Have boxing skills progressed, or have they regressed?

Yes quite frankly.

I accept that the Klitschko brothers are well conditioned fighters, but a lot of the heavyweights that were the main stay of the division that they dominated were not.

If you had shown somebody from the 40s or 70s a photograph of Sam Peter, or Sultan Ibragimov, or Ruslan Chavaev and told them that this was a heavyweight title claimant in the 21st century, they would have been shocked by their conditioning.

 

You're right, HB...even the posters on this thread focus only strength 'n conditioning.

 

I'm glad to be anyplace, L

 

I would also urge people to view the greatest fighters as standouts.

Somebody like Joe Louis or Muhamad Ali is a genetic freak that comes along once in a blue moon.

We will almost certainly never see another fighter with the same set of traits in out lifetime.

The best we can hope for is somebody as good, but completely different.

 

Just look at the current landscape. The next big stars certainly don't have the X factors guys like Tyson, DLH, Whitaker, Mayweather, Jones Jr, etc. had.

It's certainly regressed. Boxers worry more about their trunk style than their craft these days.

 

regressed, many are athletes first and boxers second. at the top level there is as much still as ever though.

 

So what we are saying is no 1 today has the skill set of tony galento? And that he would beat the klitchcos with a wee bit of training.
I think there's a flaw in that argument

 

No but Holyfield, Tyson, Lennox, etc would've creamed the K2 bros.

 

Of course people are not saying that, but Tony Galento was regarded as a crude fighter who was nothing more than a decent contender, in his own day.

The Klitschko's are efectivley the Louis's of their day, so they should be expected to beat his contenders, with the odd exception due to circumstance, as happened with their own contenders.

They do very well in that era until they try to claim it from Louis, and that is when they find out that there is a bigger shark in the tank.

 

Surely the fact that he was a "contender" defeats the whole argument that boxing skills have regressed.
Danny divito isn't in the rings latest rankings last time i checked

 

Not realy.

Some prety limited fighters break the rankings in every era.

In some eras, limited fighters become lineal champions i.e. the 1990s.

This dosn't happen when Joe Louis is guarding the title.