At what timeline do most living historians fail to give modern fighters the credit they deserve?

I will hold my hands up, and say that I deliberately rate active fighters conservatively.

Once the dust settles, you can make a firmer call.

 

Pretty much right up until the present moment.

I can remember when people on here when Lennox Lewis was basically freshly retired and people used to argue that Lewis wasn't a great fighter, let alone an ATG. Now he's pretty much cemented in the Top 5 at heavyweight, and a top 3 champion in many people's eyes.

People used to pick apart B-Hop's legacy, arguing that wins over William Joppy and Antwun Echols paled in comparison to guys like Tony Mundine and Fully Obelmejias. Now, like Lennox, he's cemented into history. GGG faces the same skepticism regarding his middleweight resume, but in 15 years the majority of people on this site will marvel over his genius.

This isn't a new phenomenon. I used to have an old issue of Ring or KO magazine where Bert Sugar said of a lightweight Julio Cesar Chavez: 'this bum wouldn't have lasted three rounds with Ike Williams!'