Is Boxing's history already too extensive for one liftetime to get through?

[CTE90]

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[joeandthebums]

To know it all, maybe? But certain there's new stuff out there still to discover, connect dots between.

Depends where your interest sits.

[QueensburyRules]

Was just thinking about it... Are people who are perhaps in their 70s or so, who might've been following boxing in 1970s and also didn't have all that much to catch-up with from before their time (In comparision to any younger generations) - the last true boxing historians?

I'm big boxing fan and most of my time is dedicated to keeping up with what's currently happening. I try to go back and get familiar with past decades as well, but I'm still not even close to seeing everything from 2000s that I'd like to see...
...and then You have 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s.... and the classic times with not much TV footage.

I don't think I'll ever get to see/read about everything that I'd like to..
..and the more time flies, every new fan will be faced with even more of history.

I was also trying to collect fights, but now I realised I'll never get to see it all - and the more time flies, the less people will probably care about anything other than true major, historical fights from each year.
So I guess I don't really know what's the question in this topic, just thought it's interesting and a bit sad.

- -I will say right around mid 2000s there was a bountiful clear rushing ****** of near every boxing match ever taped, and I musta spent 2 years mostly scoring the fights.

That era sadly long gone, but The Great A whose older posts sometimes crop up here was one of the leaders, a Finn operating out of Finland.

Most fans are hardly more than fans and some historians ain't all that.

As to myself, been historically oriented from inception, but as Clint once reminded us, "A man has to know his limits, so mine are of Texas, Baseball, Boxing, Automobiles, and Anthropology.

And plenty of misc, so inquiries are welcome. Whatcha got?

[Eff Pandas]

I think its a tiny tiny percentage of fans these days who can consider themselves true boxing historians. I mean I think at this point if you know about boxing from the 60's up then your passable as a boxing historian to most hardcore boxing fans & if you know about boxing from the 90s up then your passable as a boxing historian to most casual fans.

[LITTLE JOE]

- -I will say right around mid 2000s there was a bountiful clear rushing ****** of near every boxing match ever taped, and I musta spent 2 years mostly scoring the fights.

That era sadly long gone, but The Great A whose older posts sometimes crop up here was one of the leaders, a Finn operating out of Finland.

Most fans are hardly more than fans and some historians ain't all that.

As to myself, been historically oriented from inception, but as Clint once reminded us, "A man has to know his limits, so mine are of Texas, Baseball, Boxing, Automobiles, and Anthropology.

And plenty of misc, so inquiries are welcome. Whatcha got?

Lets talk baseball.

My favorite MLB era was the 70's partly because I was a lad in that era and lived within an hour and a half from Cincinnati, home of the great Big Red Machine.Saw them in person several times from 74 -77. In my lifetime they were the greatest I ever saw but the early 70's Oakland A's were right there with them.I miss those days.
All Star games meant more.Less channels meant more casual and hardcore fans of the game.It was the king of sports in popularity IMO.Every kid in the neighborhood playing pickup games.... The memories.
Still wish I had the huge box of baseball cards that were lost/thrown out.Monetary value not so much,Sentimental value yes. I'm just a sucker for nostalgia.

[QueensburyRules]

Lets talk baseball.

My favorite MLB era was the 70's partly because I was a lad in that era and lived within an hour and a half from Cincinnati, home of the great Big Red Machine.Saw them in person several times from 74 -77. In my lifetime they were the greatest I ever saw but the early 70's Oakland A's were right there with them.I miss those days.
All Star games meant more.Less channels meant more casual and hardcore fans of the game.It was the king of sports in popularity IMO.Every kid in the neighborhood playing pickup games.... The memories.
Still wish I had the huge box of baseball cards that were lost/thrown out.Monetary value not so much,Sentimental value yes. I'm just a sucker for nostalgia.

- -When we moved out of our working class digs for a more upscale hood, my mom who was everything to me talked me into tossing my bb classic cards that included a rare Ty Cobb, all my comics, and agree to give up fighting so she would not be embarrassed by a mom ringing her over little Timmy picking a fight with me to end up squalin' for his momma.

The fights part was easy in that them boys were actually civilized, the reason we moved there!

Amassed a collection of HotRod mags that got washed out in a flood when I was off at school. First Mom, then Mother Nature, what's a po'boy to do?

[The Old LefHook]

You finally told the truth about something--you own mother was embarrassed over you. No one has trouble belirving that, I assure you.

[QueensburyRules]

You finally told the truth about something--you own mother was embarrassed over you. No one has trouble belirving that, I assure you.

- -So that was you squallin' in the background when you momma call my momma.

Figured as much.

[LITTLE JOE]

Was just thinking about it... Are people who are perhaps in their 70s or so, who might've been following boxing in 1970s and also didn't have all that much to catch-up with from before their time (In comparision to any younger generations) - the last true boxing historians?

I'm big boxing fan and most of my time is dedicated to keeping up with what's currently happening. I try to go back and get familiar with past decades as well, but I'm still not even close to seeing everything from 2000s that I'd like to see...
...and then You have 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s.... and the classic times with not much TV footage.

I don't think I'll ever get to see/read about everything that I'd like to..
..and the more time flies, every new fan will be faced with even more of history.

I was also trying to collect fights, but now I realised I'll never get to see it all - and the more time flies, the less people will probably care about anything other than true major, historical fights from each year.
So I guess I don't really know what's the question in this topic, just thought it's interesting and a bit sad.

This is a good question. As time goes by, the more the history dies and fewer people care anymore about the history. This is a different era. I'm not in My 70's just in my 50's. The first fight I can remember is Ali vs Frazier 1. The first fight I actually watched was Ali vs Norton 1. I don't go back as far as others here. I have always had a huge interest in the heavyweights from the 1880's through the Jack Dempsey era. There are so many here that have 100 times the knowledge I do and I like to absorb. Back in the 70's and through to about 1990, there were way more casual fans due to the fact that fights were almost always on the weekends and several times a year, the heavyweight champion was on TV. This gave the sport tremendous exposure and when you throw in the fact there weren't too many channels, boxing had a big casual fan base. That's not happening now. The interest has really waned over the last 20 to 25 years. Too many pay per view fights now that could not even compare to the fights that were on free network TV. The casual fan was sacrificed for the dollar which is the way of the world now. I am glad I grew up during the great eras of the 70's and 80's. If I grew up in this current era, I probably would be like so many others and never would have followed the sport.

[The Old LefHook]

Historians spend most of their time interpreting history, yet all have essentially the same collection of facts to work with. Who tells the best stories within this common collection? Sometimes we feel some historian has finally teased out the actual truth from disparate facts. We like his style of storytelling and we like his results. Most of us are poor at distinguishing truth from what we want to believe and a good story from the truth anyway. Yet without these various interpretations of others we would be like blind men to history. We may be wrong, but at least we do have plenty of ideas about the subject, thanks to others and an ear for storytelling.