Were the old school boxers better conditioned?

back in the day if you didnt train for a fight you would get pancacked and forgotten...nowadays you can atleast get a reality show.

 

What!?
Wow are you serious?
can u imagine fighting for 7 hours? I get tired after a few rounds of hitting the heavy bag.

 

The fights were VERY different in how they were fought back then. Far far slower paced, one punch at a time fights.

 

Yup, lots of grappling. Ruiz is just "old school."

 

They were in such better fighting shape because they were fighting so much more often. They were, for the most part, better fighters because of this reason as well. Experience at the top level is key to rounding out your game. However, this is also the primary reason you'll see so many seemingly unreasonable losses on certain fighter's records. You've seen it in modern times with a guy like James Toney taking a beating from club fighters like Dave Tiberi, now just imagine fighting 2 or 3 times that often. Mustering up the motivation to fight every week or two (or even multiple times per week) against fighters spanning all manner of style and class, with less time and resource to prepare with, will ultimately lead to some losses here and there regardless of your skills. The ones who bounced back and continued on with their success even through major setbacks are the ones who can truly be classified as great.

 

A guy like Battling Nelson would throw upwards of 80-90 punches per round over 40+ round fights, back in the days where the refs were much more lenient, so I'm not buying the slower pace excuse.

 

At least there is still some Heavyweights like David Haye who can 12 rounds without having a coronary.

 

Add Hatton to that list. There were a few calling for Cotto to retire after after his defeat to Pacquiao.