Teddy Atlas: "Today's era of boxing is nothing compared to the earlier era"

[BadNewz]

Boxing in the upper weight divisions fell off a cliff in the past 10-20 years. That's because all the best athletes today who are big enough play football or basketball. You can make more money that way, and even if you don't make it you can get a scholarship. And you can learn to play it from coaches at school, you don't have to go find a gym. That's why almost everything from middleweight up is garbage. But once in a while, you still see truly great athletic talents around welterweight like Floyd. Those guys aren't big enough to play other sports. Plus Floyd Sr. forced him to box so he didn't have a choice, just like Roy Jones Sr.

[JAB5239]

THINK about it before you try to deny it. The Mayorga that fought Forrest facing the Robinson that lost to Lamotta is a competitive fight. Then Robinson had 6 competitive fights with Lamotta, Mayorga is really a modern day Lamotta. That said, a moder day Lamotta is a bum, could never make it. That's the evolution of sports.

Your ignorance is revealing. Mayorga has never even come close to having the type of skills LaMotta had and wouldn't be enjoying the natural size advantage Jake carried into those fights.

Do yourself a favor and quit basing your opinion of LaMotta's fighting style and ability from a movie. He was 10x the fighter Mayorga ever was.

[MikeBrew328]

Your ignorance is revealing. Mayorga has never even come close to having the type of skills LaMotta had and wouldn't be enjoying the natural size advantage Jake carried into those fights.

Do yourself a favor and quit basing your opinion of LaMotta's fighting style and ability from a movie. He was 10x the fighter Mayorga ever was.

He achieved a lot, I agree. But look at how Mayorga beat Forrest twice. Is Forrest a bad fighter???? I still mainatin Robinson-Mayorga would last 10 rounds. You see, in today's boxing world Mayorga is considered a bum, in the old days he would be much more respected.

Evolution of Sports. Google it. Look at Babe Ruth. He was one of the fattest dudes on the planet, he lived like a world class bum. Yet he set the home run record. Does that make mean he could instantly compete with the pros today???

[JAB5239]

He achieved a lot, I agree. But look at how Mayorga beat Forrest twice. Is Forrest a bad fighter???? I still mainatin Robinson-Mayorga would last 10 rounds. You see, in today's boxing world Mayorga is considered a bum, in the old days he would be much more respected.

Evolution of Sports. Google it. Look at Babe Ruth. He was one of the fattest dudes on the planet, he lived like a world class bum. Yet he set the home run record. Does that make mean he could instantly compete with the pros today???

Forrest was a talented fighter. But he was no where near the level of a Robinson, and outside of Mosely never fought or dominated a top teir fighter.

How did Mayorga do vs Oscar, Tito (who came out of retirement) or even Mosley himself? Ko, ko, ko.

In the old days Mayorga would have been appreciated for his warrior mentality, but he most likely wouldn't have fared any better.

Babe Ruth was fat for what you think an athlete should look like, not one of the fattest guys on the planet. John Kruk was an all star who was well overweight and sat in the dugout smoking cigerettes between innings. How did that happen? David Wells was notorius for coming into camp overweight and going out to party, yet he was onje of baseballs best pitchers for many years. How did that happen?

[BROOKLYN CESAR]

Thats ****en stupid teddy!!! You cant compare one era to the other because there are to many things too consider!!!

[JAB5239]

Thats ****en stupid teddy!!! You cant compare one era to the other because there are to many things too consider!!!

I disagree. You look at the number of times a fighter fought per year. How many weight classes and titles were around in each era, and a rough estimate of the amount of professional fighters from the era.

More fighters, less weight classes and less titles equals more competition, making certain (not all) era's greater.

I would however agree that it is very difficult to predict how a fighter from one era would do in another. But there are things that can be looked at to make logical assumtions in some cases.

[KostyaTszyu44]

Exactly. Fighters of today are equally as skilled, and in some cases moreso, but they're pampered. They lack to toughness or desire to fight 8 times a year. do many of you realize that there use to be between 8 and 10 weight classes and only 1 or 2 titles (depending on the era), compared to todays 17 weight classes, and at THE LEAST 4 titles? This isn't including "super champions", "interim champions" or " champion emeritus" either. Anybody who cannot see how that waters down the talent pool needs to seriously get an education. There are 66 different champions in boxing today and 4 titles that are vacant at the moment. That is sad.

exactly, exactly

[KostyaTszyu44]

THINK about it before you try to deny it. The Mayorga that fought Forrest facing the Robinson that lost to Lamotta is a competitive fight. Then Robinson had 6 competitive fights with Lamotta, Mayorga is really a modern day Lamotta. That said, a moder day Lamotta is a bum, could never make it. That's the evolution of sports.

i like mayorga but it is an insult to put him in the same sentence as jake la motta


and robinson would belt the living piss out of mayorga, prime or not, anyday of the week any hour of the day

mayorga is not a modern day la motta, his skills are not as good and his chin/toughness isnt as good either, you think mayorga is tough?? watch the st. valentines day massacre, robinson ( on of the best offensive fighters of all time, and the GOAT) hit la motta with EVERYTHING and jake didnt go down, thats a warrior

honestly, you are just a waste of time

[Del Coqui]

Not sure if you caught Teddy Atlas post-fight analysis of DLH-Pac. Brian Kenny asked Teddy where does this victory place Pacquiao in history.

Teddy cringed a bit and said there is no comparison between today's and the earlier days of boxing. Atlas specifically said that in the early days, there are less weight divisions and more importantly, there are about 15 to 20 guys that could 'legitimately' beat the champion in every division. Teddy also brought up the difficulty of competing in 15 rounders or even more.

Do you agree with Teddy's assessment that today's fighters are **** compared to yesterday's?

I agree, this days its all about $$$, back in the day it was all about finding out who the best was then the $$$.