In most sports the current guys are better than previous eras, why would boxing be any different?

There is nothing new under the sun. This thread is the arrogance of youth vs the rose tinted spectacles of the aged. I lean towards age as it has a greater wisdom.

 

Just because Big Baby Miller injected himself with half of Colombia doesn't make him a bad boxer, eh.

 

Right.

Would they have had a pose down, or would they have had a fight?

I guess you must have missed where Andy Ruiz (My 86 year old Grandad had a better physique) ran over AJ 12 months ago.

 

I would just stop embarrassing myself and find another thread.

Your posts are cringeworthy and illogical.

 

Yeah so lets use analog phones then and kill each other because of nationality and over stupid things just like in the good old days then.

 

you re not smarter bud,but good debate anyways. Age 20 yrs and come back.

 

I don't think anyone will argue, that with each decade every division is better than in the previous decade (or any other decade, for that matter). As has already been pointed out, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes a division is filled with talent - at other times not so much.

To me the question is this: Disregarding selected peaks and lows, is there a slow, general progression over time - that makes today's boxing (in terms of skill/ability) better than in the old days?

This depends on what we consider "the old days". If we're talking 40 years ago, I would say no. 60 years ago - also no, imo. 80 years ago - no, still can't see it!

80 years ago, by the early 40s, Louis was HW king and Pep and Robinson were just entering the pro ranks - while Moore and Charles were already starting to make waves. 5 of the absolute greatest and most skillful boxers of all time! Over the last 80 years, I honestly don't see any clear progression from that.

 

Because people cant let go of their old favorite fighters and get very emotionally upset If you question their opinion. Granted there are a few which are fighters of the century... Meaning If they fought In any era they would dominate.

Foreman, Duran, Sugar Ray, Hagler to name a few. A very small few.

 

Wilder shows that skills don't get better. Fury shows that fitness isn't at an all time high. Miller, Ruiz, and Kownacki pretty much explode the fitness myth by themselves. People are taller now. That's it.

 

The myth of unlimited progress? Math isn't like boxing. Things have natural limits in the natural world. Very few things are like math where they can progress for thousands of years. Boxing is like a man who grew up and stopped growing. If we grew for a hundred years we'd be gigantic. But we don't. We grow for about eighteen years and then we plateau for the next eighty.

 

I was watching Liston vs Williams in the other thread and I was pleasantly surprised how technical both me were. Most HWs nowadays haven't a clue about basic things like parrying, slipping, cutting off the ring. Kownacki literally blocks punches with his face and can't get any hip or leg drive into shots. Whyte has no understanding of how to control the power of his punches, and constantly throws himself off balance. Wilder is Wilder. No need to go any further.

There are still technical fighters at HW but nothing out of this world. If anything the HW division is cruder nowadays than it has been at any time since the early to mid thirties. I'm not expecting scintillating technical brilliance, but there's just a lack of fundamental skills in many fighters nowadays that you would take for granted in the past.

 

Boxing is like music, film or literature. You can talk about technical improvements all you like but you're still working with many of the same ingredients you were working with a hundred years back and in many cases the end product is inferior.

 

Ah come on you guys marveling about the past using a computer and internet with youtube etc. is kind of ironic.

 

no 100% not.
Thats the thing in Music their is no better, only because one plays faster guitar then someone else doesn't make him a better musician. Because music is not intended to be a technical competition.
If there would be a speed playing contest where the top ten guitar players would earn millions if dollars, I assure you people today would be the fastest and way faster then in the 60s.

Thats the thing with sport, when million of people try to be better then the rest then this is going to result in consistent development.

 

there is literally no sport that has somehow reached a sealing in terms of what athletes can accomplish. Just last year a guy performed a marathon in under 2 hours, which was described as impossible decades ago.
Professional sport also isnt around that long to assume that their is any kind of plateau.
We might hit one in a dozen decades but for know, combined with the globalization almost any sport is going to consistently develop.
But a lot you guys will start talking some bs about boxing being some mystical contest.