Fighters from previous generations fought much more often, but that cuts both ways. How many times have you heard people claim a fighter has been "ruined" by a single fight in the modern era? People say this specifically about Lacy after Calzaghe, Vargas after Trinidad etc.
Imagine fighting a grueling potentially 15 round fight every month(or more!) in an era when refs generally just kept counting and counting until it appeared someone was on the verge of death.
These guys sometimes fought 100 or more fights; imagine how many times they were "ruined" and "ruined" again. Remember how late ref stoppage came(if at all). Imagine how punchy so many surely became. I bet James Toney would sound like Barack Obama in comparison to some of the pugs in SRR's era and before.
This is why I can't see modern fighters getting blown out by historical fighters(say if we had a time machine). IMO, most historical fighters were surely compromised by how often they had to fight, how many punches they had to take, and the insufficent time and science they had to put into their training.
Imagine fighting a grueling potentially 15 round fight every month(or more!) in an era when refs generally just kept counting and counting until it appeared someone was on the verge of death.
These guys sometimes fought 100 or more fights; imagine how many times they were "ruined" and "ruined" again. Remember how late ref stoppage came(if at all). Imagine how punchy so many surely became. I bet James Toney would sound like Barack Obama in comparison to some of the pugs in SRR's era and before.
This is why I can't see modern fighters getting blown out by historical fighters(say if we had a time machine). IMO, most historical fighters were surely compromised by how often they had to fight, how many punches they had to take, and the insufficent time and science they had to put into their training.
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