Our Aging Sport

[marbleheadmaui]

I reckon it's a combination of 3 & 4 with a litte bit of 1.

If advanced technology, training and nutrition allows world-class fighters to physically maintain a high level of performance into their 30s, then it makes it harder for younger guys to establish themselves, as they are competing on the same physical terms but lack the experience.

The strength of physical youth is no longer the advantage it once was.

I kinda, sorta lean in this direction too. But only kinda, sorta. I mean I can't think of any training aids that should disproportionately help older fighters, can you? It seems to me better whatever it is should apply equally across ages...shouldn't it?

I tend to think the experience thing you cite is key. Go back to say 1941. Middleweight champ Tony Zale has had 60+ fights at 27 years of age. The top five middleweight challengers average just under 25 years of age and yet have an average of 55 fights apiece. THAT is a tempered bunch.

Today? Despite the extremely old average age of the 2011 p4p top ten? Four of them have fewer than 30 professional fights. I am persuaded that for 99.99999% of all fighters who ever boxed? That simply isn't enough experience to obtain top quality skill and craft.

What I fear we are seeing now is a sport where we will rarely see the optimal combination of youthful native talent and extensive skill and craft only experience can produce.

If you accept that conditions - technology, training, nutrition - are far more favourable to modern fighters, then how come you believe the standard of boxing has deteriorated so badly?

Your argument that less people competing thins out the overall quality is totally understandable. However, modern fighters are blessed with all the knowledge that has gone before them. They're in a position to better preserve their bodies which should lead to a consistently higher standard of performance.

It seems to me that you are saying all modern-day fighters/trainers are utterly thick? If not, why haven't they been able to imitate the "far superior" boxing ability of past champions?

I DON'T believe the bold. Fighters train and eat more or less the same way they did 100 years ago. But I included it because it is possible I'm wrong

I think you are missing two things though. First boxer's today ARE thick! Perhaps better said, their trainers are. There simply isn't the teaching level today that there was when I was a youngun, let alone what there was when boxing was one of the two major sports. Watching something and doing it properly are two different things. Teaching boxing and boxing iteself are apprentice endeavors. The second thing is I fail to understand what enables athl;etes in their 30's to "preserve their bodies" that doesn't also drive higher performance from men in their twenties. In other words, if that were true, why aren't hockey, tennis, football etc particiapnts getting older as well?