When you here throwback now a days, it normally means the fighter sucks, and should be thrown back to the amateurs!!! In this era, the sport has lost so much of its charm, and apart from the I got a attitude fighter (which was kind of done over 40 years ago with heel Ali), there are so few characters now a days. Whatever happen to the good guys in the sport? Or at least an original character?
Ha ha! True! My father told me about a guy in the UK called 'Bionic' Billy Bagget (i think thats how its spelt) who used to read the newspaper between rounds and one time had a cup of tea, saucer and all. Lost 80% of his fights mind you but he was a real crowdpleaser and everyone rooted for him
Fighters are a product of their eras, their rules. They are a composite of all the numerous factors which are ever in flux. This is part of the reason why drastic (one hundred years apart) comparisons are a little unrealistic; unless of course there's an illustrated trade-off in rules. Put Bob Fitzsimmons against Roy Jones in 1997 and Fitzsimmons is either out-boxed or disqualified for trying things 'below the belt'. Reverse the scenario and Jones is either battered to the floor or quits amidst the gritty conditions. Relative is the key word here. The 1930's to the 1960's is often considered, as general as such a space of time is, the true 'Golden Era' of boxing and it is to do with the fact that in relation to our 'idea' of boxing this era of time and its fighters seem to possess the ideal medium between grit and flair. In thirty years times, as the increasingly 'clean' fighting is praised the consensus demography will shift, just like tectonic plates, and the ideal period will start and end later. The general rule states, with good grounding, that the oldies were tougher, but boxing is a contest that will always produce men willing to give it all up. A fighter like Michael Katsidis you could wedge inside the 1920's and he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
interesting topic yes tough times breed tough times but still many places in all parts of europe and russia are tough even england has places you dont want to step foot in. the same goes for latin and north america. but to be honest sometimes its hard to figure some things you see old timers traded bombs with smaller gloves and not as many kos as today with bigger gloves not to mention routine ko's in mma with small gloves. are the guys tougher? were the refs slower to stop fights? or maybe the guys just didnt hit that well, one can say a hungary man, is fighting for his life so has more will but then again he is probably weaker and to be honest losses seem to be more accepted then now very hard to question but something gives lol
Tough times exist right now in Mexico, Philippines, Ghana, Argentina, Ukraine... Tough times are fluid geographically but always exist.
There is massive pockets of poverty throughout the world. The difference now a days is, Boxing lacks the top level glamour it once had. If you want to break out of poverty, why dream of getting hit in the head, if you can make just as much money with arguably more fame, bouncing a Basketball or kicking a Football?
Old time fighters (pre 1980's I would say), were tougher... There was no such thing as a damn glass jaw before then....and they were programmed to absorb great punishment, which is why most of the surviving ones cant string a sentence together nowadays. (Watch the docu - Facing Ali)
Janitor would have you believe that if the 'upto scratch' rules were in effect in the modern era, Mike Tyson would have a record of 50 wins by way of decision and no knockouts
Just found out about this. Was going to post it here, but did a quick search to see if anyone else had. Carlin had some great podcasts in the past, and I'm looking forward to giving this a listen this week.
I really think that it depends from fighter to fighter. I think that careers back then paid less for more fights. That said there are some real hard cases around today that would have been tough in any era. I mean let's recall dudes like Briggs and McCall. Duhaupas took everything Wilder could throw at him and was still ready for more when the ref stopped it. Vitali had his face hanging off strips of meat and he threw a tantrum when it was stopped. Murata took many bombs from hell from GGG that would have dropped most guys cold and it was his corner that stopped it. In another context, MMA, I know of guys that would rather get beaten to death than give up. My main man Vovchanchyn nearly killed a champion Japanese judoka called Inoue before the callous ref reluctantly called a stop to the ritual sacrifice. Vovchanchyn himself at ~210lbs fought 3 guys all over 260lb with no time limit rounds in one night to win a tournament and finished the last guy with his own jaw shattered. Fight commentary in English: This content is protected There's plenty hard AF guys around today.
Agree! Intestinal fortitude (or whatever we want to call it) is something everybody has - to a greater or lesser degree. In a boxing ring, some will be looking for the exit, when things start to hurt - while others will give it their all, rather than give up. Heart, toughness, etc. is obviously not related to a specific era - but is an individual thing.
