Could the elite boxers of yore beat the elite boxers of today?

if the fighters from the past had access to today's training, equipment and nutrition, yes. but if not, it would be like this years kansas city chiefs playing a 1950 packers team. a slaughter!

 

Yes

 

Their are no weight classes in professional American Football. Boxing is a sport of repetition. Today's heavyweights would have size advantages over most heavyweights boxers of the 1950's , they wouldn't have advantages in skills, mental toughness, and believe it or not endurance.
Men as skilled as Joe Walcott, or Ezzard Charles would be able to "read" the fighters of today because they are very predictable and telegraphed their punches.
So I wouldn't just assume fighters of the 1940's or 1950's would simply get steamrollled by the fighters of today. Especially below heavyweight.

 

The short answer is yes. Size difference cannot overcome skill, heart,determination, technique, conditioning and the harder lifestyles of the greats of the past.

 

I don't really see any "evolvement" in skills/ability over the last 80-90 years or so. If we go further back in time, it's another matter!

So I certainly wouldn't assume fighters from the 40s and 50s would be steamrolled today - below HW, that is! As skilled as they were, I don't think boxers like Walcott and Charles would stand much chance against today's giant HWs.

 

todays boxers get slaughtered. not even a contest

 

i do not

 

Depends on the era. I wouldn't say dudes from the Corbett era would be able to compete, however the amount of footage from that era is so limited that we can't fully judge everyone from that era properly. Some fighters look great on footage, while others look like they never took up a boxing lesson in their lives.

That being said, any elite boxer 1930s and on would thrive in the modern era. Even some dudes before the 30s. They frequently fought the best of their era, compared to modern dudes who cherrypick the **** out of their opponents (that's not to say people back then didn't, but I think we can all agree on how ridiculous it is nowadays). They would dominate most divisions, but I think heavyweight would be a bit too much for a lot of them. Cruiserweight and light heavyweight would immediately become the most stacked divisions

 

Yes, Jeffries would definitely whoop Lennox Lewis and Ketchel would teach Golovkin a few things about the finer points of boxing. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

Football was totally different back then, it was based on a brutal running game because throwing the football was dangerous for QB and receiver . Watch the old video's of receivers going over the middle against the Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh steelers. There were guys in the NFL in the secondary called the Assassin , the Hitman, and the Hammer. If you took todays teams back to 1976 they'd get assaulted. Conversely if you brought those teams to todays football half of the team would be ejected by half. Patriot tight end Russ Francis said it best," the Raiders on defense didn't always have the most talented players, but what they did have were some of the meanest son of a bi@#es who ever played the game.

 

Because it's not about "evolvement" but about "repetition". Lee Jun Fan summed it up
perfectly with "I don't fear the man who practiced 10,000 kicks, but I fear the man
that practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Meaning the key is the repetition . Being in the ring consistently, sparring and
fighting. Honing your skills until they are instinctive. Fighters of earlier era's
had a Hugh advantage in activity and experience.
They also were able to discover what they really did well and better than
anyone else. Look at Joe Frazier , one would think he was strictly one
dimensional. But what should've been a weakness, turned into an
overwhelming strength. That's developed by putting in the time.
Discovering what one does better than others, how to take advantage
of it.
Today's fighters have a "sameness" to them. With little difference
between . Some are more aggressive, some are southpaw
but they are very similar in style. In my opinion that's
lack of time and repetition .
Instinctiveness from repetition is what's missing in most
of todays boxers, They are "thinking "about hitting,
and not letting it hit all by itself". also from Lee Jun Fan.