Has the science of slugging changed?

I certainly think so.

The main reason is legs. You just don't see any good legs these days and the emphasis is on the plant your feet to do anything style. I do not think there are very many good trainers out there anymore and everything seems to be from the waist up. Very very little work done especially with brawlers/sluggers to put their feet in the optimal position before launching. Or better yet, throw effective punches while moving their feet. It can be done and used to be done all the time.

Even the boxers and their footwork has deteriorated and the only thing they seem to be capable of doing is moving and throwing a flicking style jab only. And no good left hook off the jab while moving those feet either. No follow up, just the flick. And the opponents still don't have the tools to deal with it.

Planting feet means less mobility and I think far less conditioning as well. That's a lot of movement and cardio to move the bottom half as well as the top half for 36 minutes. Imagine 45.. We are fortunate to see a guy with top shelf upper body movement only.

It takes a lot of work to develop good legs and keep them. A lot of polishing to pull it off and to keep it. In my opinion, you had to have good legs years ago to compete at the top level. It was as important as a chin and a defense. No longer though & mediocre footwork is successful in the present day.

 

the science of slugging has changed dramatically a fighter from the old days would look out of place in the ring today it would be the same as looking at the first airplane ever made and comparing it with the stealth:yep:think

 

Well, one important detail :
with the referees in the professional game today, it´s more difficult for sluggers (it´s same for swarmers too)......Imagine Ketchel or Saddler with Joe Cortez as a refferee, that "rough fight" simply wouldn´t work so well, I think.....

 

I think sluggers in the past fought more out of a crouch and didnt utilize as much head and upper body movement. Compare Marciano to Frazier for example.

 

Absolutely. His job in the Mayweather-Hatton fight was atrocious and completely negated Hatton's style.

 

Swarmer and slugger are the same to me. Dempsey still didn't have the upper body movement of a Frazier or Tyson.

 

He did and better!

Either way, Dempsey has never sat comfortably in the swarmer category for me.

I think that the pure swarmer, in the mould of Joe Frazier is probably the boxing style that has changed the least since the dawn of gloved boxing.

If I took Ricky Hatton back to 1900 and filmed him in black and white, would anybody see anything that looked out of place?

 

There have always been reffs like that.

Sam Lamgfords first loss to Sam McVea was largley a product of the reff not alowing him to infight.

 

Weve had this discussion before in another thread. I usually classify fighters the following way.

boxer (purely outside technician)
boxer/puncher (outside inside a mix of both styles)
brawler (same as slugger swarmer all offense at close quarters)

However you want to break it down theyre fighters that are all offense full steam ahead. I think the approach has changed a bit over the years because of how much the fighter is in harms way.

 

I agree to an extent here. But my biggest issue I think is fighters now a days IMO tend to move around a lot more. You look at a guy like Amir Khan who uses lots of lateral movement, same could be said for Devon Alexander, Andre Dirrell, Nonito Donaire etc....

These guys use a lot of energy in their feet movements, probably moreso than in the past as they have only 12 rounds compared to 15 so can be less conservative with their energy. Do you see any guys in the '50's say, who used that much lateral movement all the time?

Sure, Ray Robinson moved around but that was only occasionally he was at his best with his feet planted and a more aggressive stance IMO. Same with Ray Leonard or Kid Gavilan.

The first real guy that could be a 'lateral mover for the 21st century; is Chuck Davey and he never did that well in his era. I think he is more comparable to Khan, say, than Robinson to Khan.

But I agree footwork is a very important trait to have in a top fighter. But it should be noted that almost every top class fighter has really good footwork, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley, Ivan Calderon, Bernard Hopkins etc....

I'm not that much of a fan of the more aggression orientated fighters. But I don't think the actual 'science of slugging' has changed just that the quality of fighters exercising the laws of it, have decreased, as is the case of every style.

But current pound for pound number one Manny Pacquiao could be classed a slugger and he isn't too shabby is he?