I mean fit for purpose, not fit to break records in the gym. Is a modern Middleweight in better shape than Hagler, for instance? Is Pacquiao fitter than Henry Armstrong? I don't see modern fighters fighting at higher work rates or punching harder than the boxers I remember like Duran, Pryor or Leonard. I am not against modern training as such, I just hate it when people say it as fact that "fighters are much fitter now". I don't see any evidence of it in the ring!
I don't think so. If you just look at pictures of guys going back to the 1800s many of them were in terrific shape. Then you look at modern guys like James Toney who routinely performed at the highest levels while looking rather fat. I made a thread about that on the Joe Rogan Forum http://forums.joerogan.net/showthread.php?t=336846 with pictures of the top ten p4p boxers decade by decade from the 1890s-1940s. Some are ripped some aren't, and there are even some lesser known boxers who were in better shape than the top dogs. I'll quote myself here:
No! many of the bigger ones are nowhere near as fit, you see it in many a performance bordering on complete ****!
How was calzaghe able to throw so many punches?: http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=501407
Which fighter in the past eras fought at the age of 49? http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=501296
Battling Nelson and Ad Wogast slung heavy blows at each other for forty rounds, pretty much non-stop. That was 1910. There's no doubt modern training & nutrition is better in many ways, and I'm open to hearing advocates state their case, but I'm also aware of the pretension which comes with fields like sports science. They are not dissimilar to religious folk in that they swear by what they do; will only digest their data. There's also that hump most have to overcome - that boxing is not like other sports. Around 60% of a fighter's petrol is an intangible compound. Different eras have moulded different fighters, but the more you peel away at boxing's history, the greater number of exceptions appear. I am of the school of thought that most fighters could bridge most eras.
Some fighters are dedicated fitness freaks like Hagler, Hopkins Mayweather, who are always in shape, and that has always been the case. Conversely other fighters blow up by 40 or 50 lbs between fights, that probably HASN'T always been the case due to the fight schedules of the old timers.
I don't think you can make a solid judgement either way.. In every era you had fighters who were religiously devoted to conditioning while having others who weren't. In addition you have some periods where certain "divisions" looked more or less well conditioned than that same division of a different era, but can't make that same broad statement of the entire period across the board. For example, most of the heavyweights today look pretty sad when compared to the physiques of Mike Weaver, Frank Bruno and Evander Holyfield. But then again, what fighter looked better in old age than Bernard Hopkins? How many Welters were better conditioned than Floyd Mayweather? Its not an easy thing to gauge.
Older era's were tougher. Only the boxers with freak stamina could compete at the top. training nowadays has advanced scientifically and it gives boxers a higher % of fitness to what old training methods gave you. The elite boxers of older era's had to be genetically gifted in terms of stamina to compete, more so than today's fighters. They fought more fights, more rounds, smaller gloves. Those guy's were machines, naturally.
Even Audley Harrison would have made short work of Rocky Marciano, these what if Tyson had fought Ali etc type debates are meaningless.
Some people yap about the advances in training and nutrition over the years. I would like to see more examples. Sure you have Manny Pacquiao, Plaserito Margarito, Floyd Mayweather, Joe Calzaghe, who have great stamina. Bernard Hopkins fighting at close to 50, thanks to his smarts, efficient use of energy, and disciplined training habits. But as a whole? I've seen so many examples of amazing stamina in the past, before all these "advances" in nutrition and training. I've seen a lot of 15 round fights were the pacing is far from slow, and these guys have a lot of energy. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought at an absolutely blistering place in the first and third fights, with each of them going at least 14 rounds. And not only was the pace very fast, both guys were getting pounded, and still going strong. Look at Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran. Their first fight was an extremely grueling fight. Leonard took an absolute beating to the body and finished stronger. Same thing with Ali in Manila. Frazier, Henry Armstrong, and Aaron Pryor had constant motion, throwing lots of leather and moving their upper bodies a lot. They all could go a strong 15. Maybe these are extreme examples but I've seen a lot of fights that go more than 12 where the fighters show good stamina and the pace is not slow either.
