Since the period 1930-1960 to 2013 the trend in boxing quality and skill has

[Humean]

1930-60 saw possibly the greatest concentration of fighters ever, Louis, Robinson, Pep, Armstrong and so on and so forth. But the 60- late 80s gave us Ali, Leonard, Duran and so on. The gradual decline in truly great fighters started in the late 80s, ofc we still have iconic heavyweights back then and great lil men in Chavez and Whitaker but the concentration of great fighters was severely diluted.

Say, over the last 18 years, from 95-2013, how many great fighters of this era would you pick to win against former greats in similar weight divisions? The greatest fighter from middleweight to light-heavyweight I've seen in my life time is probably RJJ, in fantasy match ups, he would be paired against the likes of Robinson, Hagler, Monzon, Hearns, Leonard, Spinks, Qawi, Foster and so on. RJJ, for all his gifts could not take a punch and may not have lasted with the relentless pressure Monzon or Robinson would have put on him at middleweight and I just can't imagine him out thinking someone like Hagler. He might have been able to beat the great Foster or Spinks at light heavy, maybe Hearns and Leonard at middleweight but the Qawi definitely carried the punch and the never say die attitude to drag Jones into the trenches. Like it or not but everyone Jones was dragged into the trenches he lost.

The same assessment can be made with most great fighters in that 18 year period compared to some of the great fighters of the past. I actually think a prime Oscar and Tito would be the most competitive at welter or light middleweight, when compared to the FAR smaller welters in Floyd or Manny or Bradley etc.

Well the debate was whether boxing had improved or declined since about the end of the 1950s not whether there has been a decline in the past 20-25 years. You could say there has been an uwpard trend in improvement that occurred in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and then a trend back downwards since the 90s to today but that the overall trend from 1960 to 2013 is upward.

To your question isn't it slightly unfair to compare the number of very good to great fighters in an 18 year period with all the fighters that went before? Anyway let me try, i'm not saying my examples from 1995 to 2013 would necessarily beat more times than not the best in their respective weight classes from all the years before 1995 but I think my examples would be very competitive indeed. Off the top of my head then Lewis, V Klitschko, W Klitschko, Roy Jones, Michalczewski, Hopkins, Calzaghe, Ward, Collins,
Trinidad, Martinez, Golovkin (still to be proven), Mayweather, Wright, Pacquiao, Cotto, Kostya Tszyu, Castillo, Barrera, Morales, Marquez, Naseem Hamed, Donaire, Rigondeaux(still to be fully proven), Calderon, Ricardo Lopez, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Roman Gonzalez (This guy is surely going to be considered a great) plus a number of others particularly in the flyweight classes who might well compare favourably with earlier champions although I haven't really went through it thoroughly to make an assessment of it.