Boxing is getting worse, not better!

I can remember these same arguments being made in the sixties and seventies. Having said that I don't think the present era is the strongest.
If you look at The Rings top ten P4P list it looks weaker than what it's ever been.

 

We must be careful not to make the mistake of comparing this moment in time with the entire body of boxing history. A snapshot against a running film, so to speak.

 

Another aspect that really hurts Boxing is the conept of multiple champions in each division. It used to be one champion in each division...one man that everyone recognised and all the contenders fought hard to get a crack at. I wish there was a way to get these "champions" in an elimination tournament to unify each division and end this crap once and for all...but I'm not holding my breath. It's all about the money..as it is now in all sports which is also why we have too many weight classes in Boxing as well. What's the difference between a SM and a middleweight...4 lbs or so? C'mon. Same with the other divisioins. lets go back to 8 divisions and 8 champions, not 12 or 13 with 30 or so "champions". It's ludicrous. Bring back 15 round fights and a lot of these superheavyweights would suddenly trim down as well. Maybe I'm getting older but I don't like what I see nowadays and that goes for all sports not just the Sweet Science. Btw who thinks Prince Fielder earned his right to his 214 million dollar contract with his performance against the Red Sox...214 million dollars...are you kidding me? Where's my time machine..I wanna go back...and take Burt with me!

 

Boxing is not as popular as once was......this is obviously true.
But at the same time, I think the variety of sports avaliable today is so much bigger that is hard to any sport to be as big as once was.....when tv had only a few channels and etc.....though there is so much more people in the world today....world population is what ? 3 times bigger than it was 30, 40 years ago ?

Most of these arguments are done in other sports as well.....older people from my family always say that the footballers from today are not as good as the ones in the 70s, 80s whatever.
They might be right, perhaps......but nostalgia plays a big part in those people (not saying that as a bad thing, just saying...even I get nostalgic about some things, sometimes, 90s were much better, 90s videogames were actually better! even though technically they were not lol)

 

Communism.

 

JJ, no need to, I'm already there !
For today's young pups [not all] to imply that the caliber of boxing can compare with the 1930s-1940s-1950s etc, is like saying today's music can hold a candle to the big band era...They call me an old nostalgia freak but so be it...For a slight example, give me a Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, Beau Jack, Kid Gavilan, Tommy Bell, Sammy Angott, Fritzie Zivic, Henry Armstrong, Johnny Bratton, Billy Graham, Willie Pep, Sandy Saddler, all lighter weights fighting each other almost monthly against the alphabet champs we have today...No contest...JJ keep up the good fight ...:good

 

Not being in the top 10 does not make a contender a bum. SRR fought a who's who list of great fighters for decades. You don't find that level of high level opposition today. The more any fighter applies his craft the better at it he becomes.

 

Please name me the so called "bums" that SRR fought in his prime years ?
Because you sir know nothing about these guys don't make them a "bum".
I have seen many of these "bums" you cite and these guys would easily be
contenders today...I talk about one era the 1940s for example and all these guys had over 100 bouts against the stiffest opposition in an era that had thousands of more pro fighters than today, along with hundreds of small fight clubs across the USA ,trained by full-time boxing trainers in the nation.."Practice makes perfect " it is said...And so with boxing...

 

Burt, I like your big band/modern music analogy! And when it comes down to it, isn't age what this is all about?

I'm not into big band music, because I'm from the generation that came after you. I was a teenager in the 60s, so this is where my musical taste was formed... and to this day I still prefer Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, etc. over ****** Bieber and Lady Gaga!

You grew up with Joe Louis, and believe he would flatten Ali for sure... I grew up with Ali, and believe he would completely outbox Louis (and I don't mean this to be a discussion about that!).

Nat Fleischer was from the generation before you, and he had experienced your Golden Age (1930s - 1950s) first hand... but a quick look at his All Time Rankings reveals that HIS "Golden Age" was the first decades of the last century. In other words, when HE was a young man! He thought Johnson was the greatest heavy ever, and had Louis as low as #6.

And if we go back another generation: In 1943 famous old-time referee Billy Roche rated the heavyweight champions he had seen until then - which was all the way back to John L. Sullivan! And guess who, he picked as the best ever?... yes, of course, the great John L.! This is how he ranked them:

1. Sullivan
2. Johnson
3. Fitzsimmons
4. Corbett
5. Jeffries
6. Tunney
7. Dempsey
8. Louis

Apparently he didn't think much of Louis, because he described Dempsey as 'too easily hit, yet, in my opinion, would quickly flatten Louis'.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...wYaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9iIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5410,1335625

It just goes to prove, that what you experience as a young person, makes a much bigger and more lasting impression than what comes later in life. It's just like with s-e-x: I bet each and every one of us remember the 1st girl we bonked... but how many can recall the name of no. 25?

 

Yeah, excellent point. We as a society are simpler softer than we used to be.
In the heavyweight division, boxng often gets the leftovers from other sports.
Among the big guys at least, boxing is much more often than not, not their first sport of choice.

 

Very clever of you to bring up a Gaylord Barnes, who Ray Robinson fought in 1964 when Robinson was a shot 43 year old fighter who was broke and foolishly fought to pay his expenses...I posted before that I am talking about a prime SRR....Clever, but no cigar....

 

SRR had to continue to fight way after his prime and during that time he fought anyone to get a paycheck. As Burt stated in his prime nearly every bout was against a who's who great fighter from that time period.

 

If you think times are soft in Ukraine, Sinaloa, Philippines or Poland... I suggest you put them on your travel itinerary.

In regards to getting leftovers, do you think lil' unathletic Joe Frazier would have made a dent in any other sport? Was football deprived of his athletic excellence? How about slow of foot Ali? Not many sports are desirous of guys who can't break 12 seconds over 100 yards. How about Tyson, who outside of the ring was apparently as clumsy and unathletic as they come? Or in the 70's and 80's were the TRUE heavyweight champs also in football or basketball?

 

I said WHO. Last time I checked Communism was not a person.