Great post, you nailed it. I remember watching Riddick Bowe being trained by Eddie Futch and thinking that IF skill and technique could overcome size, strength, and speed, Eddie could beat Bowe. But as you wrote, boxing is an athletic pursuit, not a magical skill competition.
That's like saying if size and athleticism could overcome skill and technique, then Shaq would've KO'd De La Hoya. There is a balance between the two extremes. I know that in sports like Football and Basketball there are times where heart, game sense, and IQ can make the difference in the outcome. But is that ever more true in those sports than it is in boxing? Boxing is still sort of like a warrior practice. It's battle. It seems like there are more psychological factors at play. And relying on athleticism while getting punched in the face is a bit different than relying on athleticism when jostling for a ball. Ali used to say that during his grueling fights, after taking vicious punches, things would start getting darker. His body would want to go. But he'd always concentrate on "the light" and not letting himself go to the darkness. Basically relying on his mental strength to stay alert during a fight where he is dead tired and taking serious damage. What part of athleticism is that? Basically, I feel like there is more room in boxing to overcome an athletic disparity than in most or all other sports.
Because you are in denial that sports ebb and flow in the grand scale, this is why you have this opinion.
Please to name the sports with as much money involved as boxing has involved that had better participants in the 1930s than today. I want to learn more about this ebb and this flow.
so you deny that sports ebb and flow as time goes on? to you they are just a journey up into the clouds?
I would say that there are small ebbs and flows inter-generationally but that over the past century and a half athletes have become better for a variety social, political and scientific reasons. Nearly all observers in the other major sports concur on this matter. But I understand boxing to be different. There are mystical skills, previously handed down in secret cabals, that have been forgotten in the mist of history.
I can find you a boxing manual from the 1800's. Can you find me a Football manual from the 1800's? Gloss over that with sarcastic anti-nostlaigic themes as much as you'd like, but it is what it is.
It's true we've lost the magical skills of the telegraphed backhand, or the slow, looping, foot-off-the-floor haymaker, but these aren't skills that can be easily passed down without collapsing into uncontrollable laughter, and as a result they've gradually been faded out. Wilder is trying his best to keep them alive though.
no they dont, sports have gone into obscurity too, they havent improved, or have evolved from small changes to entirely different games into what they were at one time. You cant say a different sport has the superior athletes. It is incredulous to apply a sweeping statement to ALL and everything like that, and tantamount to being both wrong, and desperate to prove a point that you cant otherwise manage. The only thing you can say with surety is that everything changes.
I am speaking of the quality of athlete. Bigger, stronger, faster is the mantra of all top level sports... and boxing is still a top grossing sport.
I have no idea what you are saying. I never said any sport possesses the superior athletes. Some, though, woul contend that the general level of athlete, across all major sports, has improved over the last century and a half. Some would contend this. Some. OK, Most would contend it.
you have said that across any sport, superior athletes evolve, dont play silly buggers. are you not saying it now? if not then thats ok
Yes, but I am saying it should be weighed with other factors as well. The evolution you see in Football imo shouldn't be paralleled with that of boxing, even if they share some traits of sociological evolution. 100 years ago, there was breadth of resources to learn and master boxing. That kind of thing didn't exist for Football. Things change faster towards their birth, whereas things that have been around for time refine out.