I don’t know, I do understand what you’re saying. But I do think it is a bit of a lost art. I think if a trainer now found a really good prospect with a natural talent for fighting close (rather than just brawling) and on the inside they’d do worse than try to emphasise that part of their game. If the ref wants to break them all the time it’s that trainers duty before the fight to say let my guy fight his fight, he’s not doing anything wrong. I don’t think judges would be averse to it, it’s the ref that’s the problem. As for bigger gloves, again I understand the argument. I’d like to see more wrestling/infighting type fights, so much of boxing is just in and out fighting now, and I am a fan so not all fans want to see that type of boxing all the time
Give it a few decades and it’ll probably resemble what you see in those 1880s boxing manuals. After all it just became legal and the guys fighting are basically fighting as if they had 8-10 ounce gloves on.
Austin Trout trained extensively with a wrestling coach and a muay thai guy to improve his skills in the clinch before his first BKFC fight. I know this because a good friend of mine sponsors Trout- he provides all his ring wear and training gear. The biggest reason you don't see the inside skills and tricks you saw in the old time fights is the change in gloves. Clinching used to be a strategic tool to wear a guy down; there are ways you can grab him and just be dead weight holding on while he exerts a ton of energy trying to get loose. With modern attached thumb gloves you can't grab like that. In my opinion it was easier to catch or parry punches with the old gloves but harder to block punches.
I don't really think we can point to much and say its lost. Stuff falls away because of the changes in rules, then there's a latency period while you wait for the next generation of fighters to come up having trained the adaptations for years. However, almost everything gets repurposed, evolves or is just rare, but used by someone. The stuff we've actually lost (although this might be my own ignorance) is stuff that we don't even know about and haven't for decades. Stuff that wasn't written down and wasn't remembered by those who saw it. Truly lost. However, some stuff which I feel has fallen far out of favour enough to be to the detriment of fighters and fans alike, would be: - Prolonged Infighting: its already been talked about so far, but it seems that getting a few off and getting out is seen as the better strategy today and refs put limit it a lot too. - Fighting out of the Clinch: Almost completely alien to today's game, with brief clinches, less mobile gloves and less lenient refs. - Physical Controls: While yes again, they're are some today who are very good at controlling fights physically, there's been a lot less of it imo, specifically compared to the 40s and 50s. While almost all of this stuff exists broadly today, I find it to be much more watered down and less important. It also seems there's a new outlook, looking down on it and deeming it stupid or a bad strategy. There's also some cool ways guys from the earlier years threw punches which we're unlikely to see again. - Scissor Punch (Battling Nelson): Gorm an L with Index & Thumb, throw a hook to the liver, jamming the rigid thumb in. - Postman's Knock (Joe Gans): A double jab, thrown with the palm facing your face and wrapping the knuckles at their eyes as it lands. Twice. - Round Arms (Philadelphia Jack O'Brien): Thrown from an odd angle or bad position, land with the wrist or top/bottom of the glove; like a clothesline. May be thrown as an uppercut, hook or a overhand. - The Chop: "Use the Forearm as a handle and the Fist as a Hatchet". This is essentially an axe kick in punch from, thrown with a hammer fist. - McCoy's Corkscrew: Drive with a straight right counter. As the blow progresses, the palm is up but just as it connects, the hand is twisted inward and down. The arm is straightened with a vicious snap when landing.
Leon Spinks had a pretty brilliant approach to Ali’s rope-a-dope in the first fight, punching the arms and the point of the shoulders to make Muhammad arm-weary to reduce his speed and ability to try to steal rounds with late flurries. On a side note, we haven’t had a really great rabbit puncher since Frank Bruno.
On the championship level, the sport has unencumbered itself from anachronistic techniques and approaches. This is the best it has ever been.
I admittedly don’t watch as much current boxing, but I don’t think we have as many masters now who know how to put their hands on their opponents to manipulate them — either for offense or defense. Pernell Whitaker and Larry Holmes were as good as I’ve ever seen at it. No idea which fight, but I remember seeing Sweet Pea one time — his opponent was about to throw a right hand and he just reached out with his left and nudged or tapped the guy’s right shoulder. He unloaded the right and it fell maybe half an inch short because the starting point relative to his reach was a couple inches back due to that hands-on maneuver. Pea didn’t slip or dodge, didn’t even blink, because he knew he’d neutralized the punch before the guy even threw it. Maestro.
So not a single change needs to be made? How about this century then, which techniques have been left by the way side and improved the sport in its passing? What will be the technique of today that will shackle the future?