Why Dont Fighters Train This Hard Anymore?

[Spicoli]

Say what we want about Mike but the man was surrounded by foundation, routine and experience. Always like to hear a fighter talking up and learning previous eras and great or even not so great boxers of days gone by. That's something you don't see much these days and in the peripherals it had to spur Mike on a bit.

[Gray Lion]

The subject caught my attention. I am 75 years old now, and have 50 plus years in boxing. Yes, I think training was a lot harder when I started out, and today people depend to much on machines, drugs, Yoga, ....anything to take the short and easy way. I say this because this subject always has been kicked around the past few years. Other coaches and trainers complain that the numbers in the boxing gyms are falling because to many find it easier to 'pretend' or 'dream' about boxing, but don't want to pay the price to achieve the goal. Now I realize MMA is the new craze, and young people today have more distractions to pull them away from the gym. But those few who do show up, out of every 50, we might get 10 who are dedicated to train hard and fight hard. And I can remember the days when boys picked up coke bottles, raked leaves and cut grass to pay a trainer, and that was the universe they lived in and tournaments were filled with promising fighters and large crowds. Sponsership of youth boxing has all but evaporated. Lions Clubs, American Legion and VFW Posts, Sporting Good Stores, Fire stations, police, sheriffs, all at one time sponsered fighters or teams. Today, everyone cries 'liability' and "we could get sued if some one got injured'.
Will it ever turn around....I really don't know? But I think there will always be a small core dedicated to the science of boxing, and maybe one day 'they will return in large numbers'.