Boxers have regressed a lot

We are definitely in the weakest era of boxing I think most fans have ever seen. It's not too often the top 2 or 3 p4p guys are ****ing 35 years + ......Marquez, Floyd, Pac, Martinez :verysad


The glamour divisions used to have a slew of top contenders and a great champ too. Now look...even at lightweight for example. Or welterweight. Randall Bailey and Malignaggi who couldn't hack it in a deeper 140 lb division are now titlists years later.

 

Couldn't agree more. Many fighters today are talented and skilled, but so few are truly complete. Duran-Leonard is a great example of mind-blowing use of defense, feints, and overall skill while still delivering harsh offensive exchanges between them.

 

I'm holding on hope Ward/Dawson produces a McCallum/Toney like display of everything that's great about the sweet science.

But I'm not holding my breath with both fighters history.

 

All I can say is thank god that there is so much good film out there of old fights. I don't need anyone to tell me Floyd would whoop Duran or Leonard, when watching their fights it's clear as day what would really happen. Really I think boxing is just too tough of a sport for most people. As the country has improved economically and given more options to people it is much harder to convince yourself to make a living getting bashed in the head.

 

I agree. I was just having this conversation with one of my coworkers the other day. It just seems like brawlers and boxers are a bit sloppier than they used to be. Heavyweights don't even come to the ring in shape anymore. That's shameful imo. It also looks like a lot of brawlers are having trouble finishing (unless it's a one-punch ko). And boxers don't look as crisp anymore. I don't know maybe I'm trippin, but it definitely feels like it.

 

This is a very weak era of boxing man. Spot on with that.

 

Boxing isn't as popular as it once was, and so the talent pool going into it has decreased. Although I think advances in nutrition, steroids etc probably make up for the loss in natural talent, they don't make up for the lost expertise from coaches and trainers that has left the sport and not been replaced.

 

I can watch these fights all day long .

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKK_aN0pBaw[/ame]

 

I completely disagree. Fighters have been becoming better and better generation by generation.

 

Ok that is easy to say , give me an example of the above.

 

i just miss good old fasion body punching!!.

im really starting to hate how inactive fighters are these days aswell.. once a year is a bit of a joke,

imagine the old days watching your fav fighter take on an opponent every month or so

 

What a load of shite. Talking about forgotten skills from old trainers :rofl
As competition and athletes improve the spectacle is always going to look messier. In the old days there were so few top fighters so the better ones stood out more. When competition is stronger it's harder for them to hit each other, not easier. Every sport evolves and improves with age.. Is boxing the only sport that doesn't? It's a sport full of tradition and heroes, take your rose colored glasses off and look at the reality of it. Take away all the sentimentality and you'll see that putting a guy even like David Haye back in the 70s would result in him being seen as an atg today.
Time to get real and be objective about it. No boxing isn't in it's golden years of popularity, get over it and stop looking at it as being inferior to what it was just because it's not as mainstream.

 

ur points are valid and i love the examples ur using...but there are some highly skilled fighters still in the game.


bhop
toney
floyd
cotto
ward
dawson
jmm
rigondeaux
moreno
calderon


these are all guys that can do all the things u just mentioned.

the other guys u mentioned from the past are legends....hof fighters. there were very many less skilled guys back then as well...check the highlight reels of the the ones u mentioned and they'll be the guys on the receiving end.

 

But of course there are even fewer people making boxing their career today than there was even 10-20 years ago, thus making the talent pool shallower, not deeper. And no one has questioned the athletic improvement of guys taking part in the sport in today, but instead the point is that it's been complemented by a decline in skills. Your alternative explanation is not the least bit persuasive.

No they don't. Try to find someone who argues for instance that women's tennis is better today than it was in years past.

Yelling at people to get real and questioning the objectivity of anyone who dares disagree with your opinion, supplemented with a completely unsupported counterfactual, is not the most convincing argument in the world.

Boxing not being as popular is precisely one of the reasons the quality displayed in the sport is not as high as it is today. Shallower talent pool + fewer qualified professional trainers do not sound like characteristics one would associate with a healthy sport.