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

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 sh*t compared to yesterday's? I agree, this days its all about $$$, back in the day it was all about finding out who the best was then the $$$.

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.

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

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?

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???

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.

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.

sweet jesus.... Holy shit. That is almost sig worthy. 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.

yeah... it's very hard to compare the two because boxing now is completely different, less rounds - 12 instead of 15, active fighters are the one who fight 4 times a year where they used to fight every two weeks, different training methods, now we have more belts, and in the past more fighters would still fight even if they had an injury because they needed the money. life was harder back in the old days too 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.

this is not a winnable argument yeah... it's very hard to compare the two because boxing now is completely different, less rounds - 12 instead of 15, active fighters are the one who fight 4 times a year where they used to fight every two weeks, different training methods, now we have more belts, and in the past more fighters would still fight even if they had an injury because they needed the money. life was harder back in the old days too

Take the top 3 or 4 guys from each weight division, separating them into the 8 that there used to be, than I think todays guys are pretty good compared to what the earlier area, including heavyweight (Lennox for sure if your considering him in this era, Vitali for sure, and Wlad isn't as bad as everyone thinks, just boring). Todays guys just aren't deep in talent.

Skillwise, fighters are MUCH better. Im certain you could put Ricardo Mayorga in with Ray Robinson and make it a highly competitive fight. The same as hockey, football, etc. Good training methods have spread and skill levels go up. Holy shit. That is almost sig worthy.

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era. Fukn ROFL. CLassic shit.

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era. Funny shit

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era.

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.

Skillwise, fighters are MUCH better. Im certain you could put Ricardo Mayorga in with Ray Robinson and make it a highly competitive fight. The same as hockey, football, etc. Good training methods have spread and skill levels go up. You're out of your mind if you sincerly believe this. Oh, and hockey, football, etc. don't have weight classes.

Skillwise, fighters are MUCH better. Im certain you could put Ricardo Mayorga in with Ray Robinson and make it a highly competitive fight. The same as hockey, football, etc. Good training methods have spread and skill levels go up.

We've all seen how good Teddy is at comparing fighters this is the first right pick hes made since God knows when. So if Im gonna listen to how some fighters are better than others its not gonna be from Teddy

not sure. i think plenty of today's champions, if properly prepared for a 15 round fight, would beat plenty of yesterday's champions. i've always maintained that just because boxing is less popular today doesn't mean the fighters are less talented.