I'd say there are better better athletes throughout sports today than there were years back, but....
At the top level, the best athletes have gone beyond that to being "investments". The risks that used to be taken no longer are being taken, and boxers are certainly no exception. There's a coddling of the elite that wasn't happening decades ago. Pitchers have ****ing "pitch counts", for Christ's sake!
I HATE pitch counts.....I hate starting pitchers who can't pitch past 6 innings cuz of their delicate wittle arms :frustrated9:
I HATE pitch counts.....I hate starting pitchers who can't pitch past 6 innings cuz of their delicate wittle arms :frustrated9:
Poet
I don't believe it's the pitchers themselves...it's coming from management. They don't want to risk the "investment" I spoke of.
Just like with fighters.....Fighters will fight anyone. It's the people behind them who keep them from fighting everyone they should. They fear losing their cash cow.
I don't believe it's the pitchers themselves...it's coming from management. They don't want to risk the "investment" I spoke of.
Just like with fighters.....Fighters will fight anyone. It's the people behind them who keep them from fighting everyone they should. They fear losing their cash cow.
If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times: Big money eventually ruins sports. Ever notice how the quality of play in sports is usually at it's best BEFORE the big money starts rolling in? And how it starts declining once it becomes a cash-cow?
Pitchers used to pitch out of 4 man rotations and would get 40+ starts a year, 30+ of which would be complete games.
Poet
You know, there's such an obsession with weight/strength training today...yet pitchers seemed to have more stamina when they spent all of their time pitching balls instead of pumping iron.
You know, there's such an obsession with weight/strength training today...yet pitchers seemed to have more stamina when they spent all of their time pitching balls instead of pumping iron.
Because everything is a trade-off. To boost one thing you have to sacrifice another. People think they can have it all but the truth is that's just a fantasy. Everything in life is a trade-off.
If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times: Big money eventually ruins sports. Ever notice how the quality of play in sports is usually at it's best BEFORE the big money starts rolling in? And how it starts declining once it becomes a cash-cow?
Poet
...and that's why MMA fans should revel in what they have today, because it's gonna wind up a lot like boxing.
P.S. - Once the way MMA is run starts to go downhill, people will see how it's really an inferior sport to boxing.
...and that's why MMA fans should revel in what they have today, because it's gonna wind up a lot like boxing.
P.S. - Once the way MMA is run starts to go downhill, people will see how it's really an inferior sport to boxing.
Maybe. Some fans are just violence freaks though and MMA is perceived as more violent then other sports. The violence freaks will still watch it devotedly. It's kind of like boxing fans who only watch because they want to see someone get KTFO.
Boxing, like any other discipline, is always evolving and getting better.
It's a process that can be seen from John L Sullivan to Jack Johnson; all the way to Floyd Mayweather, and into the future with guys like Nonito Donaire. The sport evolves and so do the fighters. Evolution is a process of improvement, not decline.
A case can easily be made that fighters today are "better" than the old fighters because they have more evolved skills, better training, and benefit of learning from those who came before them. But the case can also be made that older fighters were tougher because the circumstances they fought under were tougher and more demanding, with far less reward.
It's a matter of perspective, like all things.
That's my 2 cents.
I disagree, Boxing has been in decline since Sugar Ray Robinson,... please refer to some of my above posts so I don't repeat myself............ Your theory does not always testify to the Facts,,.. I don't know if you know anything about Cricket,.... but if you do you will know that, even though the game has gotten bigger, the best player of all-time was Don Bradman, who played his first test in 1928 and his last in !948, and he was so damn good that to this day, he is TWICE as good as the second best Player,.... probably Jack Hobbs,..... and 100 % of all Cricket fans say that this is indisputable.....SO HOW CAN This HAPPEN ??????,,. how does your Blanket view of SPORT fit this in,.......... Bradmans career BLOWS The MIND,.... no Sportsman comes near the guy,... unless you count Invincible Billiards all-time GOAT, Walter Lindrum,,,, the best Cueist to ever live,... and where did you think his career fitted in, ??? 1920's to the 1940's.................. Lindrum used to make Billiards breaks of 4000 and keep his opponent (the second best ever player) off the table for days at a time ......I'm sorry to veer off from boxing but you are the one to bring up this todays Sportsmen are more brilliant from the guys five minutes ago JIVE !!!!!!! Don't jive wit me bud
Boxing, like any other discipline, is always evolving and getting better.
It's a process that can be seen from John L Sullivan to Jack Johnson; all the way to Floyd Mayweather, and into the future with guys like Nonito Donaire. The sport evolves and so do the fighters. Evolution is a process of improvement, not decline.
A case can easily be made that fighters today are "better" than the old fighters because they have more evolved skills, better training, and benefit of learning from those who came before them. But the case can also be made that older fighters were tougher because the circumstances they fought under were tougher and more demanding, with far less reward.
It's a matter of perspective, like all things.
That's my 2 cents.
Yeah, new equipment like the jump rope and heavy bag.
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