Has Boxing devolved?

We often here people talk about how boxing had evolved, but is this really a possibility when you look at the facts?

Firstly, the ring conditions. In the very early times, fighters fought with Spiked shoes. IN fact, sometimes fighters (paddy slavin comes to mind in one of his english fights) had to have a specially made pair of shoes to ensure his foot wasnt broken when trodden on. This might not have been a fair tactic but it was a common one. How is a modern fighter going to be trained to avoid this tactic? Surely this is one skill that has devolved.

Second, Corners. The old corners used to pull every trick under the sun to gain an advantage, including intimidating the fighter interfering to turn a KO loss into a draw sometimes they brought knifes and theats to kill the opposition if they won the fight. Carney vs McAuliffe is one which springs to mind. Imagine today's corners and showponies such as the one from Tyson Douglas being put in this situation. Today, all a corner does is fix cuts and encourage a fighter to keep his hands up and land his jab. How are they trained to cope with the shananigans that took place in the older days.

Third, Skin, Handwraps and Gloves. They used to be called pillows. Without them, todays fighters break their hands. IN fact, most cant even hit a soft bag without gloves for fear of damaging their hands. A fighter like Dempsey would soak his skin in rine to toughen it up. How is the pampered modern fighters conditions an evolution as opposed to a devolution.

Fourth, Clinching. There were fights with limited clinches of course. But, in a true fight where fighters must protect at all times, how is a modern fighter supposed to be trained to do this, when it simply isnt required. IN fact, it isnt even possible. With the bigger gloves and handwraps, it is impossible to get a proper grip on an opponent. Watch Jack Johnson in any fight and you will see him actually grap arms in a clinch, in a way that is impossible to do with the modern wraps (even it were allowed under the rules). Much is made of improved combination punching but the reason for this is mostly because it is not a possibility when the rules allow for clinching. I dont watch it much but i presume MMA is a bit of an example of this, and i doubt there is much combo throwing there. How can a modern fighter deal with this when they are not trained or required to. ONce again the sport has devolved.

Fifth, Stoppages. Knock a guy down three times or get a guy in trouble and hurt bad enough or draw a little blood and the referee stops the fight. This never really used to exist. In fact, go back a little further and you needed to give a guy 30 secs to come up to scratch. These are obviously great safety initiatives but how are they anything but a devolution in the sport. We simply dont know how modern fighters would react to these situations because they are not required to get up 6 times and fight on. definitely a devolution.

sixth, Dirty fighting. Eye gouges, headbutts, elbows etc. You do see the occasional subtle cheating nowadays, but the old days would see guys doing everything under the sun to get an advantage and without cameras on everything, there is no doubt that fighters could get away with a lot more, and this is not even mentioning tricks such as Harry Greb pretending he was out all night drinking to trick a fitgher into not training as hard. Clearly this is an area which has devolved and the modern fighter is ripe for the picking for many of these dirty tricks.

These are a few areas where it seems to me that good rule changes that are designed to see more exciting action or make things safer for the participants are in fact a devolution of the sport in terms of the bottom line, making it easier to win. In fact there are very few factors that have gone the other way. The only one true advancement i can think of is steroids and that is supposedly illegal anyway. Nutrition might be a little better overall (though this would not be in all cases). Training is different but i am not convinced that the earlier fighters didnt train harder due to not being as financially well off and much of this is due to different rule changes and the need to look bigger nowadays to make money and fool TV Viewers into thinking you are better than you actually are.