Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
I honestly think there was a lot higher level of competition back in the SRR era than there is now. There were more professional fighters in New York than there are registered in the entire world today and they were literally coming from hunger. No crybabies quitting fights because they got a booboo on their eye or at least nobody anywhere near world level.

Give those old timers modern nutrition and training and you could count the number of modern-day guys who could hang with them without having to take your shoes and socks off.
Meh I think that's a "rose-colored glasses" view of it if I ever heard one.

I don't buy the thought that they were so much tougher back then, either. There are cowards and warriors from every generation. A few weeks ago I watched Dennis Lebedev plod forward with the most fucked up facial injuries I've ever seen in a boxing ring.
A warrior's heart is something you're born with, and there are still tons of boxers today who came from absolutely nothing with the hunger to make something of themselves.

We hear all this hyperbole about the old school guys, but when you put that aside and actually watch a guy like Bobo Olsen, Gene Fullmer, Carmen Basilio... they were nothing special. These guys weren't the omnipotent demigods that boxing "experts" would have us believe. It's all about context.