Boxing is still a tough career. When I think of Shane Mosley or Evander Holyfield I don't understand how they are still in one piece because they had a lot of competitive fights. The answers have to lie in the changes in the sport. Gloves have changed. Diets have changed. Distance has changed. Training has changed. Weigh ins have changed. Match making has changed. Lifestyles have changed. Amateur boxing has changed. Surgery has changed. I remember Jake Lamotta saying one time that in the old days it didn't used to be that a fighter could be 20-0 and you still didn't know if he could fight. He said fighters found out earlier if they could fight or not. Gunboat smith said that with small 4oz gloves "you got hit, you got hurt, you learned fast" today "everybody goes into a fight, they get cut up with an 8- or a 10oz glove. I don't get it at all. There is something radically wrong someplace"
The fight s they were having back in the early part of the last century were absolutely crazy. They should had have all been walking on there heels. I think it s a case of cramming so many bouts in younger so obviously by the time their in their early to mid thirty s its burn out. But that doesn't explain how foreman, holyfield, Hopkins and klitschko were still doing well in there forty s. They had tons of bouts and were still doing well?
Probably peds are part of the reason boxers and other athletes are having longer careers in general. Testosterone starts to drop after age 30 so if they can keep their testosterone high they can keep a lot of their athletic abilities. Another factor is less fights and less rounds. Equalling less punches to the head that cause brain damage.
The legs have only so much millage for any and all men...years ago there were any number of hungry bucks to take advantage of the slightest drop in performance ...not so now...
Well they take less damage bc they developed better defense and stratedgy and less brawling,particularly inside fighting,and rule changes of SAFE standing 8 counts. less rounds dont mean less fighting,you usually throw more punches with less time to win. "more scientifically informed training and nutrition" this is true,as theres also longer training camps to prepare properly for a specific opponent. if posted a full vid of myself doing Hb work/speed bag im pretty sure i would be accussed of PEDs too particularly if i included MMa stuff and weight lifting feats.since im 43 now.we ALL know you cant be on point past 40 and natural ?????..lol
And yet holyfield, foreman klitschko, Holmes and Hopkins had a million fight s between them. But they were rather successful in there later years.?