PED's use has been rampant for years. is it possible for the reason older boxers had shorter careers in the 20s to 60s. in those days you were finished at 30. admitedly they had many more fights, which would wear them a bit. but had those older generation fighters had access to PEDS who knows how much longer they could have gone on.. todays fighters dont seem to deteriorate as much between 25 and 35 like they once did. evidence of rampant drug use? diet cant be the reason. i suspect their diet was better than most of our young fighters.. should the use of PED's be stopped? after all, if everyone is using them, its a level playing field. and gaining weight in boxing is not nessesarily a good thing. i doubt PED's can improve your chin...
Might have some influence Sal, but I'm dont think too much. You touched on it when you said fighters fought more back then. Modern science has meant we know more about treating injuries and overall recovery, conditioning etc. Probably the worst enemy of an aging boxer is their losing reaction time (speed). The gradual degradation of fast twitch muscle fibres. How quickly this occurs may just come down to the individual. Me for example, I'm no elite athlete, but at 34, I'm stronger than I've ever been which I know since doing heavy weight training since I was 19. I play hockey and know I havent lost any speed (can still match it with the young guys). Cardio fitness the same. Hopkins touts it, and I firmly believe that a healthy lifestyle makes a huge difference to longevity. It may just be that older fighters like Tarver feel the pressure to compete at the top level and wrestle with their slowing metabolisms and resort to PEDS for conditioning and maintaining strength.
