Is Boxing the only sport....

Where many fans claim that the ability of fighters has not improved for 70 years plus. Where old time fighters from the black and white era are often regarded as more skillful as current fighters.
Does this then mean that boxers and trainers are the dumbest athletes as they can't learn and improve upon a hundred years of documented history.

Or are the folk championing the Black and white era more likely to claim that Jesse Jackson or Carl Lewis would whup Ussain Bolt IF they did not have the physical, undeniable proof of timer records.

Is boxing like religion where people cherry pick selective moments to support their argument and disregard everything that doesn't suit them?

Food for Thought

 

Usain Bolt is faster than Carl Lewis

On film i can see Ray Robinson is better than Kelly Pavlik

 

I think that it comes down to the fact that boxing is simply not a sport that is decided on pure athletic ability.

While some great fighters of the past have been great athletes many have only been average athletes.

Wladamir Klitschko would not have a chance against Jim Jeffries in 100 meter sprint and Michael Grant is a much better all round athlete than Muhamad Ali.

Boxing is 50% technique, 40% god given and 10% pure athleticism. A punch on the chin is always going to be a punch on the chin.

 

I think technique took a serious upturn from Louis onwards, no doubt spurned on and influenced by the likes of Leonard, Tunney, Dempsey, Langford, greb etc etc etc

 

It truly hasn't improved much since the late 1930's, early 1940's technique wise. Or in anything much for that matter. There is a reason the heavyweights of today are considered garbage and the worst the division has ever been.

 

Usain Bolt is just a physical freak. This might just be the era of track and field when Ray Robinson happened to come allong.

Even so it must be noted that a lot of the advances in track records are atributable to improvments in equipment. Jesse Owens ran in spiked running shoes on a cinder track and dug his own starting blocks.

I currently work for Hugh Brasher who is the son of Chris Brasher who won the gold medal in the 300 meter steeplechase at the 1956 olympics. He also paced Roger Banister for the first four minute mile. Chris Brasher went into the event as a masive underdog. There were three British competitors taking part and he was seen as the third best. The radio comentry pointed out that he was visibly out of shape.

Chris Brasher made his own running shoes out of kangaroo skin using titanium to make the spikes. They were only a couple of ounces heavier than Michael Johnsons golden shoes that weighed less than the golden chain around his neck. The original shoes were lost but Hugh was kind enough to show me an identicle pair that Chris Brasher used for training and trust me they are incredibly light.

Chris Brasher was not only an athlete but an inovator of running gear and his win in the 1956 olympics might be a triumph of equipment and tactics over pure athleticism.

 

I say that, not only haven't boxers improved in 70 plus years, but, in general, runners haven't either. Timers and records do not impress me to think differently.

I say, if you could take the same record setting runner and somehow keep him in his prime for 70 plus years, he would keep breaking his own records. And, if modern people didn't know he was the same runner, they would swear that he was greater than his prime self from 70 plus years earlier...when, in reality, he would be the same man, in the same prime of life, running on the same two legs he had before.

 

Lets see Lil Floyd fight at least thirty times in one year; defending and winning four generally accepted World Championships (of the classic eight; and not mere titles), and if Lil comes out 30-0 (29), then I would concede boxing has improved over the last 70 years....

But the reality is, boxing lacks the structures at the moment to improve on a Robinson or Armstrong, who did better in one year, than 99.999% of world class fighters do today in an entire career.

 

Boxing is definitely one of the most "pure" sports. There isn't much involved besides two human bodies.

So as long as humans are humans, things aren't going to change much.

 

Boxing is a character sport first.
And a skills sport second. Skills seasoned by experience of course.
After that you have athleticism.... and luck.

 

Good post janitor :good.

 

I personanly think that the 80's and 70's were the best in boxing history with fighters like Leonard, Hagler, Duran, Hearns, Pryor, Sanchez, Arguello, Holyfield,Tyson, Monzon Ali, Fraizer, Foreman, Holme's, to name but a few.

I also think the 50's was a great era with the likes of Robinson, LaMotta, Charles, Walcott, Gavilan and many more.

 

On point as always.:good

Not that it'll matter to the thread starter, who'll likely miss the significance of your post.

 

This is often said, even during stellar eras. It is, as always, a load of ****.

As long as huge sums of money are being offered, there will be great fighters going for it. The problem is that current match-making is not allowing us to see the greatness in many of these fighters. Also, it does not help that two brothers are controlling the division and that they absolutely refuse to fight one another.