Yesterday's boxers (pre-1980) would not be competitive today

[check hook]

Too many advances in modern sport training and nutrition have rocked athleticism. If you check the athletic olympic records at wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...en.27s_records ) all records, but one, have been set from 1980 onwards.

To think boxing as a sport, and boxers as athletes, have not improved with time would require some argument personally I have not considered.

Maybe if Ali was born today, with today's training methods and nutrition, he would be #1. Maybe not.

But comparing old timers to fighters from around the 80's till now is not fair to the athletes of old, nor to boxing. It would be as saying boxing has stood still while athletic ability in other sports flourished.

Feel free to disagree.

Alot of people theorise that this simply doesn't apply to boxing. Maybe we have better athletes, but the boxers of today (bar a few) lack some basic fundamentals and suck at defense. Offensively you prob have a point, but today's guys lack defense, and even basic footwork.

[check hook]

No that is just nonsense. I truly believe the fighters of yesteryear could compete with today's fighters. I actually think the boxing talent pool has watered down.

Yes. The Irish, Italians and ***s aren't sending nearly as many contenders to the ring as they did in yesteryear.

[BennyST]

Who at 147 today could get close to beating either of these guys? This is pre 1980. Cotto? Margarito? Pacquiao? Clottey? Mosley?


It's quite funny but all of these guys, Duran, Leonard, Benitez and De Jesus have slicker head movement just while standing still than just about any fighter today while someone is punching at them and they are trying to avoid punches.

Try actually watching a fight properly. Look how slick both Leonard and Benitez are. How few punches land from either guy and how close each punch is. Such subtle head movement, just an inch this way, then that and the punches miss. People think of Duran as an aggressive brawler. He was pure counter puncher. Nearly everything he does is based off the opponents missed and slipped shots which he uses to then get off his shots. No one does this stuff today apart fro guys like Hopkins, Mayweather and Toney. It's why the only person that Duran like today is Hopkins. It's because he says Hopkins studied him a lot of uses many of the same moves and fights like he did. Duran was also a master of feinting with his head, hands and feet which no one uses today at all. Even Hopkins doesn't use feints that much in comparison. It's laughable when you actually know the history of boxing that people compare it to a sport that is timed and all you have to do is try and beat that time. The boxers don't stand at one edge of the ring and then run across it as fast as they can to the other side. That's not the end of the round.

[TheGreatA]

A big statement, but there's just too much that goes against it.

Take today's top fighters in each division or the pound for pound list and pit them against pre-1980's fighters and you'll find out that the fights would be very competitive and the old time fighters likely favoured by a neutral observer. Today's bunch of fighters just isn't very strong aside from a select few.

[KJB]

With the possible exception of defensive wizards, I must say (Nicolino Locche, for example).

Thats easy to say, but boxing isnt track and field. Saying boxers of today are the greatest of all time is like saying chess players of today are the greatest of all time, or painters, or say, musicians. Boxing is way more than pure athleticism.
Watch old boxing, the average fighter of old was much craftier and much tougher than the average fighter of today.

[check hook]

Please.

Everyone knows that on New Years Day 1980 a phenomenon happened and all boxers suddenly completely changed, they were much fitter, their speed became super human as did their strength, they became more technically sound and just overall better, you wouldn't see none of that in 1979, no no no, everyone pre 1980 were cavemen.



Great example in Hopkins, someone who prides himself on being an old school boxer who learned his trade from studying boxers from the past.

Because you say so though, forget everything Hopkins said, it's definitely the nutrition of today, not the techniques, ring IQ and such he has learned that allowed his style to still be compatible in his ageing body.

"I'm cut from the cloth of Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore those guys"

But surely he can't be, Hopkins is a post 1980s super athlete, he can't learn anything from them because they're hopeless and he is superior.

Exactly, the true old school fighters never weighed more than a handful of kilos above their fight weight. That's why Hopkins is always in shape......same with Mayweather. They had same day weigh ins back then......how the **** are you not going to be drained if you didn't have the discipline to be in shape between fights.

[Sweet Jesus]

Take out "pre-1980" and add "pre-1960".

Then I would agree.

[TheGreatA]

Take out "pre-1980" and add "pre-1960".

Then I would agree.

Pre-1960's still includes the 50's and the 40's.

Sugar Ray Robinson?
Archie Moore?
Joe Louis?
Ezzard Charles?
Harold Johnson?

I wouldn't be surprised if a Lloyd Marshall did a job on most of today's middles:

[RubenSonny]

Such a ****** argument, there are still good fighters with varying nutrition and training, there are so many fighters with much less money for training and still win, how did Pac beat Ledwaba? How did Martinez almost decision Williams in the first fight?

[SplitSecond]

boxing is about the brain

we def aint getting smarter, and i can tell you that just by being in NSB