Why can fighters fight at older ages today but not in the past?

Yes, so many rose-tinted opinions... but then again, on a Classic forum that's to be expected.

There will always be people in a place like this, who are adamant, that the real old-timers (like from 100 years ago, back in the 1920s) were these gallant warriors, who were battling it out 10-12 (or more!) times a year. And often in long, hard fights - where they only survived thanks to extraordinary heart and bravery, that modern (sissy) fighters can only dream about. Jesus!

 

There’s just as many poor posters with recency bias and no knowledge of the past.

We have to pick out the balanced posts from the knowledgeable posters.

 

yeah, he’s got injury issues. He isn’t someone who would be able to go until he’s older. He’s got maybe one fight left in him at a high level. Anything after that he’d be on a downslide, so I don’t think he’d bother.

 

You're right - it of course goes both ways!

 

So they are basically talking about the modern Thai boxers.

 

Why so many old heavyweights still fighting? because there's not enough good heavyweights to make these old guys quit.

 

You should open a thread talking about if we should include Amateur achievements in greatness discussions. You raise some great points on it agree even though I admittedly probably don't take it as far as you in that regard but I might someday.

 

it's quite simple, training methods used to be primitive and the concept of regeneration did not exist. The fighter had to train, fight, train, fight, the injuries were unimportant, they were treated in strange ways, but the body was wearing out.
Bettberbijev is a good example, 100 years ago, to be in the game, he would probably fight every few months or weeks regardless of injuries, just like Usyk, who also has injuries, but fighting twice a year manages to heal.

1. Better training
2. Less intense career
3. better medical care

Also remember that today no one would allow something like Dempsey did with Wilard. even the gentleman who judged Mercer's fight with Morrison

 

History shows they could fight at older ages in the past. I think now what we see is the early 40s guy becoming more common. But the first one was Joe Goddard in the 1890s. Late 30s, early 40s has never been a glass ceiling really.

Another factor is the way boxing is set up today fighters are getting to the belt later and later and all the milestones in their career are getting pushed back including the ending.

 

Some good points here... though I think, there's a tendency to put too much emphasis on the "less intense career" thing!

Yes, yes I know... for years we have been told, that old-timers often had crazy careers with ridiculous schedules... fighting 10-12 times (or more!) a year. Sure, there were these 100-200+ fight guys, that you don't see anymore. But those types of careers were very rare, and had little to do with what boxing was actually like for your average boxer, back in the "good old days".

 

Let’s be serious here. It’s because back in the day them dudes were weak-bodied weak-willed cowards. They also used to look 50 when they were 30 and they used to die young. These idiots literally didn’t know how to stay alive and we valorise them. We are straight up better humans now. We should be soaking that up rather than sucking up to the pathetic dweebs of the past.

 

Rather than a simple and concise answer, I would like to faff about with a multi-factorial muddying of the waters, murky with statistics, lies, and damned lies. I would like to talk about nutrition, oleomargarine, concentric circles, corn fields, polyphenol content, forever chemicals, muffin tops, the BET and Lifetime channels, 90 Day Fiance, JRE, mitophagy and autophagy, chauffeuring of autophagy, by Morgan Freeman, the effect of dong length on telomere length, Diddy, plyometrics, etc. If you're not comfortable with that, than I don't even wanna have this conversation.

 

I don't really recall ever conversing with you, but I have read many of your comments and I must say that your posts are getting even stranger, if that's possible.

Very entertaining though! Please keep up the good work.