Do past fighters get overrated because of nostalgia.

gimme a break... No one treats them like god. And those who tend to pick past greats over today's 'contemporaries' tend to put an argument s to why. And Seriously, cut the dramatics...no one clutches their pearls saying HOW dare you!

 

The entire Classic section is full of it.

 

Young'uns tend to get offended too easily over this, rather then educating themselves on the older gen boxers. It's like they take it personal for some odd reason.

 

The thing is, athleticism doesn't necessarily translate to a better boxer. One need not be as athletics as other to be a superior boxer to them. It still all comes down to technique and skills. Boxing is just physical chess.

 

Haven't been there in a while

 

I think to accurately judge past fighters vs current fighters there are many factors people should think about. Let's start with the heavyweights...

Childhood nutrition has improved significantly over the last 120+ years. People are physically bigger (taller) than they were in previous generations

Steroids and PEDs exist and people are doing them, making them bigger (along with an increased focus on weight training and dieting to get bigger).

Top Heavyweights today fight once or twice a year, 3 times if we are lucky. They go through a full training camp focusing on beating a specific opponent, where in generations past they would be fighting all the time (minus some instances) and not having the luxury of these full fight camps.

Now take that for what you will. Do I believe every heavyweight in the past would destroy the current crop? No. Do I think just being born later has given heavyweights physical advantages over their previous generations? Yes. Could the heavyweights in the past still win over the current crop? Some could some couldn't, styles still make fights so it depends, but I do like trying to think how these heavys in the past would of done with the later generations advantages, also how the newer generation would have looked if they were born in a previous generation.

For the other weight classes I have similiar thoughts to other posters here. Same day weigh ins have previous generation middleweights fighting at welter, welterweights fighting at lightweight or below etc.

Also the business of boxing has changed. When I look at older gen fighters they were fighting top ranked contenders (and to be fair journeymen as well) all the time. There have been some fighters in the past that look like all time great killers but then stepped up and were found to be only at a certain level. Today we have boxers in their 30s who I have a hard time seeing them with any top ranked opponents, and yea they look good or OK against the journeymen, has beens, and fringe guys, but they haven't fought anyone at the top or haven't with any consistency. Its hard to judge those boxers, because they very well may be the goods but just never prove their mettle.

Like if DeLaHoya only ever fought the Charpientiers and Kamaus in his career but skipped the Whitaker, Trinidad, Hopkins, Mosley, Quarteys of the world, how can you accurately gauge his skill?

 

So the old days are the best? Got it.

 

Tell that to Roy Jones.

 

This^^^

 

Of course there are always exceptions. They aren't the standard bearer.

 

Ike Williams?? NO. Ike Turner?? Maybe

 

Classicists thought Marciano and Louis would smash Usyk.
They became much more quiet after Usyk beat 240 lbs Joshua.

 

No.

There’s some divisions today that are thriving.

There’s still plenty of great fighters around today.


The sport’s doing great, apart from the politics and the fact that there’s too many org’s.


What I’m saying is:

The sport doesn’t keep gradually progressing, it just ebbs and flows and has done for years.


Sometimes divisions are hot. They’re full of excitement with quality and depth.

Sometimes they’re okay.

Sometimes they’re weak and uneventful.


All of the divisions go back and forth throughout each decade.


The CW division of 2 years ago was absolutely thriving with Usyk.

It was the best it’d been in a long, long time.

Packed full of young talent, who were all looking to fight each other.

It gave us some great, exciting fights, with Usyk being the stand out fighter.

It was great to watch after years of dullness.


The HW division has also seen a resurgence with quality fighters and great characters.


Unfortunately, the SMW division is currently going through a weak period. We don’t have the quality that we once had with the S6 as well as years ago back in the 90’s.


You can go through each division, and there’ll all be at different stages regarding excitement, depth and quality.

That’s all I’m saying to you.


In 10-15 years time, the SMW division might be awful, it might be middling, or it could be better than it’s ever been in it’s entire history.

The point is:

We won’t know until we get there, and we can’t assume anything based upon what’s happening in other sports.

 

There’s nothing wrong with fantasy predictions as long as they’ve been well thought out and it’s based upon how they’d realistically have matched up stylistically.

I agree that there’s people on here who are very biased towards the old school fighters.

I’ve seen it myself.

Yet I’ve also seen it the other way, where a fan will scoff at the notion of an older fighter beating a modern one, not based upon styles, but based upon how long ago the older guy fought. And that is just as ignorant, if not more so.

There’s literally guys out there who are convinced that no pre-80’s fighter could even compete with today’s guys.

If someone gives me a fantasy fight question, the very first thing I’m looking at, is how I think their styles would have meshed, not on when the older guy fought.

IMHO, the guys who truly believe that no older fighter could beat a modern day one, literally don’t even deserve to be fans of this great sport.