I was saying that boxing is more skill based than other sports. The other point was: The outcome of a boxing match will always be determined by how the opponents match up stylistically. A fight isn’t determined by who’s the biggest and strongest.
Look if you're not impressed with 90s HWs, or 2010s HWs, or 70s HWs, that's fine (though I don't understand what you like about boxing?), but when he KO'd Moorer he was in the top 10. You can easily downplay any fighter: blown up CW weirdo Usyk, fat lazy coke head Fury, etc etc but these guys overcome those shortcomings to be among the best (as Foreman did in the 90s).
To directly answer the threads title... Because boxing is apart from other sports. It has no linear evolution. Just peaks and troughs. If we allow for an acclimatization period, fighters like Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis are going to do damage.
I suggest to stop arguing with the these people. A lot of their opinion comes from self validation, they want to convince them selves and others that what they used to watch when they were young was something special or unique. The idea that the fighters you were adoring 30 years ago would be wiped out by today’s top 50 guys just breaks their heart. I have always said that unless boxing doesn’t undergo any massive changes or the sport becomes very unpopular the fighters in 30 or 40 years will be on a completely different level than current fighters, We will probably see something like a 7 foot giant with some sort of muscle definition that can move almost like fury.
You are truly one of the most ignorant posters I’ve seen on here. You always enter these threads and make stupid comments, before you’re then asked questions which you can’t answer, before then doing one of two things: 1. Claim that you were just joking. 2. Leave the thread. Now how on earth can you assume that the fighters in 30-40 years will all be better than today’s guys?? What on earth is this based upon? Are the fighters going to be 10ft with extra arms or something. Boxing does not keep progressing every decade, where the fighters keep getting better. If you disagree then simply answer the question that I always ask you, which you never answer: If boxing keeps progressing, then why are there a NUMBER of DIVISIONS today, that aren’t as good as what they were 20-40 years ago?? There are many fighters from 30 years ago who would wipe out some of today’s guys. Fights are determined on skills and styles, not on someone’s D.O.B.
It’s great that you know of him. I like both of them. I saw Rufus recently, but I’ve been listening to Loudon’s music for years.
As to the decline of boxing compared to football, it's not really a point I raised, and I'm no expert, but I did run across an interesting comment about the pay gap in the 1970s between elite football players and elite boxers. It comes from a Yahoo article about the exhibition between football player Lyle Alzado and Muhammad Ali in 1979, quoted below: "'When Denver writers belittled the exhibition and ripped him for saying he could lose his house – which he had put up for collateral for the promotional costs – if Denver fans didn’t step up and buy tickets, that was unfair. It was true,' Terry Frei wrote in his book, "77: Denver, The Broncos, and a Coming of Age." "His restaurant was in huge trouble, and he was on the way to financial oblivion." It wasn't like players in the late 1970s made the crazy salaries of players today; Alzado was said to have been making $90,000 annually from the Broncos, and wanted $200,000 a year. He was supposed to make $100,000 for the Ali fight. [...] Financially, the bout was a nightmare. The broadcasters said Alzado hoped to get 50,000 or even 60,000 people to watch the fight. Reporters there estimated the crowd at 20,000, but only 11,128 paying fans were in attendance (I get it was a farce, but there weren't more people in Denver who wanted to see Ali in person?) according to UPI. The fight made about $209,000 and Ali was guaranteed $250,000. Alzado was supposed to make $100,000, but ended up with nothing. Nine years later the promoters and Alzado were still fighting a legal battle all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court, over money owed. A jury awarded Alzado $92,500 but an appeals court reversed the decision and the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed that reversal. To make this strange story even stranger, that case is now studied in business law textbooks. There is no definitive word on if Alzado lost his house over the fight." From: https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.y...gainst-muhammad-ali--seriously-143808020.html Contrast Alzado's $90k a year to Ali's earnings per actual, non-exhibition fight, which could reach millions apiece.
He would still have a great reach, power, and he'd be about as tall as Andy Ruiz. With modern weight rules, he could probably start out as a crusier.
Agreed...not at heavy. But again, he could start out at cruiser, and be competing to be a two-belt champ.