The Good Old Days of Boxing

[Kball15]

LOL!

Yea there were probably more robberies back in the day then their are today, because of curruption and the fact that judging didnt really have any guide lines

[The Gambler1981]

Also there was no internet to talk about boxing~, and the flow of information was no where near as good as it is now. You could not see every fight so you had to go by newspaper articles or The Ring and would have to go by another word for a fight you would otherwise have no clue about.

[abadger]

I made this post today, which I have to admit Thread Stealers post make look kind of ******:

As boxing fans in the modern era we are being robbed on a daily basis. I hadn't really thought that much about whether boxiing was 'good' or not until I started getting into it more seriously, and going back and watching older fights. It was way better back then, the boxers fought more, and most importantly they fought the right people. This on its own lead to more entertaining fights, and it helped show who the best boxers were. That fed back and kept boxing popular.

I lay the blame for boxings decline squarely at the door of the promoters. As the money involved in the sport went up they realised they could make a ton out of mediocre boxers by artificially inflating their records through slowing the number of fights down to a crawl, and picking and choosing easy opponents, who of course also had blown up reputations too. Throw in multiple corrupt sanctioning bodies and suddenly virtually any fighter can be a an undefeated champ and make massive paydays beating mediocre opposition.

The situation we find ourselves in now is ludicrous. Even B-Level fights take aeons to be made, with umming and ahhing over choice of opponents and purse bids on what should be routine, brisk mandatory defences and eliminator bouts. Prospects don't fight anyone until they are approaching thirty, and our creme de la creme tend to be in their mid thirties, way past it back in the day, and in the modern era in reality, but safe with their sheltered reputations because they only fight each other while the young lions who would probably beat them are busy knocking over tomato cans. Even when we get a real exception to this rule, say Mayweather or De La Hoya, both of whom were at the top of the game while very young, by the time they reach veteran status they have given up the legitimate defending and winnning of titles in favour of once yearly exhibition bouts.

In short, modern boxing is a travesty, and we fans put up with it because its all we have. The spectacle and product is so glossy and well put together, the hype so overwhelming, that even the most cynical of us fall for the bait come fight night. Well they'll keep doing it while we keep cheering, and as boxing fans, I'm afraid, we ain't going to stop.

Some of what I say in this post is true, mostly about the matchups and being better back in the day, but it was hardly a universal rule. I realise now thats it not so much a problem with boxing now, or even a problem, its just the way things are, and its crazy to pretend that the past was some sort of halcyon paradise.

Again, terrific post Thread Stealer.

[Thread Stealer]

Some of what I say in this post is true, mostly about the matchups and being better back in the day, but it was hardly a universal rule. I realise now thats it not so much a problem with boxing now, or even a problem, its just the way things are, and its crazy to pretend that the past was some sort of halcyon paradise.

You're right.

I would say it's a problem with boxing, but at the same time, it's the way things are, because of the way boxing is set up.

One of the few good things about this ridiculous alphabet soup is that it's less likely for a good contender to totally get shut out of the title picture because there are more titles to choose from. And having a trinket can help a fighter's marketability, to a certain extent.

[Thread Stealer]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,892677,00.html

Sport: Mr. Carbo & His Pals
Monday, Jun. 15, 1959

In the heyday of the International Boxing Club's strangle hold on U.S. boxing, Millionaire Sportsman James Dougan Norris ran the show in public, and a slim, grey-haired man named Paul John ("Frankie") Carbo ran a lot of it in private. Breaking up the Norris monopoly was relatively easy for the Justice Department. The underworld dominance of Frankie Carbo was something else again. Few figures in the fight game admitted knowing Carbo or dealing with him in any way. But last July the man known as "Mr. Grey" was finally indicted by a New York grand jury for illegal matchmaking and managing fighters under the table. Carbo promptly disappeared, was caught only three weeks ago as he fled from police at his New Jersey hideout. Frankie was the picture of innocence, said he ran because "I thought it was a rubout."

As police searched for Carbo last month, a Los Angeles fight promoter named Jackie Leonard went before the California Athletic Commission, put the finger squarely on Mr. Grey and his managerial sidekick, a Philadelphia hoodlum named Frank ("Blinky") Palermo. Leonard had promoted most of the key fights of Welterweight Champion Don Jordan. He told a shady story. Last year, when Jordan was still only a challenger, Leonard got a phone call from Blinky Palermo. Blinky demanded that "we" be cut in for a piece of Jordan as a condition for getting a title fight with Virgil Akins. Leonard, together with Jordan's manager. Don Nesseth, pretended to agree. After the fight Leonard ignored Blinky Palermo's attempts to collect a share of the money. Soon he got a summons to Miami. He flew down, was brought into the presence of Frankie Carbo at a waterfront motel. Carbo "advised" he comply.

Leonard continued to stall and the talk got uglier. Blinky visited Leonard in Los Angeles, accompanied by a couple of tough-looking hoodlums with police records who lingered ominously in the background. Leonard got threatening phone calls ("It'll be with a pipe wrapped in a paper sack. You'll never know what hit you"). He testified that Carbo called too. said "something to the effect that 'You're going to get hurt. We're going to make an example of you.' " After the hearing, police were assigned to guard Leonard whenever he left home.

One night last week Leonard went out to get a newspaper at the corner, not bothering to call the cops. It was a mistake. He returned, found the garage light out, started to pull the garage door down, got slugged. He fell, was kicked as he lay on the ground. Leonard wound up in the hospital in serious condition. It looked very much as though Carbo, even under arrest, still had pals willing to do him a favor.

[mrpain81]

Great thread.

Wish u could post this at Cyberboxingzone forum where every fight now is "Boring" a "Disgrace" and every fighter after 1985 is a bum.

People don't know good they have it now with Boxing *******s/youtube/streams, we get to see Koki Kameda fight on live stream now. Fights like Hasegawa vs Montiel would never be available live, you would have to wait a few months to buy the tape or trade it. The internet is the best thing that's happened to boxing ever imo. Actually overall the internet is the best invention since electricity imo

[Vadrigar.]

wow thread of the day. I'm not going to let this one die.

[talip bin osman]

pacquiao and mayweather would have fought a trilogy by now if we still have the good old boxing days in this era...