Heavyweights always sucked. Including Joe Louis who was rather mediocre defensively, to balance out his offensive excellence (however strange that is, considering that Jack Blackburn was the other way around, very good defensively, but not so good offensively).
For years we've been hearing that boxing is dead or near death. Yeah, same old same old for years. But the sport is alive and well as shown by the great interest shown by the knowledgeable fans on this forum. Contrary to what some delusionals believe, the sport is alive and well and will remain that way for a LONG time to come.
Joe Louis was a highly skilled defensive fighter. In a nut shell.....slipping, blocking, bobbing and weaving, feinting and then countering to vital areas of an opponents body/head.
Plus, the first great HW of the post Lewis/Tyson era, arguably the most competitive CW era ever, Golovkin and Kovalev emerging in a hail of arrows, absolutely superb little men including Roman Gonazalez, Juan Estrada and Takayama, possibly the best trilogy in history (Vasquez-Marquez) a part of very recent history, the list goes on and on. Not to mention the absolutely superb Mayweather and Pacquiao, competitive in any era in history at their best, hand issues aside.
That's the only real problem with boxing today- not enough HW's. But the lower weights are filled with loads of excellent boxers & competition.
professional boxing is bigger worldwide then it ever was... `you yanks ( and Brits too) need to understand that you're only a very small fraction of the world.
Chavez jr is a side show freak and a joke..I give him another year or 2 and hes done, or he becomes a HW since his fat ass cant make weight ever!
Except that you've said that modern heavyweights have "forgotten" incredibly rudimentary techniques, like the left hook, the uppercut, and the ability to block a jab. I could buy that you need a great coach to help produce somebody like Tommy Hearns. But a left hook? Really? Is a heavyweight so different from a middleweight that a trainer freezes up and can't show him the exact same technique?
There are 2 lost dinosaurs..Arum and King!!...When them 2 crooked *******s finally croke that should help boxing a little bit!:yep
This is a bit unfair, since the less extreme versions of this argument have a point. Boxing technique hasn't changed much from the 1950s, when people basically figured out how to optimize their styles for modern rules. If you collected all of the techniques used by active fighters then and now, you wouldn't see much variation. But if 1950s fighters trained and fought more frequently under better coaches (debatable), then they'd be exposed to more of those techniques on a regular basis. They'd also get experience fighting against a wider variety of talented opponents, which would improve composure, ability to figure out another style on your feet, etc. Saying that neither Klitschko nor Povetkin could throw left hooks is a little out there, though, IMO. Anybody who doubts the effectiveness of PEDs in increasing work capacity should take a look at Holyfield's regimen before Tyson, and compare it to Ali's. Crazy amounts of volume there. And that's standard stuff now. Plus, if techniques were "lost", then it's likely that the current generation would rediscover them. Since most people don't like to be punched in the face when they can figure out how to avoid it.
I will not shut up!..Not when PPV wants 60 or 70 bucks to watch this bum..His fights are about as exciting as Saturday night church!
Again you post lots of words but zero substance. I see no reason to further elaborate on my previous post.
The 00s as a whole have been pretty outstanding, bar a couple disappointing years. I'm also liking what I'm seeing from Adonis Stevenson at LHW, he reminds me a bit of Walcott. Of active fighters: Ward, Martinez, W. Klitschko, Hopkins, Pacman, Marquez, and Mayweather are probably Hall of Famers or heading that route.