Did old school boxers have more skills?

[Tedkidlewis]

Not necessarily better skills but better experience, hunger, toughness and believe it or not, better stamina.

Back in the day guys were having over 200 fights and fights could go over 20 rounds, after the fight they were not saying "thank you al Haymon" they were saying "WHO NEXT?" You beat me tonight, lets fight again next week.

To know boxing you really have to know the history. My username for instance was a guy that fought another guy 20 times. They fought 20 times coz they were the best.

Do people here even know who guys like Nonpareil Jack Dempsey or Joe Gans were? I hope so, that's how you show true respect to the sport. For instance Gans was the first black world champion and you can find footage of him, he used the shoulder roll, amazing counter puncher and fought like a beast, he would have competed with the best of today and would probably be champion.

[dan_cov]

that's party because boxing has lost its standing sports wise across the globe. especially in america.

all the top athletes play other sports now because of all the choices and relative quickness when it comes to making big money. If you are a great athlete, why choose boxing where you have to toil for years before you get a big shot when you can instantly make millions playing in the nfl, nba, mlb, nascar, etc...

back then, you either played baseball or boxing. that was it.

There is probably far more today boxing than previous.
There are far more weight classes and at least 1-2000 professional boxers alone in each.
There are amateurs gyms on every Street corner these days - There is no war, no not being unable to afford to go to a gym and so on

There is about 25,000 pro boxers at a minimum alone active today.

[jri9d0]

That's a matter of debate especially regarding specific aspects of what one would call skill. For example, the art of "Shoe shining" inside fighting, dedicated body attacks are a lost art in today's fighters whereas the fighters of yesteryear this was a staple to fighting period with some more effective than others per se.

One thing is for sure, if today's fighter's would have had at least half the heart of yesteryear fighter's we would have already seen the likes of Manny/Floyd already in the ring making their mark in boxing history.

[Welsh Jon]

No I think overall there is a decrease in skill level in particular footwork and the jab. You can probably count on one hand the amount of fighters today with a legitimate world class jab. How many fighters today even move their head?

I used to be someone strongly under the impression that everything had evolved but this is clearly not the case. In fact I think majority of fighters operating at world level really are not that good at all.

The heavyweight division is a joke, the weakest its ever been.
The middleweight division has one good fighter in it the rest are Euro level at best.
Light middle has Alvarez and Lara, the rest of the crop are a joke.

There are exceptions, we do have some supremely skillful fighters but as a whole its a real step back. I think 80% of top fighters today at a sheer guess would be journeyman/gatekeepers in practically any other era.

This!

Agree with this 100%

[Crazylegs77]

Or have modern fighters with their cutting edge training methods evolved way beyond the primitive techniques of the old days?

I think old boxers in general had more pride. Thats probably the main difference.

[Dr Rumack]

Depends on which old fighters you mean.

Odds are when Pac and Floyd are retired 10 years they'll be pretty much unbeatable in fantasy fights too. Certainly no active fighters will be given a shot at beating them.

While guys are active, they're less appreciated. When they're gone, people will rate their skills more highly. So 'today's fighters' are always going to be at a disadvantage in this sort of discussion.

[Run]

Rankings list from 1992 - picked at random.

Pound for pound

Julio Cesar Chavez
Pernell Whitaker
Terry Norris
Orlando Canizales
James (Buddy) McGirt
Rid**** Bowe
Azumah Nelson
Sung-Kil Moon
Julian Jackson
James Toney

Heavyweight
Title Vacant

Rid**** Bowe
Lennox Lewis
Evander Holyfield
Michael Moorer
Tony Tucker
George Foreman
Razor Ruddock
Ray Mercer
Tommy Morrison
Alex Garcia

cruiser
Bobby Czyz
Anaclet Wamba
Alfred Cole
Orlin Norris
James Warring
Nate Miller
Arthur Williams
Akim Tafer
Marcelo Victor Figueroa
Robert Daniels


Super middleweight
Title Vacant

Michael Nunn
Iran Barkley
Chris Eubank
Victor Cordoba
Nigel Benn
Tim Littles
Darrin Van Horn
Tony Thornton
Frankie Liles
Frank Nicotra

Middleweights
Julian Jackson
James Toney
Reggie Johnson
Roy Jones Jr.
Mike McCallum
Sumbu Kalambay
Gerald McClellan
Lamar Parks
Bernard Hopkins
Thomas Tate

Jr middle
Title Vacant

Terry Norris
Gianfranco Rosi
Vinny Pazienza
John David Jackson
Verno Phillips
Julio Cesar Chavez
Gilbert Dele
Carl Daniels
Aaron Davis
Laurent Boudouani

Go here and select a year Its night and day that todays fighters aren't a patch overall. I don't think its numbers or anything like that I feel its a lack of good trainers.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Th...Annual_Ratings

Whole Lotta blood and guts fighters on that list.



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[StefanTosic]

the modern athlete will always have the advantage.

not just medical aspect of it but also the knowledge aspect.

all the fighters now have prior knowledge of other past greats and they can integrate whatever info they have to their game. past greats only had who has existed during their time.

plus they didnt have youtube.

Hell no... yes they are supposed to have the adventage from the knowledge aspect, but on the contrary I'd say there is less knowledgable coaches to learn them, but from the medical aspect you are totally right. And it's not like that just because of coaches, the talent pool is less deep, so there are less people to learn and less people to teach than before... Just as someone said, for sure there are boxers who's skills are on the old school boxers level, but not all of them. For example today there are some supposedly "top" fighters who are labeled as "slick" altrought they lack some skills, or there is brawlers like Rios, Provodnikov (even through I like him) and Alvarado who are fighting without any finesse. Now off course this type of guys existed before, but they were classed lesser than todays guys.

[Luilun]

Just ask yourself this Floyd has the 147 154 titles would he beat Terry Norris at 154 ? Would he beat Julian Jackson at 154 ? Hell he doesn't even beat 19 year old Tony Ayala, Would he beat Ray Leonard Tommy Hearns Roberto Duran at 147 or 154 ? Would he beat Chavez at 140 Would he beat Pernel Witaker Tito Trinidad The answer is no so theres your answer

[sicko]

More Talent Now (based off of natural ability) but LESS SKILLS NOW!

This currently ERA ESPECIALLY, most of these guys really lack skills, can't cut the ring off some of them don't even have a consistent jab, awful defense, poor reflexes, **** footwork. The P4P List today is actually LAUGHABLE if you really examine it. P4P Fighters are suppose to the COMPLETE PACKAGE, now guys make P4P based off of POPULARITY which is LAUGHABLE!

So Old School Boxers was FAR MORE SKILLED that Today's HYPE JOBS would would be JUST ANOTHER GUY in a different ERA

I can count on 1 Hand which fighters are truly SKILLED in boxing today and lets just say....THEY'RE ALL CONSIDERED BORING but the dumb down boxing fans of today