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I believe so and I will provide 5 examples:
1. Losses are Penalized More - Losses are penalized today more than ever before. A loss takes you out of title contention, fan interest declines, money declines and it becomes more and more difficult to get relevant fights. God forbid you lose a fight as a prospect. The promoter will completely lose interest in you.
Fighters of the past not only have several losses but BAD losses. I'm talking Roberto Duran/Kirkland Laing, Sugar Ray Robinson/Ralph Jones, etc. Can you imagine if a fighter of today lost to that caliber of fighter? They would be ridiculed to death and would not make it back on TV.
2. Contenders Are Under Higher Scrutiny - An ATG or HOF resume generally consists of the following:
a. A handful career defining fights vs fellow hall of famers. In the old days when fighters had over 100 fights, you maybe had more of these opportunities but in the new era, there are maybe 5 of these in a 50 fight career.
b. Title defenses against the contenders in your division.
It seems boxing fans only give credit for category "a" now. Top 10 contenders are considered bums and a champion gets no credit for beating the #4 or #5 guy in his division. And I'm not talking about sanctioning body rankings. I'm talking Ring/TBRB ratings.
3. More Pressure to Dominate and Be "Exciting"
Close decision victories are not good enough. Many fans and media will scream robbery and demand a rematch. Even though, if a fight is 50/50 going in, it will likely be a closely contested matchup that is decided by a point or two. The resumes of many ATG's have numerous close contested wins which defined their careers.
Second is the pressure to excite. The Rumble in the Jungle, Tyson/Holyfield, etc. were clinch-fests. But at some point, clinching no longer became a part of boxing. In fact, many fans even have reduced the value of a jab, the most important punch in boxing. If you watch the black and white fight footage, what's funny is you see a lot of resemblance in the tactics and techniques that are utilized by Andre Ward and prime Bernard Hopkins.
4. Nostalgia
Fighters of today have to overcome the admiration and hype of the old school contender. For example, a champion of today beats Joe Smith Jr., it's considered a cherry pick over a construction worker. A fighter from the 50's beats the Joe Smith Jr. equivalent and it's probably one of his hall of fame wins. I attribute this partially to my final point:
5. There is footage of almost everything you do
Fighters of the past benefit from not having footage so you have to rely on books and media (which tend to exaggerate) to learn about how certain fights play out. You don't get to see the rounds they lost, score the fights yourself, look at frame by frame to see if punches landed, etc.
Today, you can go on YouTube and see Andre Ward or Deontay Wilder get dropped early in their careers or Gennady Golovkin look human against Kasim Ouma.
So for those reasons, I think fighters today are held to higher standards than fighters of the past. It is almost impossible for a fighter in today's landscape to ever be viewed in the same light of fighters in previous eras.
1. Losses are Penalized More - Losses are penalized today more than ever before. A loss takes you out of title contention, fan interest declines, money declines and it becomes more and more difficult to get relevant fights. God forbid you lose a fight as a prospect. The promoter will completely lose interest in you.
Fighters of the past not only have several losses but BAD losses. I'm talking Roberto Duran/Kirkland Laing, Sugar Ray Robinson/Ralph Jones, etc. Can you imagine if a fighter of today lost to that caliber of fighter? They would be ridiculed to death and would not make it back on TV.
2. Contenders Are Under Higher Scrutiny - An ATG or HOF resume generally consists of the following:
a. A handful career defining fights vs fellow hall of famers. In the old days when fighters had over 100 fights, you maybe had more of these opportunities but in the new era, there are maybe 5 of these in a 50 fight career.
b. Title defenses against the contenders in your division.
It seems boxing fans only give credit for category "a" now. Top 10 contenders are considered bums and a champion gets no credit for beating the #4 or #5 guy in his division. And I'm not talking about sanctioning body rankings. I'm talking Ring/TBRB ratings.
3. More Pressure to Dominate and Be "Exciting"
Close decision victories are not good enough. Many fans and media will scream robbery and demand a rematch. Even though, if a fight is 50/50 going in, it will likely be a closely contested matchup that is decided by a point or two. The resumes of many ATG's have numerous close contested wins which defined their careers.
Second is the pressure to excite. The Rumble in the Jungle, Tyson/Holyfield, etc. were clinch-fests. But at some point, clinching no longer became a part of boxing. In fact, many fans even have reduced the value of a jab, the most important punch in boxing. If you watch the black and white fight footage, what's funny is you see a lot of resemblance in the tactics and techniques that are utilized by Andre Ward and prime Bernard Hopkins.
4. Nostalgia
Fighters of today have to overcome the admiration and hype of the old school contender. For example, a champion of today beats Joe Smith Jr., it's considered a cherry pick over a construction worker. A fighter from the 50's beats the Joe Smith Jr. equivalent and it's probably one of his hall of fame wins. I attribute this partially to my final point:
5. There is footage of almost everything you do
Fighters of the past benefit from not having footage so you have to rely on books and media (which tend to exaggerate) to learn about how certain fights play out. You don't get to see the rounds they lost, score the fights yourself, look at frame by frame to see if punches landed, etc.
Today, you can go on YouTube and see Andre Ward or Deontay Wilder get dropped early in their careers or Gennady Golovkin look human against Kasim Ouma.
So for those reasons, I think fighters today are held to higher standards than fighters of the past. It is almost impossible for a fighter in today's landscape to ever be viewed in the same light of fighters in previous eras.
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