Today's 8 vs past 8.

[Bundana]

I thought this might be fun, and hope it will create some debate.

Let's try and put together the best 8-man (8 original divisions) team from 2015, and match them against similar teams from the past.

For the 2015 team I propose (but am open to other ideas):
Flyweight - Gonzalez
Bantam - Inoue (?)
Feather - Rigondeaux
Light - Lomachenko
Welter - Mayweather
Middle - Golovkin
Light Heavy - Ward
Heavy - Klitschko

To be fair, we will use the old 15 rounds championship distance and same-day weigh-ins... which means, that we probably will have to move some of today's champs up a division. However, Gonzalez, Mayweather and Golovkin are not really big for their respective divisions - so they could likely make the limit, even if they have to weigh in on fight day.

So the object of this exercise is to find a year (or several!) from the past, where similar teams would be considered favourites to beat the 2015 team. Also, it would be interesting to see how far back in time we can go, and still be able to pick an 8-man team from a single year, that could conceivably beat today's 8.


And please, let's try and do this without the usual nonsense like "modern boxers suck" or "a bum like Joe Louis wouldn't even be a pro boxer today"! I know this is a big ask, but a serious discussion would be appreciated.

[NChristo]

Just wanted to pick a year from the 60s so was going through the Ring Annual ratings on boxrec
1962
Flyweight - Fighting Harada
Bantamweight - Eder Jofre
Featherweight - Davey Moore
Lightweight - Carlos Ortiz
Welterweight - Emile Griffith
Middleweight - **** Tiger
Light Heavyweight - Harold Johnson
Heavyweight - Sonny Liston

All make some real good fights, fairly even match ups for the most part (Jofre murks Inoue, Rigo murks Moore)

Kovalev > Ward at Light Heavy, not sure how you could have it the other way around until they fight.

[LacedUp]

I thought this might be fun, and hope it will create some debate.

Let's try and put together the best 8-man (8 original divisions) team from 2015, and match them against similar teams from the past.

For the 2015 team I propose (but am open to other ideas):
Flyweight - Gonzalez
Bantam - Inoue (?)
Feather - Rigondeaux
Light - Lomachenko
Welter - Mayweather
Middle - Golovkin
Light Heavy - Ward
Heavy - Klitschko

To be fair, we will use the old 15 rounds championship distance and same-day weigh-ins... which means, that we probably will have to move some of today's champs up a division. However, Gonzalez, Mayweather and Golovkin are not really big for their respective divisions - so they could likely make the limit, even if they have to weigh in on fight day.

So the object of this exercise is to find a year (or several!) from the past, where similar teams would be considered favourites to beat the 2015 team. Also, it would be interesting to see how far back in time we can go, and still be able to pick an 8-man team from a single year, that could conceivably beat today's 8.


And please, let's try and do this without the usual nonsense like "modern boxers suck" or "a bum like Joe Louis wouldn't even be a pro boxer today"! I know this is a big ask, but a serious discussion would be appreciated.

Flyweight - Gonzalez
Bantam - Inoue (?)
Feather - Rigondeaux
Light - Lomachenko
Welter - Mayweather
Middle - Golovkin
Light Heavy - Ward
Heavy - Klitschko

I would propose:

Flyweight - Arbachakov
Bantam - Ortiz
Featherweight - Arguello
Lightweight - Duran
Welterweight - Ray Leonard
Middleweight - Marvin Hagler
Lightheavyweight - Roy Jones jr
Heavyweight - Lennox Lewis

Fairly confident most of my picks would have been favourites.

Were we supposed to find a specific year or era?

[Ray Corso]

Only Gonzales has a real chance to compete!
The others are not on the same level as past greats.
Lomo at feather might be interesting but he'd need ALOT more pro experience to deal with the past giants.

Rigo vs Zarate' would be fun at 118lbs
Mayweather vs Robinson? Robinson would go to jail for that one!
GGG vs Robinson, seriously the kid couldn't land if he stayed straight up in a boxer stance. The right hands would be flying over the top of anything he throws.
Wlad vs Ali..........Wlad couldn't do a thing with Ali in his prime. It would be the ultimate boxer against the stiff, predictable, inviting chin novice being taken to boxing school by the Master.
Ward in with Bob Foster? hahaha 6'3" Foster who's right hand on Wards chins spells g o o d n i t e!!!

Sorry but the current guys aren't as talents and are far short on experience
and simply don't have the intangibles that the past generations cultivated.
I like GGG and Gonzales, Rigo is a fantastic boxer so is Lomo but their not top twenty all time right now. They have the talents to get there but their not done. Look at Ward, he is stalled with business problems and after years its not easy to come back to the top as you were years before!


Ray

[Bundana]

Were we supposed to find a specific year or era?

Yes, the idea was to select a team from a single year. to go up against the best from 2015.

[LacedUp]

1999

Arbachov
Tapia / Tim Austin
Naseem Hamed
Shane mosley
Dela Hoya
Hopkins
Roy Jones jr
Lennox Lewis

[NChristo]

Only Gonzales has a real chance to compete!
The others are not on the same level as past greats.
Lomo at feather might be interesting but he'd need ALOT more pro experience to deal with the past giants.

Rigo vs Zarate' would be fun at 118lbs
Mayweather vs Robinson? Robinson would go to jail for that one!
GGG vs Robinson, seriously the kid couldn't land if he stayed straight up in a boxer stance. The right hands would be flying over the top of anything he throws.
Wlad vs Ali..........Wlad couldn't do a thing with Ali in his prime. It would be the ultimate boxer against the stiff, predictable, inviting chin novice being taken to boxing school by the Master.
Ward in with Bob Foster? hahaha 6'3" Foster who's right hand on Wards chins spells g o o d n i t e!!!

Sorry but the current guys aren't as talents and are far short on experience
and simply don't have the intangibles that the past generations cultivated.
I like GGG and Gonzales, Rigo is a fantastic boxer so is Lomo but their not top twenty all time right now. They have the talents to get there but their not done. Look at Ward, he is stalled with business problems and after years its not easy to come back to the top as you were years before!


Ray

Real shame Zarate, Foster and Robinson were all eras apart, you completely missed the point of the thread and went on your own tangent, pick any year and the best boxers of today can compete with them in at least 1 weight for **** sake, Rigo and Gonzalez are potential super powers in the whole fantasy match up game.

[Ray Corso]

Sorry about that;

1970
H. Ali
LtHy. Foster
M. Monzon
WW. Napolis
LtWt. Duran
Feath. Arguello
bant. Olivares
fly. Torres

These men were around for a very strong era and they were top shelf
competitors!

[NEETzsche]

i'd stick rigo at bantam, loma at feather and find a new lightweight. gamboa's last three fights were at lw, although he's clearly not at his best there. if we adjust the timeline a little we could use crawford. otherwise, i don't see any 135 lbers, big super feathers or small jr welters who particularly stand out right now. maybe verdejo will fill that gap soon