In January 1824 at Pitchcroft, Worcester Spring fought against the Irish fighter Jack Langan. The fight was for a purse of 300 sovereigns (about £25,000 in 2010), and drew a crowd of some 40,000 and lasted 77 rounds Tom spring v jack lagan Another fighters name from Birmingham went many rounds eith spring also Tough tough men Different time different mentality
This 100%, the body goes through a complete shock during a weight cut, it weakens your nervous impulses and neural pathway.
I am curious to know what would happen if same day weigh ins were brought back. Would it make things even worse? A day early weigh ins were put in so the fighters would not weight drain...though it seems to have had an opposite effect.
The title of your thread is utterly ridiculous. No, the sport isn't at his peak. You've got an awful lot to learn.
Yes and No. Yes, if the fighters continued to handle their careers as they currently do. No, if everyone moved up a division and fought in their natural weight class. There is nothing natural about draining down and then rehydrating by huge amounts. Back in the day, guys like Foster and Hagler used to walk around only 5-6 pounds heavier than their fighting weight. We keep getting told by people how superior today's athletes are, with sports science etc, but the truth is, most of today's guys aren't as disciplined. In recent years, I can only really think of guys like Floyd and Hopkins who stayed in shape all year round, where they only had to drop a few pounds in order to make weight.
Nothing funnier then guys on here that think they are tough cause they WATCH boxing and talk about it with other guys on the internet. Even the old guys like foreman an tyson say that its another game right now. You know why cause they boxed and didnt sit infront of the keyboard all day, talking about some old ass fighters with clichee american names.
Who thinks they're tough? Certainly not me. I'm merely pointing out how silly your thread title is. If you've been watching the sport for 10 years, then I would assume that you'd looked into its history, if only for a brief moment. Like others have pointed out, guys back in the day used to fight literally every week. They amassed literally hundreds of fights throughout their careers. They also fought far more rounds, with less stringent referees, whilst wearing different gloves. Although fighters today still get sadly hurt and sometimes lose their lives, the sport as a whole was much more brutal in the past. There's really no comparison. What you've written is ridiculous. Go and educate yourself on the matter.
I remember watching Joe Calzaghe vs Peter Manfredo and thinking: “If Just one more slap lands from that last flurry Peter is going to be taken out on a stretcher” The level of barbarism that goes on in boxing today is unprecedented and should not be tolerated.
Definitely better nutrition today, better gear (gloves, shoes, etc) and refs are now more likely to stop a fight early these days. Boxers (the top ones at least) today train better/smarter and are more cautious about wearing headgear during sparring and not over-sparring and getting hurt. In the old days, guys fought much more frequently, some took bigger beatings on a regular basis, gloves didn’t have as much padding (they used horsehair) and refs let guys take severe beatings before calling a fight. Oh, and championship fights were 15 rounds. It’s a brutal sport today and was brutal back in the day. Weight cutting is more prevalent today but in the old days, you still had size mismatches because there were fewer weight classes. Also, there was less money in the sport in the old days and guys would often go into a fight with injuries, sometimes severe ones like detached retinas, concussions, badly broken hands, etc. My conclusion is that prizefighting is equally brutal but in different ways. It takes a special type of guy to step into the ring and risk his life and health to win a fight, a warrior. I respect the guys of today and the fighters of the past for taking the biggest risk a man can take. Boxing is and has always been a brutal sport.
The weight cutting thing is disgustingly bad.Serge posted a vid of Crawford when he was fighting midgets.Hes widely considered pound for pound no 1 and the example is there for all to see,that you can become a multi division champion if you can shrink down to fight smaller men? How long did we hear about Canelo not being a natural Middleweight,fighting at 155lbs and now he’s fighting at 175lbs and he’s not grown anymore at his age. Most folk understand what’s going on but how many on here now call other fighters for fighting in their division and not jumping about “daring to be great”. Boxing is a dangerous sport and always has been but cutting weight to fight weaker men and using PEDs to do so can’t help.
I think opinions need to change about the warrior side of things.Didnt bother me when Kell Brook took a knee against Spence as he’d had the same injury before and besides we all know Brook is a warrior. It’s the Nick Blackwell scenario that wants looking at where the fighter is getting blasted and won’t give up,some of these cases were blindingly obvious with guys taking repeated uppercuts ect.
