Any one read this book?" The Arc Of Boxing " by Mike Silver he states that boxing's zenith was the 1920's , 30's ,and 40's and that it began to decline in the 1950's. http://www.mikesilverboxing.com/
Actually, College Football was a huge sport at the turn of the century, and truly violent, resulting in many deaths a year. In the form that it existed, there were well run programs at many US Colleges, Universities and even Reservations. And there again, the athletes from that era are barely recognizable today as being football players.
By the time it took them to realize the big heavy guys belong on the front line, the first jab and mover had probably been dead for thousands of years. Or something to that effect.
Require? No. Is benefited by? Surely. Isn't the argument that boxing improves because we can observe our predecessors and improve upon them? If we go along with that, they've been refining the jab since before the first game of college football was ever played.
Hmm... isn't that the book, where we're told that Lennox Lewis was a very ordinary fighter, who would get destroyed by Luis Firpo?
True. Look at Foreman regaining the HW title at 45 years old. That would be impossible in other sports like basketball or football. I don't think boxing is as reliant on athleticism as are other sports.