Is Boxing the only Sport that has not Improved over the Years?

[Dr Rumack]

Boxing is one of the sports that has undergone the most pronounced and significant improvements of any sport!

In the past, it was possible for nostalgists to make outrageous claims. That time came to an end approximately the year 2000 with the advent of boxrec and the uploading of old fight footage so we could see just how bad these old boxers really were.

The more variable skill and athletic dimensions involved in a sport, the greater the drive on it for improvement (obviously). And boxing is one of the more technical sports, especially compared with weight-lifting and sprinting.

And of course, boxing is possibly the highest stakes sport in the world, where losing does not merely mean a dented ego, but often also a dented skull and concussion. This kind of competition forces improvement on a level removed from other sports.

The claims of the delusionists are nonsense!

You have to weigh that against the extreme reluctance in boxing to accept strength, conditioning, and dietary expertise that became part of most other sports decades ago.

Boxing has progressed, but much more slowly than many other professional sports. It is still a backward and inward looking sport in many respects, where new methods are distrusted and 'old school' methods prevail.

[Wuckoo]

It's because since the 80's boxers still train "old school". In pretty much basic gyms with the same old equipment and hardly any sports science used.

That's why nutritionists like Alex Ariza are hot property, as they bring some advancement from the 80's. However if a gym invested in proper sports scientists and monitored and tested their athletes with all the technology we now have we would be advanced like all other sports. People like Ariza would then be nobodies.

This. And boxing is kind of a niche sport now. A lot of boxing gyms have old kit and not a lot have more than the basics of bags, jump rope, ring, etc.

[bigfo0t]

So since the 70s training methods, tactics, nutrition, professionalism have made squat in improvements in the sport?

Not only that, but the whole "underground" PED scene, giving "the sweet science" a whole 'nother meaning.. No doubt it is much more rampant nowadays, tons of crap out there fighters of old could have never even dreamed of.. PED designers admitting under oath that they have created several PED's and methods undetectable by any current testing standards. PED Science is always advancing, and testing needs to be able to keep up IMO.

[D4thincarnation]

Some of you have not been watching 24/7

[sicko]

Great Thread!

NO Boxing haven't really changed much over the years, most of the fighters are basically One-Dimensional.

Nobody has taken Boxing or Casual Sports Fans by Storm by bringing something NEW to the Sport. Mayweather changing to Money Mayweather leading up to the Oscar De La Hoya fight and becoming the Villain in Boxing captured the attention of Casual Fans but that is about it. After that everybody just seem to Ride the Mayweather WAVE!

I would like to see more BOLDNESS in boxing as far as not just your style in the ring but out of the ring entertainment and PERSONALITY! Boxing is extremely BORING when everybody is worried about being LIKED and just give Politically Correct Answers. I liked seeing Demetrius Andrade Video Yesterday of him just snapping on everybody in his Division. Need more of that and less of the "IT IS UP TO MY PROMOTER AND MANAGER...".

By NO I don't think Boxers are Improving, you have far too many guys who get a lot of Hype who can't cut the ring off, can't fight inside, can't throw a jab properly and would rather sit on a big lead instead of going FOR THE KILL! If you try to go for the Kill and can't get it, no problem, but if you build a lead and just sit on that Backfoot the rest of the fight I can understand why fans get BORED!

But I don't see anybody NOW that is more talented than Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Willie Pep or Ali, I don't even see fighters now that can MOVE like Pep and Ali...Not even smaller guys

[D4thincarnation]

Not only that, but the whole "underground" PED scene, giving "the sweet science" a whole 'nother meaning.. No doubt it is much more rampant nowadays, tons of crap out there fighters of old could have never even dreamed of.. PED designers admitting under oath that they have created several PED's and methods undetectable by any current testing standards. PED Science is always advancing, and testing needs to be able to keep up IMO.

Back in the old days they had zero tests, and was probably much more rampant.

PEDs have been around for 100 years or more.

[bigfo0t]

Back in the old days they had zero tests, and was probably much more rampant.

PEDs have been around for 100 years or more.

You are right, I'm just saying the science behind it has definitely advanced over the years, just like the science behind nutrition, training techniques, etc..

[D4thincarnation]

You are right, I'm just saying the science behind it has definitely advanced over the years, just like the science behind nutrition, training techniques, etc..

A lot of that science has been into making it undetectable and safer. It the past, they would just give you the same stuff they gave the horse.

It worked, but probably took a few years off your life every cycle.

[bigfo0t]

A lot of that science has been into making it undetectable and safer. It the past, they would just give you the same stuff they gave the horse.

It worked, but probably took a few years off your life every cycle.

Not gonna lie, that part made me LOL!

but seriously, I doubt they had all this EPO/blood transfusion crap back then,
if they did, that would be a huge surprise to me TBH..

[D4thincarnation]

Not gonna lie, that part made me LOL!

but seriously, I doubt they had all this EPO/blood transfusion crap back then,
if they did, that would be a huge surprise to me TBH..

No they didn't, but safety for the user as well as testing are concerns they didn't worry about in the past.

I think the world is more anti drug/cheat today, in the past they might have just thought of it as a secret weapon.


But they have been so many more advancements in sport and a lot of boxers are using these methods now.

Plus more training less fights are better for a boxer's development.

A lot of boxers get some very good sparring these days.