I don’t see much boxing anymore. Just to cheap to pay for it I guess. I still catch a fight every so often if a friend wants me to chip in on a pay per view. However, I’m not an expert on current boxers so I’m throwing that out there. When I do watch a current fight, the boxers seem more cautious & defensive than in the past. Nobody seems to punch freely. They paw with the jab. They don’t take many risks. I watched the Wilder / Parker fight & they were both looking to avoid any punches. All boxers do that but there were moments where both guys were just staring at each other. Definitely not a Joe Frazier or Holyfield type of approach! I just wondered if I’m just getting a bad sample or are boxers all just more cautious today. I know there are exceptions like Canelo.
while i would say boxers today are a bit more cautious than in years past, i think you mostly just getting a bad sample, if you want to see a fight where caution was an after thought here is one from a couple of weeks ago Robeisy Ramirez vs Rafael Espinoza (09-12-2023) Full Fight - video Dailymotion
I haven’t seen the full fight, but from what I saw in the RBR, you could not have picked a worst fight to judge current boxing on.
It depends on the fight and also what you are comparing it to. Some of those old OLD school fights were boring AF where they stood around with their fists out in that wierd pose and feinted for 155 rounds. On the other hand I just rewatched some Mancini highlights and modern fights are tame compared to some of those slug-outs. On my third hand, we had guys like Babic etc around and they are all-action. This content is protected
Wilder-Parker was not a representative example. Their first round in particular was ridiculous. The same card has Dubois and Miller slugging it out.
A lot of the American boxers in lower weight categories are fighting very cautiously. I think it’s the corrosive influence of Mayweather with this obsession with never getting hit and preserving an 0 in lieu of building a worthy legacy.
It's "safety first" now...the "fighters" today are pathetic! When Gatti and Ward had their classic fights in 2002-2003...and fans went "WOW!"...then .you tell them that more than half the fights in the 1940-1950's were like this! Boxing has really taken a nose dive...that why the MMA is so popular...it sucks!!!
