[RING, June 1962] What Happened to Body Punching? By Paul Berlenbach

I think there definitely is equal bias on both sides. Not everything about the modern game is better.

 

Agreed on all counts.

Dana White would sacrifice all sorts of baby animals to the nicest ouija board he could find if it meant he could bring peak Berlenbach back from the grave.

 

Interesting. Any chance you could find the original quote?

 

You know thats an interesting point about older boxers being harsh on the current boxers but.......
I look at Mayweather. Great fighter. Great boxer-tons of skill .
Then i look at a Leonard. And for the life of me i could never see Mayweather beating Leonard head to head prime for prime.
James Toney. Great fighter. Great skills .
Put him in with Prime Hagler and he gets stopped.
i think the fighters of today are NOT better trained. And i think they arent as conditioned- they dont even fight that much and when they do they look for every advantage - back then the best met the best because the PUBLIC demanded it and it was the only way they BOTH were going to get any type of big payday

 

I'll look for it. I remember it being funny. He doesn't name Marciano but speaks of current champs being glorified street fighters with only a punch to save them. In 1953.

 

I remember reading something similar in Ring magazine in an issue from 1953 or 4 that I found in a book store in Phoenix.

 

I was lucky enough to watch future legends come up- Duran,Hearns,Leonard,Hagler etc.
I remember a time win a really big bout- like a Leonard vs Hearns took center stage in all media outlets.
You would see the pre bout stories everywhere- magazines,newspapers,talk shows.
And when they fought they rarely dissapointed the fans.
Leonard Hearns/Duran-Leonard 1 /Hagler-Hearns the list of truly great bouts went on and on.
Like i said the only way for those fighters to get truly a big payday was to fight and beat the best and do it with flair.
And these were 15 round bouts and these boxers seemed not to get as tired as todays fighters
It just seems the fighters get more watered down over time.
Sure they will be exceptions but there isnt as many talented boxers today as in the past

 

Yes and No means it depends on how long the person lived and who he saw.

An example of an old-timer giving a modern guy praise:

Nat Fleischer who lived into the early 1970's said Eder Jofre was as good as any bantam he has seen.

 

The past was better bias seems to be in more than just boxing. Old timers seem to think everything was better in 1918.

 

Are you saying, that in your opinion Fleischer was NOT heavily biased in favor of the fighters from his youth?

 

For every one good fight you can name that has happened in the last 8/9 years i could more then likely name 4 that say happened in the 80s.

 

I don't think, that believing Leonard would beat Mayweather, is being harsh on the current boxers. As good as Mayweather is, I (and most people, I suspect) think Leonard was even better. I have no problem with an opinion like that.

Also, that Toney would lose to Hagler... yes, I'll buy that too (though I seriously doubt, he would get stopped!).

Those are not two examples of bias for or against anyone, imo. But when I see something like Nat Fleischer's all-time rankings, I shake my head in disbelief! Or when Jack Silver goes out of his way to denigrate and ridicule modern boxers/boxing, I can't help but wonder, why he does that. There we can talk about clear and outrageous bias - imo!

 

I agree every generation has thier immortals .
Jose Napoles for me wouldnt fair too well against alot of welters head to head but people who watched him in his prime during his prime would beg to differ.

 

An interesting theory! Bearing in mind that, worldwide, there are approx. twice as many fights taking place each year today, compared to the 80s:

Does this mean, that if we dive into BoxRec's database and pull out a random fight from the 80s... you think that fight will be something like 8 times as likely to be "good", compared to a random fight from today?

 

Alexis Arguello vs Pryor 1
Hearns vs Leonard 1
Chacon vs Boza Edwards
Chacon vs Limon
Camacho vs Rosario
Hagler vs Mugabi
Saad vs Lopez 2
Saad vs Johnson 2
Hagler vs Hearns
D uran vs Leonard
Duran vs Barkley
hearns vs Leonard 2