When did boxing ''stop'' evolving ?

I do not think it has stopped 'evolving'.

Top level fighters of this era have the 'luxury' of knowing they are probably only going to fight two/three times a year and also they will have that 24 hours to 'recover' after weighing in. They also know their bouts will go on for no more than twelve rounds. Thus training camps have been adjusted to this.

 

At some point, the pipeline of good up and coming trainers decreased hugely. Every city used to have at least one good boxing gym, and trainers sprung up everywhere. Some good, some not so much, but there were enough gyms around to beget a lot of really solid teachers.

With the dearth of boxing gyms around, the maturation process of not just good fighters but good trainers was bound to slow considerably.

 

Tomorrow.

 

I don't think it ever stops evolving, ie changing. There's more an emphasis on changing styles from era to era. Some of that is personal, some is regional, and some is the influence of great fighters or trainers. I think that the transition from bare knuckle boxing styles to modern glove methods with modern rules started around 1890 and was complete sometime around 1930. Then by the fifties we'd probably seen most of what you can do with a few exceptions. Ali's style was very informed by Jersey Joe Walcott's, and Mike Tyson emulated men like Dempsey and Frazier. Nowadays, you see Adrian Broner copying Floyd Mayweather's shoulder roll, even though James Toney did it and before him Archie Moore.

 

Skillwise the best today aren't significantly above the best of the late 20's early 30's.

 

Late 1880's, when men were men.

 

by and large it started devolving about 30 years back.

 

New approaches come along, some of which are successful (i.e. Brendan Ingle) and others we probably never see catch on because either the trainer never comes across the right fighter to make it successful or because the approach is in some way fundamentally flawed.

The Benton/Duva guys (Holyfield, Whitaker, etc.) utlized the pivot in the pocket at a higher rate of frequency than had been exploited to that time. Were their fighters the first guys ever to pivot in punching range? Of course not, but I've seen a ton of film from previous eras and don't recall that tactic being so predominant as it was during the Benton/Duva generation.

For ages having one's back to the ropes was a no-no. Then along comes Benitez and Duran to show how it's done, and a generation of fighters (not all, nor even the majority, but an increasing number) starts setting such traps.

You can correctly liken some things Ali did to Walcott, but Ali on his toes changed the way boxers moved. Sure, Willie Pep moved around the ring and did so with brilliance, but watch and you'll see he slides rather than bounces in rhythm on his toes -- Pep's 'evolution' was to take the shuffle-step to a new level, but Ali did it in a way that was another leap in evolution, coordinating the feet and hands in new ways.

The Klitschkos -- love them or hate them, and they aren't my cup of tea -- seem to me to utilize a lot of defensive tactics for men of new stature that you won't find from previous generations.

So are there angles and tatics that have never been seen still to be revealed? Probably so, but not likely an approach that completely flaunts convention and turns boxing on its ear. But the ways those tactics are used, the approach to magnify a tactic in a new way and create a style out of it, yes, I think we see that often enough that the game is still evolving.

 

you make some good points saint pat...however, I also think that while things may be learned and added, things are also forgotten...or at least, go from being commonly done to rarley done.

 

Around the 30's to late 40's after this there was no new real techniques, styles of fighting or any new noticabel skills that cropped up. Of course fighters might have looked more flash in following decades but the skill set and moves were the same as the years previous, just implemented differently. It was around the 30's and 40's were jabs became a very important tool, higher guards, using not just hands to feint but shoulders, body and feet, footwork became more mobile and focused more on lateral movements, angles, shoulder rolls, cross armed crab defence started around this time and continue to be the way to go for boxing today.

 

No doubt about it.

Evolution is commonly, but mistanly, usually believed to be a continuous upward curve toward perfection. But an animal that evolves loses some things as it gains others -- it's all about adapting. Today's cars get more mileage than the models they evolved from but don't survive crashes as well because they went from solid metal to lighter and less durable plastic and composite materials.

People threw double hooks, body and head, decades before Victor Valle 'invented' the reverse hook -- head and body -- that Gerry Cooney used as a destructive weapon, and Mickey Ward took the same move and perfected it.

 

Really?

 

Sex was also invented in the early '30's leading to a precipitous drop in the stork population that continues to this day.