Why is The Boxing Community so Nostalgic Compared to Other Sports Communities?

It is accepted in pretty much so all of Sports: NBA, NFL, Soccer, and MLB that athletes are better than their predecessors. But when it comes to boxing, every past fighter is favored over the current crop. Let's sit back and look at this objectively. Let's take Spence and Crawford at WW for example. Now, I think we can all agree that Thomas Hearns is arguably the most talented WW of all time. But let's not forget that Hearns was not unbeatable. P4P I think Hagler and Spence are equals (yes, hagler was more versatile but Spence was a much better inside fighter and had the better defense and jab.). We saw what Hagler did to Hearns at 160. Now imagine Spence vs Hearns at 147 or 154? Can we really say for certain that Hearns would beat Spence? I personally think it's 50/50. Now let's look at Duran. Wo did Duran lost too? Wilfred and Leonard. How did they beat him? Movement, jab, and counterpunching. Crawford has all that and then some especially at 135 and 140. What evidence do we have that Duran would be guaranteed against Crawford?

Now, let's look at one of the most popular fantasy match ups: GGG vs Hagler. Now, I will agree that based on the combination of skills and accomplishments, Hagler is the Greatest MW of all time outside of maybe Monzon. But can we honestly say that he faced a natural MW as skilled as GGG? I don't think so. The best natural MW he faced was Mugabi. He lost to Leonard and some thought that he lost to Duran (Draw IMO). Now, name a "natural Mw" that he faced that was as good as GGG and Canelo? He never faced anyone as great as those two a MW.

Sugar Ray Robinson and Leonard are considered P4P top 3 but both struggled with slick fighters who were less than Floyd, yet Floyd is always the underdog.

Ali is one of the greatest HW but in today's era he would be too small and he never faced a fighter as good as Usyk or Fury. I could go on and on but why is the boxing community so nostalgic when it is pretty evident that fighters today, to a certain extent, are as good as fighters from the past?

 

The big difference in boxing though is that the old school fighters used to fight more regularly (for the most part) and they would push themselves against the best as no one was afraid of losing their 0. Boxing isn't all physical....the mentality of fighters and their IQ in the ring is only going to be better if they consistently fight the best when the best are at their peak. So yes physically the guys now are eating and training better, but they are also refusing to fight the other top guys....or aging people out, fighting at catch weights or with rehydration clauses etc to gain an advantage over their opponents.

 

Its because the sport is not american dominated anymore. No one in Russia believes that the fighters in the old days were better then now. Most brits and americans just dont like the fact that the sport has shifted to a much more international competion. if it wouldnt be for the ridiculous monetary protection most US and Uk stars get, they would only make a fragment of the top boxing crop, as one can see in amateur boxing

 

Good question. Some thoughts.

Boxing is older as a pro sport than a lot of others.

Boxing has declined in popularity a lot in the u.s. and has been eclipsed by a similar but different sport in MMA. If some upstart rugby or Aussie football league ever overtakes the NFL you can bet they'll be some NFL fans nostalgic for the days of Tom Brady or Jerry rice.

I think there actually is a good amount of nostalgia and romanticizing the past in other sports too. Going back to the age of a sport I would say baseball has the most of it of the major us sports and that makes sense because it's an old league that has had a lot of changes over the years.

 

Much longer history as a fully professionalized sport. Equally long history of romantic nostalgia.

Also, fighting is just different. The better athlete doesn't always win.

And it's hard to get objective gauges on boxing ability, since it's not easily measurable.

 

I've mentioned this in other threads but I'll mention it again here: there are highly visible pieces of infrastructure that explain why baseball, football, basketball, and soccer players are better on average than before.

Not only have the professional level invested (collectively) billions of dollars in improved training. Training all the way down to the level of pre-pubescent children has professionalized. Check out the facilities and coaches at a place like IMG Academy or any of the other elite sports prep schools, it's beyond anything pro-teams had in the 1950s and beyond anything all but a very small number of elite pros and perhaps some Olympic teams have.

That said, it's not impossible that some of the best head to head fighters of all time are active right now. I don't write GGG or Floyd off against anyone. Spence would never beat Leonard, but he's going to give anyone a hard night's work.

Regarding HW, the case for the old timers has recently been made better. Usyk is almost exactly the same build as Ali and he convincingly beat AJ twice. All other things being equal, size is an advantage, but I suspect that north of 200lbs guys are punching hard enough to rattle anything made out of flesh and bone.

Wilder (who has a very similar build to 60s Ali opponent Ernie Terrell) looked better against dreadnought class HWs Ortiz and Fury when he came in light and twitchy than he did after bulking up.

 

Just to add, not only is it training, it's scouting. Of course sometimes they find an elite pitcher playing in a sandlot in the Dominican Republic who did not have the benefit of all this new training.

But they have portable kit that can measure the spin of his pitches and all sorts of stuff about his muscles and circulatory system that separate the true freak athletes from the merely talented. That allows them to greatly increase the hit rate on bringing in international amateurs.

 

Part of the reason is that for example in track and field it's easier to compare the results of old legends and modern athletes. For example, it's easier to compare the careers of Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt than it is to compare the careers of Monzon and GGG.

When we get to sports like football there's always going to be people that think Pele and Maradona are the best ever because their performances aren't as easily measurable. Same goes with boxing. Athletes like Wayne Gretzky would not do well in todays NHL but still he's considered the great one.

Things get complicated after you remove the easily measurable comparable numerical results from the equation.

 

So the question then is how much comparable visible infrastructure change do we see in boxing, worldwide?

 

ESjr and Hagler equals??? Pretty sure every day this idiot gets even dumber...

 

ive watched fights and fighters live for almost 50 years, with a good understanding of the technical side of the sport. the level of competition was at its highest around the 80s-90s. i believe its because the number of highly talented individuals was greatest around those decades, which demanded the top guys to be better than those before, and those after, just to remain on top.
think of it this way, pre 80s, out of the top 100 fighters in each division, 50 of them were 6s, 40 were7s, 5 were 8s, and 5 were 9s and 10s. in the 80s and 90s, 20 were 6s, 20 were 7s,, 40 were 8s, 15, were 9s and 5 were 10s. numbers arent exact of course, theyre just used for illustrative purposes. since the 90s things have steadily declined back to pre 80s levels and worse. the hw division is the most obvious example of this trend.

 

Nostalgia runs pretty deep in every sport, but you’re right, it does seem the most prevalent in boxing. I think it has to do with older fans who are used to fearless fighters being frustrated with the current state of boxing.

 

Doping was most prevalent in the 80's across most sports.

 

doping dont help you throw a left hook correctly, or cut off the ring, or roll with punches on the inside, etc...

 

I'm sure there are forward thinking gyms, but it's not on the same scale. There are fewer silver/golden gloves tournaments and way fewer schools have boxing teams/clubs. We're getting cast-offs from other sports.

I feel strongly that this is the case in the middle divisions at least.

That's also true.