How come boxing hasn't progressed naturally over time the way the 100m has??

:deal

 

This is true too. In 100m sprint, it is measurable how fast somebody goes from A to B, whereas boxing will always be subjective

 

Fighters on average are more athletic nowadays. Don´t think anybody will argue that. But does that mean the sport progressed? Have the skills regressed? If you watch fights from average contenders from the 30s through 50s and compare them to nowadays you´ll find that there are quite a few skills less around today. Does that mean the sport regressed?
I don´t know. What I do know though that, as McGrain said, boxing is about character. Hard times make hard people. Times were harder for a lot more people then than now which means harder people. And a stronger character.
I think boxing declined. Numerous reasons for that, a lot were already mentioned, some others are not. People are just not as interested in it anymore which means less people pick it up which means there is less talent pool. Also there are far more ways out of poverty nowadays, especially for minorities, which results in the same.
Yeah, boxers are more athletic but they lack skills that come from very good trainers, who largely are dead, and experience getting rushed in "big fights" with 2x fights and after fighting one contender. Boxing is a craft and like all crafts it needs to be practiced. As often as possible. And sparring is not a substitute to a hard fight, perhaps even on the losing end, against a good contender.
There are still some big fishes around today who´d be successful in any era (Wlad, Mayweather, Pac for example). But they are big fishes and a small pond full of fishes with at least one amputated flipper.

 

With thinner/smaller gloves back then bodypunches did far more damage. (Marciano bruising arms for example.)
So naturally bodypunching has become less common, bodypunching still works, but not the way it did in the past.
This little change already makes a world of difference.

It changes the way you attack, it changes the way you defend and therefore it changes the way you train, you move etc.

 

Depends on your definition of athletic.

15 round fights; fighting more than twice a year?

 

Atleast for heavyweights 15 rounds was very rare.
Of all hw eras only 2% of the fights were 13+ rounders...

Also Wlad has fought a lot of fights in a short span.
But I'm not going to cherry pick, so I only refute the 15 fights argument (Atleast for hw)

 

:deal
old generation boxers would get destroyed by modern boxers, just like modern sprinters would destroy the old sprinters.
Did anybody watch the Cinderella Man? the guy was working on the docks and fighting for HW championship of the world successfully. He didn't even have food to eat sometimes, and he is suppose to compete with PED filled athletes?
Can you imagine Wladimir Klitschko working as a laborer and then fighting for championship? that's ridiculous.
In the old days anybody could register as boxer and have success at top level. Now this type of guy would get destroyed by fighters from top 900.

 

lets see...

running in a straight line being compared to something called

the sweet science

apparently you have never watched a bumbling laughable world title fight from 100 years ago. boxing has progressed big time atsch

 

Well for a start 100 metre sprinting is just a measure of one function - speed. Drugs that enable you to train harder and run faster have developed greatly over the years. It's also something that is easy to measure progress in.

These same drugs might give you better stamina, speed or power, or might enable you to continue fighting later in your career but they're not going to be a miracle fix that improves your boxing IQ, timing, defence, punch selection, heart, hunger etc. There's also no clear measure of the improvement or decline in boxing over the years.

 

Hagler is also old school and he didn't work in construction anymore when he became champiobship level fighter. When Braddock was actually starving and working all day.

 

Days between fights (from first world championship fight to end of career)

Sugar Nikolai Valuev: 177 days
Joe Louis: 194 days
Wladimir Bitchko: 201 days
Lennox Lewis: 205 days
Muhammad Ali: 259 days
Ezzard Charles 287 days

 

Its not just running though is it? In every sport that has recordable benchmarks, everything has improved over time. Whether its running, strength training, shot put, javelin, swimming, heck even in skilled based games like tennis people are serving faster and harder so would it not be logical to assume that athletes of today are also hitting harder in boxing?. So basically in any sport where records can be kept, it has been proven that athletes are stronger and faster.

You will have exceptions, Maradona is surely more skilled than Heskey but perhaps Ronaldinho or Messi is on the same level if not better.

I agree with the talent pool decrease, that would have a lot to do with it.