Of course the old timers had skills, hell the guy you use as your username may have been the most skillful fighter to ever live bar none. Young Griffo was so good , so skilled that it's as if he was from another planet.
Have you ever watched any film of Griffo? And if you haven't, how can you seriously make a claim like that?
On the same basis people say greb can do this or that and claim he is great.,.. or Jack britton... or hell Daniel Mendoza or jack broughton
report after report and anecdote after anecdote and 167 fights before losing his first fight and that was the biggest rip off decision of all time. It seems that nobody could hardly land a single shot on him. If that isn't skill, what is ???