I don't think boxing skills have evolved

By and large I would say you are right .

 

Agreed. And we still haven't got over the subtraction of all the great old trainers leaving like from 78-88. a ton of them left and we did not have any where near enough replacements.

 

And the fighters that I mentioned aren't modern fighters. Modern fighters are just that, modern. Not 40+ years ago.

 

Not to you,but to posters born just after WW2 they definitely are.
The Vote
Until 2014, members of the Hall of Fame fell into five categories: Modern (Last bout no earlier than 1943), Old-Timer (Last bout no earlier than 1893; no later than 1942), Pioneer (Last bout in or prior to 1892), Non-Participant (Those who have made contributions to the sport apart from roles as boxers or observers, such as trainers, managers, promoters, and officials), and Observer (Print and media journalists, publishers, writers, historians, photographers and artists).

In 2014 the IBHOF amended the voting:

The Pioneer category no longer will be voted on annually, but rather every five years to coincide with the Hall’s anniversary years. Therefore, the next Pioneer class will not be enshrined until June 2019 when the IBHOF marks its 30th induction weekend. In line with past policy, only the top vote-getter will earn enshrinement.
The Modern category’s starting year was moved from 1943 to 1989. Fighters on the previous Modern ballot whose final bout occurred in 1988 or earlier were removed to make room for boxers who probably wouldn’t have made the ballot nearly as quickly as they would have under the old system. Also, the pool of nominees was reduced from 45 to 30--but includes 20 first-timers, the most since the Hall’s inaugural year. Finally, because of the shorter list of nominees, voters are permitted to choose a maximum of five fighters instead of the previous limit of 10. Like past years, the top three vote-getters will be inducted.

 

Agree with both you guys.

 

I think that may be the main difference between boxers of old and those in more recent decades - being able to do the basic things perfectly is where greatness starts.

 

I'm not sure I'd class Loeonard, Hearns, Duran etc as 'modern' - perhaps right on the edge. In any case, they were *trained* by old school men - Duran in particular, so I think they just might fall on the 'right' side of the watershed.

 

This is so ****ed up!

Yoko Gushiken in the "Old Timer" category - while Jack "Kid" Berg (who began his pro career more than 30 years before Gushiken was even born) is a "Modern" HOFer? How does this make any sense??

 

If you can recommend any specific books about/by those great trainers I'd be very interested - don't want to derail a great thread though

 

A sign to me of how far the skill level has fallen off is were are the "specialist". The fighters that did one thing so well, they were able to take that one thing and go on to a great career. Every one knew W.Pep was featherfisted but it didn't matter because his opponents couldn't hit him. Same with Benitez, and Whitaker. Everyone knew to beat G.Foreman you had to stay away from his power and physical strength. But the man came back in his forties and won the Championship. J.Frazier , everyone knew to avoid that left hook, but how many actually accomplished that. The viscous power of Olivaries, D.Lopez,Zarate, Mugabi,J.Jackson. The punching machines like H.Armstrong, A.Pryor, Marciano. The over 200 lbs fighter that could indeed float like a butterfly for 15 rds. Even the extreme bend the rules fighters like E.Pederosa or S.Saddler. For the most part, except for minor differences most of the fighters of the last 20 yrs look the same. (To me at least) Quite a few have success today though they got into the sport very late in their age. (Something almost unheard of over 30yrs ago) I look at the body beautiful fighters like Wilder and Joshua and see so many big holes and amateur mistakes they make it's very possible a J.Louis could've defeated, very probable most of the great Heavys from 60's through the 90's would've beaten, in spite of their size advantages. Skills have definitely dropped off in my opinion.