Boxing has never been tougher and more brutal then now

Yep we can feel it and in those scenarios time is of the essence.

 

I don’t necessarily agree. Back in the day you literally had to beat a guy into submission to get a knockout whereas today you just flurry on an opponent and the ref jumps in.

It’s a rough sport for sure. Still is and always was. There’s a long list of brutal KO’s and unfortunately it happens.

 

I totally agree, and my opinion has changed with some of the recent severe injuries and deaths we have witnessed. Brook took some major shots to his blown out orbital in that fight. Some of the comments he received from the keyboard warriors made me sick. I was just saying the nature of the sport is one that requires guys to be warriors. Anyone who has been punched in the face can tell you this. I broke my hand in a fight and the pain was intense. When I see boxers routinely fight with broken hands it amazes me. And I realize a broken hand is considered a minor injury. It’s only minor, I guess, if it happens to someone else. Can’t imagine fighting with blown out orbital.

 

Why wouldn't they make it so that you come into the fight at the weight required like a fair competition would demand?

 

I'm not sure if it's too well documented but it's a certainty that weight cutting doesn't help with punch resistance and these injuries almost exclusively happen late in fights when the fighters are exhausted. In the amateurs we never observe this level of damage taken, long term brain injuries are almost nonexistent in the sport.

 

Because guys drain themselves of water so as to squeeze into lighter weightclasses.

If you walk around at 205, would you rather fight at HW or cruiser? Let's say you could drain yourself to 175. Would you rather fight Joshua and Wilder or Bivol? Its obvious.

So guys parched themselves and made lighter weightclasses. Fighting the same day the fluid around their brain doesnt get a chance to replenish, and then getting punched a bunch in the head means brain damage. Unless weightcutting is outlawed completely (and how would you really know) then its better to give guys a chance to rehydrate than to have a generation of boxers that need to learn to tie their shoelaces again come age 40.

 

Absolutely, weight cutting negatively impacts punch resistance. What it does do is allow you to face smaller guys. However, when everybody is doing it, it becomes a bit of a farce.

 

I understand the sentiment but if a fighter elects to fight at a certain weightclass shouldn't they just walk around at the weight required for it? If you're going to fight at 200 walk around at 200. I think the heavyweights already are much bigger than they need to be so maybe a new weight class could be introduced there, say between 200-215 or 220.

 

Exactly, I walk around at super flyweight or bantamweight naturally but I could cut to strawweight and beat up on 5'2" Asian midgets all day. Thing is, half the division is pretty much in my position as it is.

 

People just don't like to diet and watch their weight all year. I guess that "random weight checks" could be introduced to check walk-around weight but ... yeah, I don't see it.

 

Yeah, not even close, lol.

It’s sad that fighters die after being KO’d but nowadays it seems to be trough their own doing - cutting weight too much damages their bodies more than any opponent could.

There have been multiple examples posted of how gruesome fights were back in the day and how tough the fighters were. Imagine them cutting weight the way modern boxers do.

 

Pretty good thread. Quite a few disagree with you, but it brought out some really good examples of hard fights I didn't know of.


side note- My most memorable conversation with a boxer was Micky Ward. After praising his career, I said, my little bro, I am just happy to hear you speak well, retire with faculties.
Man, we had about a 10 minute talk-well I listened to him tell me in detail how he had bad headaches after Gatti I. His vision blurred...days later.
It taught me how bad fighters feel afterward, but we rarely know just how brutal it can be.

I'm sure you could do without the criticism, LOL, but you (& me) got a class on past fighters sustaining injuries yet still fought on!

 

Not exactly that they have to walk around at the weight all the time, but they should be at the weight they need to be for their weight class fully hydrated at the time of the fight.

 

It's a good idea in principle, but in practise I suspect it will be difficult to implement.

 

I think the issue is the boxers are getting bigger stronger and more athletic as sports science grows

that means the ability to do deadly damage increases.

But I would create a system that said if a fighter is way down on points through 8 or 10 on all judges scorecards then he is pulled out of the fight automatically without a corner say so. Why let a fighter just survive for the sake of it. Its why I was so concerned watching Allen take a round by round hammering of yoka a year ago. Its a fighter taking a brain-damaging beating just for the sake of pride, Jeff Lacy the same years back against Calzaghe.

It would annoy a lot who want brutal kos but its a sport not a street fight and it would help long term.