewere old timers had an advantage, today am and pro boxing use such different rulesets. when i go to my friends am fights i can never give any insight into it, beyond 'he's the home fighter', which aint much help

edit. thats the only modern am boxing i see

 

H, NOT TRUE..In the 1940s {my era growing up] there were a tremendous amount of amateurs and GOLDEN GLOVE bouts...For example in the GG in MSG they HAD to have THREE rings operating at the same time. Ray Robinson was a product of the Golden Gloves bouts in NY...My dad in the early 1920s boxed in smokers and other non pro bouts...He would tell me in NYC on every block it seemed there was a pro boxer...Tough times breed tough men. In the GG all of us boxed with NO headgear, mini mouthpieces.
Today I cannot watch the amateurs in the Olympic bouts with the headgear, the referee admonishing boxers for the slightest "infraction", not allowing infighting etc...A different game today than in the old days...In the 1940s to get a main event bout at MSG, you needed 45 or so bouts,and more to headline a card...There were of course only 8 weight classes, and fighters learned to cope with boxing guys weighing in some cases 10 pounds o r more...And in NYC area for example there was at least ONE
pro card EVERY NIGHT of the week except Sunday...Fighting so often boxers learned from their experiences and hardened them....To prove my point I can cite a list of the top fighters of the 40s in each class, and compare them to todays top fighters...To be the best of a rich pool of fighters ,makes the greater fighter than a much smaller pool...

 

S, SO BRAVE OF YOU TO CALL ME SENILE...SO BRAVE ,AND YOU EXUDE SO MUCH CLASS...I,and my contemporaries fought in the second World War for the likes of you who don't have no respect for seior guys like myself...I don't know how old you are, but someday i hope you are not criticized
because you are a survivor as I am...I hope your parents or grandparents
are called "senile"...
You sir are a vile man,and what I have experienced in boxing and STILL RETAIN, you will jnever duplicate...
P.S. This is what ESB is becoming ?

 

I meant I hope your parents or Grandparents are NOT ever called senile as you tar me...You exude clASS !

 

TheSouthpaw is a troll Burt, and hated by everyone. You needn't worry.

 

I hope he got banned out of this place for this Burt. I'm personally really glad to have you on this website, able to provide us with some hindsights on how it was back then.