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

Wow you've been watching boxing that long LOL you're even older than me haha!

Well if you've been watching for so long and you don't think it's less brutal today, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 

Simple it’s down to PEDS ! You have fighters who have testers on the payroll (Mayweather) fighters who refuse testing for fights (Hopkins) fighters who cycle pre fight (Canelo) and then there’s the TUE where fighters are given a waiver. Healthy living,better training,Less sparring etc all help but time waits for nobody and that’s where the PEDS have changed things massively for longevity of careers . Nobody should be above the rules especially those being granted a TUE which should be made known to the opposing fighter and the public,more transparency is certainly needed with this loop hole .

 

PEDs, less activity, less emphasis on the need to have exciting fights (of your fights stunk out the joint you would not be welcomed back to a venue, now you can headline no problem), smarter sparing, PEDs

 

Footballers are interesting, because they actually have a lot more games today, but still age better than earlier. Modric 40, Lewandovski 37 and Salah and Van Dijk in their 30's.

 

I watched an interview with ronaldo recently
He mentions how much gym work and recovery helps as they age. If you play a really tough match on Saturday, then it isn't necessary to run yourself into the ground in the next training session

I still think PEDs play some part, but I'm cynical. However, no doubt training, diet and recovery also play a vital role

 

You have to remember that fighters of yesterday had many fights and often had to face the very best opponent or they were not going to make the money they wanted.
I remember the boxing gym being pretty packed in 1988 and by 1996 not so much.

 

Ali used to run in combat boots

 

PEDs have been around for decades.

They didn't just appear when Mayweather started talking about them.

 

So today there's less activity, less emphasis on the need to have exciting fights? Really??

I wonder, how many fights from way back (like the 1920s - you know, when men were men and not sissies like today!) you have actually studied, that justifies such a statement?

 

Sports in general have become so much more professional in recent years and the money generated has seen more and more investment in training facilities. Pro footballers of the past would eat whatever they liked and go to the pub after a match, now they have dieticians, meals prepared for them and a whole team of people ensuring they are at their best not only physically by also psychologically for as long as possible during what is now a much more gruelling season of football.

 

Fighting less, weaker opposition, PEDs.

 

Yep, while PED's are factor they have been used for many decades and arguably far more wide spread in some previous decades when there was less testing and the testing was less effective. There's a reason why so many athletic records still exist from the 80's and 90's.

Florence Griffith Joyner's 100m record for example is 37 years old but athletes in the 80's were seen as past their best by their 30's while now you have Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce still being elite at 38 years of age and won her last world title in 2022.

Most people throw about terms like "modern training methods" and know nothing about just how far things have come so disregard the importance and difference these new methods and what impact they have in terms of performance and longevity.

 

Exactly

The game has changed in so many different ways.

 

Yep and it's constantly changing. I have been reading a lot about the subject recently as a runner I am always looking at things I can incorporate to my training that I can nick from the pros to improve my times.

There's a reason why records keep falling and it's not just PED's. Even now the most common PED athletes are being caught with are anabolic steroids, which have been around for a long time. Nandralone which seems to be quite a common one for failed doping tests has been around for over 40 years, yet in the mid 80's you didn't have athletes being able to compete well into their 30's like now.

But people want simple answers in uncertain times, so just say it's all PED's, when the truth is far more complex and nuanced. It's a real shame that many now just assume every elite athlete in every sport is on PED's and that's why they are elite. Genetics I think are a much bigger deciding factor in an athletes ceiling than just PED's. I could take every PED under the sun, but I will never go sub 10 seconds for 100m or hell even sub 13 if I am honest.

 

Roy Keane's biography was quite interesting in this regard, because howbthe change came during his tome in Man U. By that time it had already taken hold in in for example Italy.

Wenger was a big part in bringing it to the prem.

As for boxing, I don't know how science based it is even today in terms of for example measuring performamce continually to when to ramp training intensity up or down.