A lot of historians and boxing expert feel like lewis is probably the last great heavyweight we will ever see.
Boxing technique hasn't really improved since the thirties and the era of Armstrong, Ross, Canzoneri, McLarnin, etc. It began to drop off sometime around the 80's when boxers were fighting less often and old time coaches started dying off or retiring.
Yes, conversation among fighters in a boxing gym is nothing like what one reads on the Classic board. I heard a pro MMA fighter say a few days ago that he watched SRR and he was "wild swinging and only won because he was fighting short Italians." The boxers talking with him agreed with him and they weren't complimentary about Willie Pep, Joe Louis, etc. It's funny to read the take of fans and then hear what boxers have to say. The opinions found at the Mayweather Gym in the Youtube video when boxers were asked who would win between Andre Ward and Marciano would be the opinion in most boxing gyms. Most of them took Ward without hesitation and some of them almost laughed at the question. Modern boxers mostly laugh at old time boxers on video while fans try to invent reasons that what the old timers were doing was a "lost skill." People doing a sport aren't stupid, if it works they keep it, if it doesn't, it eventually gets tossed aside. Skills and techniques aren't "lost", they're discarded when they don't work. The new technique change that is becoming more prevalent is fighters fighting with their strong hand forward. I'm not sold on that yet, but there are a lot of top fighters who do it. Then, there are a lot of new fighters who change from orthodox to southpaw depending on the situation in the ring. It does cause confusion and it might be the thing of the future. Boxing will always improve, and it's a world wide sport now.
With the fall of "The Wall", and the influx of talent from countries that previously had no pro boxing - surely the worldwide talent pool has grown over the past several decades?
Early 2000s The interest in boxing as a whole had already declined in America by the end of the 90s ... Lucrative contracts in other sports where your brain isn't scrambled appealed more to younger aspiring pro athletes over boxing ...
Non heavyweights, I'd say fighters from the 1940s look absolutely complete. Heavyweights, who knows, you could argue that one all night, probably the heavyweights will continue to get very slightly better every decade for the next 50 or 60 years if the money stays in it, but the natural variance will rule, that curve won't be up.
Im America, maybe. It's bigger than it's ever been in the UK, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, The Phillipines, Japan...
Well my wider point is - you've selected your point for boxing regressing as the 00s. That's when boxing began a downside in America post 90s, agreed, but why would it be on a downside as a sport if it's on the up in many more countries, just because in the USA it was on the downside?
The question was about improvement I don't see any improvement from modern day boxers when compared to boxers from older times, regardless of where they are from Skill wise they are not better ... They can reach the same level but I don't see anyone is more skillful
