Boxing is a dying sport. Marciano was a very good fighter whose legend is overblown by a subset of Americans more impressed with his ethnicity than anything else. There's not enough to go on in Liston's career to accurately place him in any top ten list. Jack Dempsey would have had to be created, if he did not really exist. He was a necessary symbol of his times. This skews his actual worth as a fighter irreparably. Whitaker defeats Duran at 135.
Do you feel like the nails are legitimately going into that casket as we speak? Like, in 15-20 years is the sport going to be in an all time slump?
I think Tommy Burns would have defeated Sam McVea had he been able to secure that match. Had that been the case, we'd probably have a case for rating him in the Top 20 at heavyweight and in the Top 100 all time.
I agree with you to a large degree. Current boxing is more accessible to viewers than ever! Past fights are easier to locate and review than even 20 years ago. The pre fight build ups and postfight interviews are available from most major fights. Say what you will about current boxing or boxers, but from a fan perspective I am glad to live during this time frame
Aw man, back in the day was amazing (70s, 80s.) Plenty of championship fights that practically anyone with a tv could watch, Leonard, Duran, Sanchez, Ayala, Holmes, Ali, Saad Muhammad, Bob Foster, Foreman, Norton, Shavers, Hagler, Hearns, Tyson. I just can't compare today to then, there were fights on all the time and you didn't even have to have cable, much less satellite. And the heavyweight champion back then was like the president, just way cooler. Naw, those were the days
Don't know...….I've tried here and there to watch modern fights, and the ability just sn;t there. They look wooden and stiff and fight as if they're some back-room brawlers in a smoker. You compare that with fights from the 50's through about the 90s and you see a world of difference in the flow, in the feints, in the accurate combination punching, the conditioning, every aspect of it was better. There's not one thing the modernists can legitimately point to that's improved stylistically or tactically. Does that improve over time? It could, I suppose...…...some new mega-star could come out of the woodwork and regenerate interest in the game to spark a revival. It's a wasteland now though.
Do you have any thoughts on the much vaunted mega talents of recent years...? Fighters like Lomochenko, Roman Gonzalez, Crawford or even Inoue?
I agree but from experience on this forum it is indeed an unpopular stance. The Chavez of the Rosario fight is on par with any great LW in my mind
You do realize, that there's a world outside the US, right? Where boxing on TV wasn't always a given thing? My "career" as a boxing fan started back in the early 60s - where some of my first favorites were Ortiz, Harada, Locche, Jofre, Tiger, etc. However, being from Denmark, I could only read about these boxers, as boxing on the ONE channel we had back then was non-existant! It would be several decades before I was able to catch even a small glimpse of these greats - many years after they had all retired. So for me, now is the best time - where I can watch just about every big fight that takes place around the world. Either live, or the next day on YouTube.
Only ever seen Gonzalez, and I liked him. Never seen the others though. Look, there are always going to be people that CAN fight, in any era. I know that. But take a look at some of the regular things you'd see on the Gillette Tuesday night fights, like Spider Webb or Skeeter McClure or the like, just as one example. Now take the same fringe contender-ish level today and tell me there's improvement in what you see? Those guys weren't even fighting for titles, yet the depth of what they were doing eclipses by a mile their low-level contender brethren today.
