I chose eleven heavyweights from the current year and from year-end 1980 (Ring)ie the champion and top ten contenders. I compared them on several criteria with some predictable results and some surprising ones(to me). The categories were height, weight, age, number of fights before defeated, total number of fights when the ratings took place and the number of contests versus fellow rated boxers. The 2021 guys were Fury, AJ, Wilder, Usyk, Joyce, Ruiz, Ortiz, Hunter, Parker, Povetkin and White. The 80 boys were Holmes, Dokes, Page, Berbick, Weaver, Mercado, L Spinks, Coetzee, Cooney, Norton and Monroe. Firstly, weight-wise is as expected, the average for the '80 is 217 pounds, the present crop come in at 244.
Height is closer, a tad over 6-4 versus the older fighters 6-3. However, the older list had 4 undefeated fighter with the rest suffering their first defeat on average in their 15th contest while there are three unbeaten boxers now, with the others averaging a first defeat in the 25th bout.
Amazingly the average age of the top heavies now is around 35 but the 1980's contingent average was only 27 years old.
The stat for the average amount of fights surprised me, perhaps given the age profile it shouldn't have, 25 for the old fellas, 27 for the newbees.
A couple of things stick out to me. First, the year you chose for the old crew, 1980, was during a heavyweight transition period. Ali, Foreman, Lyle, Shavers, Frazier and others were basically done and Norton was on his way out. For the most part it was Holmes and a bunch of young bucks. We may see this again is a few years when most of the current top guys age out. Second, the fact that the current crop is eight years older on average but only have two more fights is a sad commentary on the state of boxing today. I am not blaming the fighters for this. They are a product of their era. Trainers think they should fight less often, managers and promoters are afraid to see their fighters lose so they won't put them up against other top fighters unless a title of some kind is at stake. Lastly, there are a lot less boxing promotions being put on these days, therefore less opportunities to fight.
Finally, the big surprise for me came in the total of the fights between the members of each squad, 7 for the 1980 v 17 for the 2021 group. As pointed out by Fogger, the earlier fighters were in a transition period and the present lot have a few trilogies and return fights in there but still...
Very surprising indeed! Another thing that strikes me, is that in the 1980 group there are 8 Americans, and not a single European! Whereas in 2021 we have 6 from Europe... and only 3 from the US. Things have certainly changed over the past 4 decades!
Moving back another 40 years, 1940 year end ratings, Louis, M Baer, Thomas, Cominsky, B Baer, Simon, Franklin, Savold, Walker, Burman, Godoy. average weight 202, height 6-2, and 11 fights between themselves with an average of 28, pretty similar to the 1980 list. But a great divergence in the number of fights, 55 and the first defeat came after an average of only 11 fights. Nobody had an unbeaten record and FOUR of the eleven lost either their first or second contest.
This is a fantastic quantification that really shows how it changed. Would love if we could do WW with fight night weight.
Finally 40 more years back, 1900. Jeffries, Fitzsimmons, Corbett, McCoy, Ruhlin, Sharkey, Childs, Maher, Kennedy, Martin and Griffin give us just over 6 feet in height, 185 pounds, 7 undefeated from debut, 50 fights at the end of 1900, average 30 and a whopping 28 contests between them.
Back then being undefeated just meant you didn’t fight anyone of note. You were expected to lose and learn from it.
When I look at the quality of different eras I look at the number of quality DIFFERENT opponents, not just when they fight the same dudes over and over again which isn't difficult at all. And in that, the ole timers are just not gonna stack up. They kept having these mulligan fights and it's like nah we good dawg. Gimme the modern fighters any day.