Prime Tom Sharkey vs Prime Mike Tyson

Some of these fights were not slow paced at all:

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I find it hard to believe, that boxers "back in the day" had better endurance than today. And I'm talking GENERALLY - so can we please discuss this, without pointing to today's fat heavyweights, as if they prove anything.

But, generally, with the added knowledge of physical training we have today - why would boxers from, say, the 20s, 100 years ago, be better conditioned than today? Can anyone make a case for this?

 

Easy: It's because men were men back then.

 

This.

 

I'm not a huge fan of the old ways, where exaggerated clinching was the order of the day. Not saying, that infighting wasn't an art in itself... but one punch, fall into a clinch, push and shove for a while until separated, and then repeat - well, that doesn't really do it for me. I much prefer to watch someone like Louis, who was always in balance, ready to fire combinations - without falling into a clinch.

Or how about a fight like this, with hardly any clinching at all, fought at a ridiculous pace:

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This is not what Gans and Nelson did in this footage

 

You're right... after taking a closer look at the footage, I realise we are treated to 42 rounds of wonderful boxing. And not at all round after round of boring infighting, which I thought at first. My bad...

 

Good to see that you made a second look then

 

Yes, and when I'm wrong, I'm wrong - not afraid to admit that.

 

Longer fights are going to select for people with better endurance than shorter ones.

 

You don't really believe that boxers 100 years ago were better conditioned (superior endurance) than today, do you?

Is there any rason to believe that, for example, an ATG fighter like Benny Leonard had better stamina than his LW counterpart a century later, Vasiliy Lomachenko?

 

I just gave a reason why.

Do you really think if they decided all pro boxing matches had to be 6 rounds or shorter, the level of endurance would be as good as it is now?

 

No, I don't think 6 rounds fights is enough to produce boxers with amazing stamina - but I think 12 rounds is. If you're going to fight 12 rounds with the kind of intensity we see in the Yaegashi fight a few posts back - you had better be in tremendous shape, if you plan to keep going like that, round after round!