Do you believe that IN GENERAL, fighters from previous eras were superior?

No...but I can respect the opposing opinion aslong as they don't use the ******ed better nutrition excuse.

 

This.

 

Not even close if you ask me as I stated above. If you think guys like Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey couldn't hang with the Klitschko's for instance I think you're sorely mistaken.



The size difference alone would be a hurdle to great for them to overcome. By todays standard those men would be cruiserweights. Dont give me that Dempsey beat Willard crap either because Willard was an unskilled bum.

 

Let's check other sports. Basketball, tennis, soccer or track & yield. Were classic athletes in general superior to their modern day peers? :deal

-What about a 1950 soccer world championship team fighting the 2010 winner. What an embarrassing mismatch would this be?
- What about the 1940 tennis champions against Feder and Nadal?
- Or what about a 1960 MVP basketball team vs. a modern day MVP team? How would the classic team do?
- What about a 100m race between 1936 Jesse Owens vs. 2010 Ursain Bolt. Heck, have it barefooted if anyone thinks it makes a difference, it's still a mismatch

Good classic boxers from the classic eras would get owned, destroyed and emabrassed by good modern day fighters. Boxing is just another sport out of many. Nothing special or mythical about boxing even if the Classic Forum nutheads want to believe that.

 

What, specifically, has changed for boxers?

 

I think at the very top era dose not matter. If your going to be great your going to be great in 2012 or 1921.

As far as depth goes? I'm not sure. I think because boxing was a more popular sport in the past. There was more intrest in it. Making the talent pool deeper. The sport is more global now, which is good. However I'm not sure if the boxers are better.

 

It's not more global though, you've always had Asian, European and African boxers. The reason they seem more prevalent is because the American standard has declined, giving them more opportunity for recognition.

 

If boxing has improved so much why are the top fighters inferior to those 20-30+ years ago?

The comparison with other sports argument falls short everytime because of youtube, the footage & evidence is there for all to see.

No other major sport has regressed the way boxing has, professional & amatuer.

 

So many intangibles, but it's very clear to me after watching the actual fights from the Joe Louis era to today that this era is pretty poor next to the 1980s. Hagler EARNED that belt and held onto it against stiff competition; nowadays they create paper belts at the drop of a hat. Khan is a "WBsomething super champion", right?

One champion in eight weight classes means that champion can FIGHT in the early parts of the century ... but athleticism and intangibles seemed to improve and improve and improve UNTIL the 90s. Then there were a few exceptional fighters but I think real athletes are now attracted to other sports ... except for the little guys. I would throw Marquez, Barrera, Morales, and Pac in against ANYONE their weight in history, but they are the exception and a bit past their time - the era coming up seems much much much technically weaker than them and incomplete.

All I have to say about modern conditioning is watch Holmes Norton and tell me two heavyweights today that could do that for 15 rounds.

 

Compare are best to 2000's and 1990's and 80's

1980

KO Magazine (January)
1 - Roberto Duran
2 - Sugar Ray Leonard
3 - Wilfredo Gomez
4 - Danny Lopez
5 - Pipino Cuevas
6 - Alexis Arguello
7 - Larry Holmes
8 - Wilfred Benitez
9 - Vito Antuofermo/Matt Saad Muhammad (tie)


1990

1. Julio Cesar Chavez
2. Pernell Whitaker
3. Michael Nunn
4. Antonio Esparragoza
5. Meldrick Taylor
6. Evander Holyfield
7. Mike Tyson
8. Raul Perez
9. Myung-Woo Yuh
10. Khaosai Galaxy


2000

1. Shane Mosley
2. Felix Trinidad
3. Roy Jones Jr.
4. Oscar De La Hoya
5. Diego Corrales
6. Naseem Hamed
7. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
8. Lennox Lewis
9. Erik Morales
10. Bernard Hopkins

 

The thing is, you can look at tape and see that specific techniques (for example fighting out of clinches, shoulder rolling, and feinting) are largely lost on today's fighters (with notable exceptions).

 

you don't need to think of a classic era boxer in his prime and put him up against a modern boxer, you can take a fat, slow, far degraded version and see how he actually did.

george foreman came back after a decade out of the ring, fatter, slower and less skilled, won the heavyweight title and gave the likes of holyfield and briggs competitive fights. this is the foreman who was not the best of his era, who went life and death with ron lyle and jimmy young.

since you appear to think boxing is 'just another sport' and that comparison with other sports is the way to go with this perhaps you could find a parallel in those sports. any sprinters you can think of who have come back after a 10-year retirement to defeat an entirely new generation of rivals and win olympic gold? perhaps a soccer player? a basketball player? a swimmer?

 

Most of them were superior at bringing exicitement and getting hit more.

 

Look how Foreman did when he came back. Lost 10 rounds to former LHW Michael Moorer, then landed a SINGLE lucky punch to win the fight. Then he 'won' a robbery to nobody bum Axel Schulz in a fight that everyone thought Foreman lost. Then he refused an IBF mandated rematch and fought Briggs instead. And lost!

Comeback Foreman looked absolutely terrible and that was against C class opposition -- Comeback Foreman didn't do anything close in achievement as capturing Olympic gold, what are you smoking? He won an ABF title for Christ's Sakes and eeked out a one-time defense. And he was very lucky in doing so :deal

 

Most sports the modern athlete is betterthan his counterpart from the past. He's bigger, stronger and faster. I rember buying something with all the rosters from the 94 world cup and most of these world class soccer players were around 175. During the last world cup I checked out their sizes online most were around 190.
Boxing is a sport with weight limits. This means that if we are talking about head to head. Anything from Crusierweight down era dose not matter. With the heavyweights, there would be some surprises.