Do people tend to overrate throwback fighters because of biased views?

[Swatty]

I think we would need to get into a debate on when in time these fighters from different eras would meet... maybe... because there are some pretty good fights that lasted 15 rds with good late action, those guys must have been in shape equivalent to what we see today. It's just as rare to see boxers as full of energy in the 12th now as in the 50s, maybe more so. And people being the way they are, the modern guys probably aren't necessarily better off than before. There's a lot of quackery in nutrition and health. Look at things some guys were saying 25 years ago about modern nutrition, there's a cycle of nonsense that just continually pervades the subject.
I think there has always been an elite class of fighters who are gifted with dna in smarts and strength, they are a class above. Manny and Floyd are certainly in that all time class. Manny's travels upward in class and results are astonishing for any era.

[Wolfie*]

Thanks for the feedback fellas.

[Suckmedry]

There may not have been great innovations in the technique side of boxing training, but there have been huge advances in strength and conditioning training since say the 1960s. Sports science has come on leaps and bounds and the result is that fighters in the modern era are, on average, stronger, faster and fitter than their older counterparts.

Sports science has also increased the knowledge of sports nutrition which was relatively basic before these innovations. Strength and conditioning training does not necessarily mean that today's fighters are any better than those of the past, but it is a mistake to state that there have no advances in training since the ear of Ali and others.

I get what you are saying but why do these guys all get tired so quickly then? All the old fighters used to fight 15 at a hard pace with no problems

[mrlopez]

I dont think so at all due to the fact that throwback fighters as you call them fought, sometimes more than 5/6 times a year, hell sometimes up to 10 times a year. They fought all other fighters below, at and above their weight class. They fought those fighters more than 2 or 3 times sometimes. They did it for pride, they did it for respect and they did it for the love of the fans and the sport. Big difference

[PeasantCrusha]

no more than children wanna think they invented the *******

I hope you're not babysitter...

[billeau2]

Ignorance dictates that people substitute opinions for real information. the idiocy of saying that fighters are better conditioned today when we see so many out of shape fighters who can hardly go 12 much less into the championship rounds.... The misunderstand that all things necessarily progress...If that were the case? I could give you a trillion dollars and I defy you to get a house built like houses were built in the old days....It can't be done folks. people don't have the skills because they have become obsolete, and yeah we build good houses with materials that are more efficient but no construction worker has the skills to do things like they were done.

In most sports there is a seminal period where one can point to when progress was made...In football in Florida during the eighties when Nautilus and training with maximum intensity made it so players could exhaust physically and use practice time to get faster and better....we started to see athletes who were bigger, stronger, even smarter...and so today a football team is not the same as a football team in the past. More talent was devoted to these programs and we see the results.

In MMA already there has been progress to the point where no matter how good you are in your discipline you have to be familiar with certain root techniques in Jiu Jutsu, wrestling, boxing, etc. Hence we can say that as technically good as Helio Gracie was, he is eclipsed today, because there are more MMA players, more exposure for the sport, etc.

But in boxing? Many of the great trainers have told us that todays guys do not have the length of apprenticeship to develop the many skills fighters had. Furthermore the talent pool has decreased, it just does not mean the same today to be "a" heavyweight champion as it did to be "the" heavyweight champion in days gone by.

If you look at tapes you will see a different activity level, the use of many subtle strategies and techniqques, etc that you seldom see today. And yes fighters come in heavier for bouts...but these same fighters are training for 12 round contests. If a fighter like Chris Aeriola had to fight a fifteen round fight he simply could not come in at the weight he does.

There are great fighters today and throwback fighters, guys like Hopkins and Toney, but there is no indication that fighters are in better condition, have more skills, knowledge or commitment than fighters from the past.

[Spray_resistant]

Yes, I watch them and don't think they look especially great compared to modern superior fighters.

[Mr.Fantastic]

It's the same for past times and current. A lot of them get overrated/overhyped to the extreme.

[turnedup]

In my humble opinion NO because in order to be successful back then it took almost a sociopath mentality because of the quick turn around between bouts and how quickly you could go from a name to a nobody so there was more on the line with less oversight as to what corners a fighter cut to win. The rigors of the sport were much more intense than they are today with a lot less comforts.