Paulie Malignaggi says old time boxers are trash

A little harsh on Jack but I love Paulie’s analysis 99 percent of the time. Someone worth listening to in a sea of fools.

 

Somebody needed to say it.

 

Malignaggi just told the truth.

 

I'm a fan of Pauli as well but got it wrong on this one!! That's quite alright nobody is perfect!! Still my favorite commentator period!

 

Yes, the sport has evolved all the way to the sophisticated techniques of Deontay Wilder.

 

Well I see (I think!) and agree with what seems to be your overall point, Seamus - that there are crude, clumsy fighters to be found in all eras, right up to today, and that simply fighting on HD colour television doesn't automatically mean you're technically better than someone who fought in black and white.

The difference, though, is that Wilder is just another Heavyweight alphabet titlist, whereas Dempsey to this day is still held up as an all-time great, one of boxing's immortals. I suspect if he was pressed to expand his points further, Malignaggi would essentially be arguing that the highest-rated operators of today and more recent eras would be technically sounder and more skilful that their similarly-regarded peers of Dempsey's time, not that everyone back then was awful and everyone today is better.

For what it's worth, I do think the late tens and twenties were the point where the very best champions started to look more complete and started displaying a style which you could see translate nicely in to all eras since - I just don't think Dempsey was amongst them. For me it was Tunney, Leonard etc. who raised the bar in that regard. But then again, maybe Heavyweights from the first two or three decades of the Queensberry era are at a disadvantage, as long periods of clinching and mauling to conserve energy over the much longer fights of the day was considered par for the course and the likes of Jeffries and Willard had, it was felt, shown the importance of durability rather than finesse and explosiveness. In terms of that boxing 'culture' the Heavies were probably a step or two behind the smaller guys.

 

Right great point! How bout Maidana??? First off the film quallity is just plain awful on alot of those old fights for these guys to make a fair judgement call. The speed is slowed down and not the correct frames making alot the fighters look stiff and crab like. I saw a video on youtube colorized and time corrected of Max Schemling knocking out Joe Louis. Was shocked to see how good they looked was amazing! Not to mention the talent pool of active fighters back then was way way way deeper. I like Pauli but he would get walked over and destroyed in any other era just the truth!

 

Paulie KO’s Jack in about 4

 

I wonder how many fights of the period he's actually watched.

I mean it's not his job to watch fights from 100 years ago.

 

https://simplecast.com/s/6abea119

Just after 28min he also says Jack Johnson took a dive against Willard, which obviously isn't true.

 

Yeah, he's been the best* mainstream commentator in the game for quite some time now.

*(Assuming we judge commentators by the quality of their insights and not by their accents, the timbre of their voices, or how much they remind us of our fathers and uncles, etc.)

 

Well that's what Johnson said, which could just mean he hasn't seen the fight and just read reports

 

I would doubt very many...and as you say that is not his job....

He is a dreadful commentator, I can’t believe so many like him. He is so biased and agenda driven that the only time I agreed with him was after the Wilder Fury decision was announced he said “I can’t even do my job”....and I thought finally he has an accurate observation and evaluation. In this instance I totally agree with him