Was recently watching some footage of Floyd Mayweather...The man works incredibly hard on his craft...Which ATG's spent the most time in the gym preparing for a fight.... ...and a question for the old timers! How does the training vary nowadays versus when the fighters of yesterday trained, when they fought much more often??? Who were the best strategic trainers back in the day? Freddie Brown? Charley Goldman? Gainsford and Wiley? Dundee? Arcel?...maybe even back to Blackburn? etc etc. Addendum: Futch!
the old timers trained harder, end of discussion. today's pros do all this fantastic high tech conditioning, and all of them (just about) gas out and coast the last few rounds.
I've heard Dempsey used to chew pine to strengthen his jaw, and he rubbed beef brine on his face to keep him from getting cuts. Muhammad Ali used to run backwards.
Willie Pep was very busy -- barely had enough time in the day --between gin mills, chasing girls, card games and the track; he even managed to show up at the gym for laughs.
monzon used to smoke 5 packs of cigarrettes in the morning and then whooped every sparring partner they put in front of him and then smoke some more
Smoked 5 packs of cigarettes in the morning? Yeah right. Maybe he smoked, but not that much. No one does. There is a word that accurately describes the training of great fighters from any era. Hard.
ATG's trained in the classic fashion. Lots of roadwork, sparring, floor work (calisthenics), and bag work. That why they were able to fight 15 rounds without gassing. Joe Calzaghe trains much like the old time fighters and he never gasses. Many of the new high tech scientific methods do not seem to work. Most of the fighters that employ those methods, gas by the sixth round.
