Boxing & Horse Racing vs the other sports

Considering that the protection 60 years ago would be equivalent to Rugby's (and that Rugby players aren't massive today) I'd suspect that modern footballers would get smaller if you readopted older rules.

 

I should include it in the "what every boxing historian should know" type thread, since old vs. new comes up a LOT.

 

Copied from my other thread:




"How do you determine whether one is strong or weak? As a result of some discussions with China_hand_Joe (who, despite his trolling, seems to bring out the best in the Classic forum), I would recommend a three-point program...



1) Skill of the fighters -- This encompasses both the average amount of experience top fighters have (number of bouts + quality of opposition) and how good they look on film.

2) Talent pool -- How many fighters were active? Was the culture supportive of boxing (lots of gyms in various places, well-televised)? Were there good (and frequent) books available to teach novices? Interestingly, poverty is an important indicator as well, since many of the best fighters seem to come from poorer backgrounds (their motives may vary, but their performance was usually pretty good).

3) Training -- How well were the fighters trained, i.e. how "scientific" were their training regimens by modern standards? How hard did most of them work? (Work ethic is often overlooked)"

 

Thorpe is a deserving charter member of the Pro Football HOF. However, I don't consider him to have been so great an NFL player, but mainly with Pop Warner's collegiate Carlisle squad. I also tend to think of him as having been a successful collegiate footballer before attaining his Olympic fame.

What you've stated in your post is perfectly acceptable to me. This is a former interest of mine, one I've long since detached myself from a passion for.

 

An interesting point, although the main reason rugby players aren't TOO massive is because they have to have exceptional cardio-vascular fitness to keep moving for two halves of 40 minutes. Since bigger people are limited in their potential for such endurance, even the forwards in rugby can only be so big before they're inadequate.

 

Which of course is the position many hold to regarding the typical size of the world class heavyweight boxer during the 12 round era. I'm thoroughly convinced that we'd see the use of growth enhancing substances, and their effect on size, abruptly taper off to 15 round era levels again, if the true championship distance was restored.

 

I wrote this in response to a question on another thread about which techniques, if any, have declined. Rather than let it get lost, I post it here for your perusal (and critique).

 

I really want to apologize for that response I posted on the lounge. It was supposed to read "I DON'T know as much as you fellows . . . "
It is a really embarressing typo and I will have to learn not to drink and post at the same time. I am certainly not foolish enough to think I could write anything with nearly the insight of your above post.