Frank Warren was asked the difference between now and when he first started....

He said boxers are fitter now.

Flies in the face of what the 'experts' on here say?

 

This comes down to the classic forum, which worships the fighters from the past like they are untouchable Gods.

They need to get over the fact, that humanity always goes on improving and today is superior to yesterday.

In 20-30 years time, you will see the same thing on the classic forum. A bunch of old men worshipping fighters from the past and downgrading fighters from the present and recent history.

 

Totally agree with the bit in bold, its annoying how some people go on that fighters from the past are faster, stronger and can hit harder.

 

Perhaps but you could argue that Boxing attracted a better class of athlete / competitor back then.

Boxing was a mainstream sport, gyms were common place and nearly every suitable young man could have tried it at some point.

 

It is true that a good few old timers on this board refuse to credit modern day boxer's, but at times they do have a point.

If you look at most sports and the improvements made by the participants over time in terms of physical attributes, you will see that boxing appears to have improved very little in comparison to other sports.

You say that humanity goes on improving but that does not happen naturally in consideration to physical attributes. What makes people fitter, stronger and faster is improvments in training and diet through knowledge.

Now i don't know much about boxer's diets in the old days. I presume it was pretty basic (meat, veg, water). This would still be very healthy but i will admit that with todays better understanding of different foods, their beneficial effect in terms of nutrients and energy yield and the availiability of more diverse foods today, that boxers today probably have a better diet and this will help them more to a degree.

As for improvements in training, whilst there is much more knowledge these days in different training methods and these new training methods are being incorporated into other sports along side the older training methods i just don't see that as much in boxing.

Alot of boxers today are still doing the exact same training drills as boxers from years ago.

Until Roach brought Ariza on board he was training his fighters in ways that Eddie Futch was decades earlier.

All of this leads me to believe that there is not much difference between boxers of today compared to boxers of the past.

 

How much more fitter can you get than fighting fifteen 10 rounders a year?

Maybe the modern guys are fitter for 2 nights every year....;O)

 

Fighters these days are wrapped up in cotton wool. Its safety first now which I completely understand but to try and discredit the warriors of yesteryear is stupid, they fought in harder times and deserve total respect.

 

This.

Humanity evolves to suit the requirements of life. Cavemen had to hunt sabre tooth tigers to eat. Old skool men had to do hard physical labour. Modern man shaves armpits and ****, and works in the office.

We have better knowledge of how to train, but that's it.

Hagler was just a tough, ****in hard as nails dude. Nasty, nasty toughness that's rare these days.

 

I think that Boxing is much safer now from lessons learnt in some very tragic circumstances...:yep

There will always be an arguement that history is better than the present day...I loved the 80's and the 90's had some great fights too...:good

I love delving into my library and digging out some nostalgic fights...:good

I think that the alphabet belts and satelite TV have been both good and bad for boxing...:yep

But show me Minter v Auntofermo from their first fight in Las Vegas and that is the reason I am hooked on this sport now, it was awesome, I just love watching that fight...:deal

 

Bit of an inappropriate smilie no?

 

All sports go through thick and thin spells..... but I would say that boxing needs a Hagler or a Hearns desperately right now, and far less Mayweathers and Hayes.

More - fighters that actually fight

Less - fighters that try to turn a multimillion $$$ payday seem like chump change

Of course the sport is flourishing in the eastern Europe area, but many of those are being held back by the Klitschko's being such big names and signing with promoters that shove them on the bum of the month or WBO routes.

 

Beeston, check out number of fights in the last 3 years of Haglers middleweight reign...;O)

 

:twisted:

Tyson then, or Holyfield......

 

The older fighters with modern training and weight loss methods, plus the advantage of extra time between weigh ins etc, would have performed better. They also tended to fight a lot more. Being faster, stronger and hitting harder is great, but if you don't want to fight or take drugs the modern advantages mean nothing. There are some really good decent hard working boxers out there, but there are some "well paid" fighters who are average and really hyped out there.

 

People say the old fighters are better BOXERS, not that they are fitter. Sure the guys these days have better training methods if you could drop one of the old top guys into modern boxing, and gave them the benefit of modern training, who around now would stop a Ray Robinson or an Ezzard Charles?