Myth: Boxing is the only sport where 30s era athletes handily beat modern fighters

This is a good thread and I'm naturally in agreement with human adaptation, accumulated knowledge and availability of media in finer detail.

The above post makes a very solid counterpoint though, while there have been adjustments over the years, not all of them have been specifically human; there have been changes to equipment, competitive atmospheres, and regulation.

If we still had same-day weigh-ins, that would be near equivalent to tacking on rehydration clauses for every fight.

 

And I'm telling you that you need to put those men BACK in time to evaluate them as MEN. Take away the BS cut up 17 weight classes and 6 world belts in each division, PED's or worse with 3 week early weigh ins and let them fight as MEN in their weight class with their hands and hearts and skills at their natural weight and nothing else. That is the proper measure of a man and a boxer.

If your game has changed it is obviously not for the better and that is why MMA will relegate boxing to a 3rd rate 3rd world sport in the near future.

 

Joe Louis would stop Wlad, and I'm sort of a Wlad fan after his good showing against Haye. Lewis beats the **** out of Dempsey though.

 

Boxing has evolved like every other sport. Like in chess the moves have been refined due to the prosses of elimination. The old masters would not win anymore aganist the new ones because the modern players know the counters to the old style of play because the games are well documented same with boxing.

Louis and Dempsey were great for their time but times have changed in part because of them. Trainers and boxers have learned off such boxers to evolve the game.

Same goes for nutrition and training athletes are outperforming the old athletes in every olympic event winter and summer. I doubt there is a record that still stands from the 70s let alone the 30s and 40s.

 

I must whole-heartedly agree with the OP:

In no other sport do 30s era athletes handily beat modern fighters. atsch

 

somewhere in between.

I dont buy the argument that a 147 pound man is the same in any era. Weight lifting records by weight division havent stayed concentrated have they? Then somehow we have found out how to have more strength at the same weight.

I think strategy wise it has improved as well, especially the early part of the 1900's like 1930 and earlier. You have to consider they went from bare hands to gloves and it took some time to develop the new strategy for the new style.

Also in just the recent last 10-15 years the number of fighters performing well in their late 30s and beyond has went up dramatically, yeah there were a few guys before that did it but now its seemingly everybody.

On the flip side, the talent pool was deeper back in the day. Unlike most other sports, boxing is one that has been on the decline for a while with less gyms and less competitors. So your chances of having a natural like RJJ or whitaker or Ali who have attributes that cant be trained are smaller.

 

I have heard people say there were more people boxing in America in 30s and 40s then in boxing today but i find it hard to believe. It was mostly a American sport back then and the population was about 100 million. Now boxing is more global and the population is about 7 billion.

 

I blame it all on global warming.

 

Good post.

 

You just have to look at someone like Sugar Ray Robinson, and then compare him to boxers today. It's like watching a fight from a Rocky movie versus an actual fight. These guys from the past are turned into iconic figures and treated as gods, when they are unathletic and sloppy with few skills.

 

You're either trolling or you're absolutely hopeless.

You said the same thing regarding Ali a few days ago.

SRR = Unathletic and sloppy with few skills?

No.

Find another sport to watch.

 

Its very easy. Watch some video and let go of your dick while you’re doing it. And watch it pretending that you know nothing about their reputation and historical significance. Put on some Lomachenko side to side with a video of one of your black and white idols.
Be objective and honest, then tell me what you have seen.

 

This. I like Lewis, but if Rahman or McCall can knock him cold Dempsey batters Lewis into submission. Dempsey fought and beat guys just as big as Lewis. I could Dempsey getting around one a lazy Lewis Jab and clobbering Lewis with a left hand.

Also, if anything boxing in the old days was much harder. In Dempsey's days they barely started enforcing going to neutral corners after knockdowns, there were no thumbless gloves, and the old school refs forced the fighters to fight.

Dempsey against Willard? Who is just as big as Lewis, but has s much better chin.

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jack Dempsey is basicaly a light heavy weight and im pretty sure he could still wreck havoc in that division in modern boxing

 

Hahaha Willard was about as skilled, athletic and in shape as my overweight 70 year old uncle. You can see the video you posted right?
I could knock out Dempsey, nevermind a professional super heavy today. This is what I’m talking about, he has precisely zero boxing skill and he’s fighting/wrestling against a heavy bag. It may as well be a different sport when you go back that far.