Teddy Atlas: "Today's era of boxing is nothing compared to the earlier era"

[pfcwintergreen]

Fighters from previous generations fought much more often, but that cuts both ways. How many times have you heard people claim a fighter has been "ruined" by a single fight in the modern era? People say this specifically about Lacy after Calzaghe, Vargas after Trinidad etc.

Imagine fighting a grueling potentially 15 round fight every month(or more!) in an era when refs generally just kept counting and counting until it appeared someone was on the verge of death.

These guys sometimes fought 100 or more fights; imagine how many times they were "ruined" and "ruined" again. Remember how late ref stoppage came(if at all). Imagine how punchy so many surely became. I bet James Toney would sound like Barack Obama in comparison to some of the pugs in SRR's era and before.

This is why I can't see modern fighters getting blown out by historical fighters(say if we had a time machine). IMO, most historical fighters were surely compromised by how often they had to fight, how many punches they had to take, and the insufficent time and science they had to put into their training.

[daggum]

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era.

[AKATheMack]

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era.

Funny ****

[Dan...]

teddy picks the old era over the new era. you all know what that means. new era early ko over the old era.

Fukn ROFL. CLassic ****.

[Dan...]

Skillwise, fighters are MUCH better. Im certain you could put Ricardo Mayorga in with Ray Robinson and make it a highly competitive fight. The same as hockey, football, etc. Good training methods have spread and skill levels go up.

Holy ****. That is almost sig worthy.

[johnkraus]

Take the top 3 or 4 guys from each weight division, separating them into the 8 that there used to be, than I think todays guys are pretty good compared to what the earlier area, including heavyweight (Lennox for sure if your considering him in this era, Vitali for sure, and Wlad isn't as bad as everyone thinks, just boring). Todays guys just aren't deep in talent.

[KostyaTszyu44]

Skillwise, fighters are MUCH better. Im certain you could put Ricardo Mayorga in with Ray Robinson and make it a highly competitive fight. The same as hockey, football, etc. Good training methods have spread and skill levels go up.

sweet jesus....

[phallus]

this is not a winnable argument

yeah... it's very hard to compare the two because boxing now is completely different, less rounds - 12 instead of 15, active fighters are the one who fight 4 times a year where they used to fight every two weeks, different training methods, now we have more belts, and in the past more fighters would still fight even if they had an injury because they needed the money.
life was harder back in the old days too

[JAB5239]

yeah... it's very hard to compare the two because boxing now is completely different, less rounds - 12 instead of 15, active fighters are the one who fight 4 times a year where they used to fight every two weeks, different training methods, now we have more belts, and in the past more fighters would still fight even if they had an injury because they needed the money.
life was harder back in the old days too

Exactly. Fighters of today are equally as skilled, and in some cases moreso, but they're pampered. They lack to toughness or desire to fight 8 times a year. do many of you realize that there use to be between 8 and 10 weight classes and only 1 or 2 titles (depending on the era), compared to todays 17 weight classes, and at THE LEAST 4 titles? This isn't including "super champions", "interim champions" or " champion emeritus" either. Anybody who cannot see how that waters down the talent pool needs to seriously get an education. There are 66 different champions in boxing today and 4 titles that are vacant at the moment. That is sad.

[MikeBrew328]

sweet jesus....

Holy ****. That is almost sig worthy.

THINK about it before you try to deny it. The Mayorga that fought Forrest facing the Robinson that lost to Lamotta is a competitive fight. Then Robinson had 6 competitive fights with Lamotta, Mayorga is really a modern day Lamotta. That said, a moder day Lamotta is a bum, could never make it. That's the evolution of sports.