Why do people say that boxers of the 1940's and 50's were so much better than boxers today?

Exactly!

 

Imagine having to explain why the generation with Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pep, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, Archie Moore, Jersey Joe Walcott and Jake LaMotta is better than today's death of boxing pt2. Remember when boxing was the most popular sport in America?

We don't even have Wlad and Mayweather anymore. We went from boring fighters to no great fighters. We're placing all bets on Lomachenko, Usyk, and the heavyweight division somehow seeing us out of this.

 

I don’t know? I love all eras and think they each produce greats. I think there are some exciting boxers out there. And fring guys Linares, both Garcia’s I think there is talent pretty rich in WW and MW. I don’t follow HW’s a lot but the big 3 are pretty solid even though I am not a big Wilder appreciator. Cruiser seems good to me as well

 

Garcia is one of my favorite current boxers, but he has no promise when it comes to fame or restoring boxing.

Of course every generation has some talent. Across the board, however, 40s-50s might be the peak of boxing. 70s-80s or 80s-90s is also up there.

Anyways once Mayweather and Wlad retired, we had no definitive ATG in the division. We still don't, minus shot Pacquiao

We need someone better to come in to return boxing to it's former glory.

 

I think you've nailed it. Many, many classic boxing fans have world-views that would never allow them to recognize the greatness or skill level of the best present-day boxers. I think there are a number of reasons for this, some more applicable to some classic fans than others.

 

TBF I am enjoying Loma right now, and see a potential great! His footwork and use of angles looks among the greatest I have seen. 2 solid MWs battle for greatness. Spence Crawford and Mikey look highly skilled. The charlo’s...I even think Danny Jacobs is a solid contender. Lots of guys to enjoy in my mind

 

I enjoy Loma too, but I'm saying we need to bring boxing back to it's former glory. We need to bring back it's fame, it's engrossing-ness with the youth, it's popularity. We need another Jack Dempsey right now.

 

That would be the time when pro boxing was banned in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, no? And when top Latin American and Asian fighters were quite rare? No Klits, GGG, Kostya, Kova, Loma and hardly any Pac, JMM, MAB, Morales etc back then.

You rarely know how great fighters are going to become when they are in the middle of their careers. But I'd personally add to Mikey Garcia to the list of fighters that could be remembered very fondly. I think he looks fantastic.

 

I'm sorry, but are you serious? You want a HW champion who doesn't face his two best challengers and makes crap movies instead of actually fighting?

Imagine if Joshua did **** movies with the Rock instead of facing Wilder and Fury for the next three years. It would be an absolute farce.

 

Are you actively looking for an award for most woke person ever? Or maybe someone who doesn't read the ****ing context of the conversation? We need a popular champion, one that brings boxing to the forefront of sports. Dempsey was popular as hell. We need another dempsey in terms of fame.

 

Yes, none of them hold a candle to the names i listed

 

Sure, but the other side of that coin is that there have always been people saying the boxers of the present had talent that was without precedent and that the dinosaurs of the past would be no match for them. Neither is a good reason to assume that the quality of talent never fluctuates -or that it only improves in a continuous upward trend.

"...in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

 

As a fan I don't give much a **** about how famous they are, I care about the fights they give me. I'd take today's HW division over Dempsey's every day of the week. We certainly don't need a champion that takes three years off making movies.

 

I also have the guys you listed higher in terms of achievement because of the number of fight they fought (Pac ranks highly in terms of achievement, but not up there with Armstrong and SRR), but I think they were very highly skilled and they got the big fights. Not like Moore and Charles who were frozen out of the big fights for a big part of their primes.

And if the talent pool were deeper in the 40's and 50's... I'm not at all sure of that seeing how it's a more global sport today even though it was bigger in the US back then.

 

I have always seen the idea of one era being superior to another, as a somewhat ideological concept.

The greatest fighter could crop up in any era, and any country for that matter.

If a fighter's record legitimately stacks up, then that is a powerful argument, whatever the era!