Last nights fight had a few older guys Glen Johnson 39 for one, I have to say I thought he won. Tarver looked better than in recent fights and he is far from shot. Throughout the yrs I have seen post of fighter being called old but a lot of them needed the maturity to peak at an older age and they were hard to beat because of experience. I saw Casamoyer KO Kastidis a few weeks ago for this reason. Jersey Joe Walcott comes to mind, he was a late bloomer. Glen Johnson, Toney,Archie Moore,Bernard Hopkins, all improved with age. Sometimes these OLD timers are really the ones with the edge in condition and knowhow. Thoughts
Max Schmeling gave young Joe Louis a paternal spanking. Tarver and Johnson earned my respect last night. It is now abundantly obvious that they were both a class above their opponents at their respective peaks. The winner of Hopkins Calzaghe is going to set himself apart from anybody under 175.
Yes, experience plays a big role that is over under-stated. It's easy and popular thinking to write the guy in his 30's or late 30's off. And certainly if a guy has been fighting since the age of eighteen against top opposition, it takes something away. But since the 70's, fighters have a lot fewer fights because of tv exposure and often retained ability later in their career when they gained that experience that the more active fighters had earlier. For instance, Golota was slow as hell against the almost 20 years younger Mollo but beat him on experience, technique and skill. Lennox Lewis had some of his best fights when he was past 33. Holyfield had one of his best performances at 35 against Tyson. Casamayor like poster Bummy Davis said, Hopkins, etc. Calzaghe is 36 years old.
Jersey Joe Walcott pulling off that perfectly timed perfectly planned walking across the ring......quick duck..LEFT HOOK!!! charles out cold! How old was he when he pulled that off? 37!!!!
The old Mongoose was a perfect example of a fighter that was strong in his youth but was a much better fighter with age and experience...he taught Foreman how to relax as his trainer and Big George improved with the experience
..............One thing I think that needs to be considered is that a 35 year-old fighter today means something different than a 35 year-old fighter from 1930 or 1940. It's not about physical age, it's ring years, and they fought so much more often then. That's my theory on lighter-weight fighters, and it sort of proves my point........most of them come from Latin America (some Asia of course), where they start 'em awfully young. Cuevas, for example, was a pro at the age of 14!! Sanchez turned pro at 15, and so on. Cuevas was done as a top talent by the time he was 25 or less. As Sean O' Grady once said, "The head is like a cash register; you can only put so much money in it before it pops open." ............Now that is kinda gross, but you get the idea.
they lied about there ages yrs ago, they started out with borrowed ID's a lot of fighters so they were younger and then later on, they had to say they were younger, no one knew what to believe....some style fighters have a shorter shelf life... Relentless 15 rd Swarmers....like Frazier,Marciano, Frazier did not hold up as well...Marciano still had 4-5 fights left in him but the training that he did was gruiling, so he got out in top form...Frazier let up after the Ali win, he became a big name and star..started to play hard and could not stay in top form...he had no easy fights after Ali 1, even Daniels and Stander stayed longer than they should have
