Quote Originally Posted by bradlee180 View Post
An old school elite fighter that has experienced 70 professional fights by the time he's 24 years old against all manners of styles(unprotected) is going to be a better fighter than a current 24 year old elite fighter with about 21 fights against hand-picked opposition(protected).

End of story.
Completely wrong and has been busted time and again.

An old school elite fighter with that many fights by that time is a number of things..

1/ Wasted and drained and damaged from improper recovery and management.

2/ Not as experienced as a modern boxer, not by a long shot!

Why

Because..

(a) Modern boxers have on average larger amateur careers and turn pro later these days, they are in fact more experienced by time they even start overall.

(b) The opponents those old school boxers faced were overwhelmingly bums. If you combine the total records of all their fights and compare them to the total records of modern boxers in general it becomes abundantly clear that their experience against quality opposition is sorely lacking by comparison.

(c) The professional circuit at journeyman level in the distant past was equivalent or even LESS in level than todays amateur ranks, meaning that experience today is worth far more than it was back then.

(d) Because of the excessive fight schedules of olden days boxers, modern fighters have the time not just for recovery but for better skills and conditioning preparation and far more sparring experience in the interim period with intensive coaching filling the void between fights highly productively.

The article "Past fighters were 15 rounders, Past fighters fought more often" completely debunks this myth further.

And your last comment was just absurd. That they would be better than a "protected" modern fighter, HA!

The opponents that top contenders fight today are FAR more highly matched than in the past! And furthermore a fighter only affords himself the kind of "protection" that allows him to inflate his rankings after he has already established himself a top prospect. And unlike in the past, where if a top boxer lost a ton of fights they could still be considered an elite boxer whereas today, even a couple of losses can seriously damage a boxers credibility in this highly competitive landscape.

I wonder why that is? Because the competition is highly competitive! Past eras fought mainly bum fights! And that's a fact!