What happened to the Armstrongs, Fraziers and Qawis?

I would say his win over Gamboa was a fun one.

 

I choose Doors No. 2 and 3 as big influences.

1) I clearly remember scoring bias (among judges, which you could see in outcomes, as well as commentators and fans) toward aggression. The guy moving forward was seen as controlling the fight … even when he wasn’t effective with it. As that became a lesser criteria and clean punching stepped into the forefront, coaching and fighting styles progressed to meet the new standard of what it took to win.

2) The demise of the 15-rounder and rise of the 12-round distance also made the more attrition-based fighter less optimal. They can now say ‘10-12 are the championship rounds’ or whatever, but it used to be that you pretty much graduated from 10 to 15, so the fight was being extended by 50% for a world title fight (there were 12s for NABF and some other baubles, but most challengers had little or no experience at that distance). Now it’s two extra rounds, so it’s changed the nature of the game — using the first 10 to wear down a guy to dominate 11-15 is no longer a thing.

Rules and equipment govern the evolution of sport.

In the ‘dead ball’ era of baseball, swinging for the fences was a losing strategy — the ball was ‘mushier’ and didn’t carry, so hitters instead relied on stealing bases, hit-and-runs and other such approaches to score rather than figuring if you had big guys with big bats, you’d get a couple over the fence on any given day and that would probably win.

When football began allowing linemen to extend their arms and even grab jerseys at the shoulders, that opened up the passing game because you could protect the QB longer and allow pass plays to develop. Go back far enough and linemen would tuck their hands to the chests, stick their elbows out and that was all they could do to control a pass rusher. Likewise, defensive backs could contact the receiver until a ball was thrown his way, so they could jam guys and push them around, making slower, sure-handed Fred Biletnikoff types the optimal receiver instead of the track stars of today, who defenders aren’t allowed to impede as much.

Boxing, too, has adapted to rule sets. Jack Johnson fought in an era when gloves allowed him to grasp the elbows and arms of opponents and manipulate them and wear them down — with today’s gloves, such tactics would not be possible.

 

The posters who mentioned Chisora essentially won the thread.

 

Do you include Duran, Chavez and Castillo in this type of argument? How about Ricky Hatton? Obviously not as good. Jesus Chavez was a little guy who was throwing about 90 punches a round against Mayweather Jr.

Povetkin made a career of using educated pressure, skill and timing but wasn't throwing countless punches.

Mike Tyson used allot from different smaller guys. He used Armstrong's overhand right, used angles to the body against tall men where he could hit them and they couldn't hit him, using his angles in close to get leverage his opponent couldn't match. Tyson's head movement was a develpment of Armstrong's and incorporating the Patterson peekaboo. Tyson's offensive footwork when he was on is something else too. I could replicate allot of elite boxers footwork but not Tyson's.

 

Jesus Chavez was such a good fighter, I’ll mention Troy Dorsey as another “Bob N Weaver” not the best out there but he came to win and should’ve vs Jorge Paez x2 who really was awesome IMO.

 

Nick Ball kind of fights in that style. Very compact and well put-together pressure fighter with some crafty little tricks and very good punch variety.

Brandon Figueroa is a really good modern example of this style imo.

Christian Mbilli is another great example of this style. Heavy handed, heavy pressure, and bends at the waist very fluidly while moving into range.

Jin Sasaki recently got KTFO but he does apply constant pressure and bobs and weaves out of a crouch pretty nicely sometimes when he's switched on. Nothing special really and obviously quite flawed but decent enough to be a contender and a fun watch.

Kohei Kono is a pretty old school kind of attritional pressure fighter who stays on your chest and lets his hands go. He bobs and weaves into range and bobs and weaves under punches when in close.

Gary Antuanne Russell is a great example of a more old-school kind of pressure fighter. Comes in very low and works the inside very effectively. Bobs and weaves into range quite nicely.

Shawn Porter a bit.

Marcos Maidana kind of fits the bill.

Miguel Cotto in his younger days was a pretty vicious pressure fighter and I loved how he bobbed and used those little half steps while he got into range banging away with left hook. Even had the cross-armed guard to boot.

I think that's everybody I've got. Some fitting the bill a lot better than other admittedly.

 

To some degree it has leveled off because of so many more weight divisions that size advantages are less then previous ... that said, Iron Mike was pretty badass !

 

I don't think Duran and Chavez actually enters the modern era.

Chavez was past it near the 2000s,but Castillo can work,I mean the poster is saying recent fighters,not those 2 decades ago..