I know this subject has been done before, but since there recently was a thread about Hearns - Ruiz and the latest Vitali fight brought up all those who say the Klitschkos would lose to all past greats, I want to ask this quesion again: What is it with this extreme nostalgia among boxing fans? Wlad is still critized for holding when it is a simple fact that Aliin the 1970's did a lot more holding, as did Holyfield against Tyson, than Wlad in any of his fights. Hearns, in a recent thread was believed by some to beat John Ruiz, in another thread that he would absolutely outclass RJJ. Adamek was recently used as another reason to bash the current HW division with the argument that an LHW is considered a top contender, what a shitty era it must be....when in the glorious 90's, a LHW won the title and then lost it to a guy with several grandchildren. Why is it so difficult in boxing to acknowledge the strong points and the weaknesses of any era, fighters from different ears?
Sorry... that is an innocent spelling mistake but it really tickled me. Totally agree with what you are saying though.... fighters from previous eras do appear to get overrated slightly
I agree with what you say but you'll be surprised to hear that there is a scientific explanation for nostalgia. People tend to filter out unpleasent memories of their past making them crave for their school time when they're 35 years old although they hated standing up at 6am, being bored to death by physics lessons, being bullied by teachers for not having done the homework and learning for difficult examns. Interestingly enough that's not what people primarily think about when thinking of school but rather the good time they had with friends, the freedom they felt as teenagers, the unique feeling of youth, innocence, the first love, etc. and compare that to their current situation in which they're stuck at a boring office job married with a fat wife and living with annoying children. Like everything in life school time was a double-edged sword having a dark side and a bright sight but your brain mainly remembers the latter. That's nostalgia and that's where the phrase "good ol' times" comes from. You can easily apply that on boxing too. But don't blame the users for nostalgia - it's absolutely natural. : )
Agree, dont understand it either! But i think it has something to do with that certain people just dont like the dominant fighters today (in most cases the Klits and Calzaghe) So they like to state that they would get beaten easily by any "golden age boxer" instead of giving them a little bit of credit. Notice how many of these Vitali or Wlad vs prime blah blah.. fantasy threads that pops up everytime they beat a new opponent. But who knows, maybe thay will be the ones all talking about 30 years from now. Lennox Lewis got the same **** as the Klits when he was active.
its like... willie pep the greatest defensive fighter of all time floyd mayweather the greatest long distance runner of all time
Exactly. And as far as the scientific reason is concerned, I understand memory optimization ( a loose translation of the German term) but still in other sports there seems to be more acknowledgement that Federer would blow Borg off the tennis court or that Jim Ryun couldn't run with the current top Africans.
