Is This The Best Era Of Boxing?

Didn't know there were more active boxers today. Care to provide evidence? Boxing was international in the 80s too. Just because there's more ukranians fighting now doesn't automatically mean the sport has a bigger talent pool

 

A very useful source, when you want to track the development of number of fights/fighters over time, is this BoxRec thread:
https://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=101907&start=75

As can be seen in one of the last posts of the thread ("Active Boxers By Year"), 23,535 active (at least one pro bout in the last 365 days) boxers can be found in Boxrec's database for last year. 30 years earlier (in 1988) the number was 10,175.
At the same time we can see, that the number of fights has also just about doubled over the same period.

Another useful tool on BoxRec is this one (under "Events" on the front page), where we can examine which countries had pro boxing at a given time:
https://boxrec.com/en/locations/event

It takes a bit of work, but from this we can find that in 1988, 69 countries hosted pro boxing - as against 118 countries last year.

 

This

 

And yet with all those additional countries producing fighters the top level across the board is not as good as it was in the 80s. Here's 18 top level guys from the 80s. Tell me which fighters from the additional 50 countries hosting pro boxing today are on or near this level

Azumah Nelson
Mike McCallum
Tommy Hearns
Marvin Hagler
Ray Leonard
Mike Tyson
Michael Spinks
Dwight Qawi
Wilfred Benitez
Sal Sanchez
Wilfredo Gomez
Julio cesar Chavez
Evander Holyfield
Roberto Duran
Larry Holmes
Aaron Pryor
Alexis arguello
Khaosai Galaxy

 

I've never said anything about which era had the best boxers.

You asked me to provide evidence for my claim, that there are more active boxers today than in the 80s - which I believe, I have done!

 

It's an OK era, not great but better than some in the past, the heavyweight division is entertaining and has depth and there's some real talent in the lower weight divisions but it's been tainted by too much time being wasted as the top guys for a variety of reasons don't fight each other.

 

have always believed that the sport should go the way of tennis and others when it comes to purses. the WINNER should win the larger purse. if two men knew that they would make more money should they win, they would fight harder. it works in the n.f.l when it comes to the super bowl, the world series, the n.b.a. etc.... boxing is the only sport that a contestant will earn the larger prize even if he loses.

 

Yes my friend BUT If the "winner" gets the larger purse the corruption would get even worse if thats possible.
It needs an International Boxing Commission formed & the State Commissions disbanded because I believe this is where the corruption starts

 

you might find more honest fights. it is wrong that the loser of a fight can make MORE than the victor.

 

Damn, that’s a SOLID list of stone killers. Boxing is better than a couple years ago but the 80s were better, at least at the top. So many of my favorites on your list. Does this mean I’m officially old?

 

It may, but you and me both

 

The era where few fighters really want to face each other?


I watched Rummy’s video on 90s heavyweight boxing and it’s sad how much better that was than today.

 

Some divisions are good. Welterweight is pretty good. Middleweight is ok. Heavyweight? Hard to say.

 

It's certainly the best era to win a boxing 'title' as each organisation are just inventing more and more titles even if they are in the same weight division. The WBC's recent franchise champion being a prime example.

Quality wise in terms of the fighters overall I don't think this era is anything exceptional let alone being the best.