Where have the Hero's Gone?

[DaxxKahn]

Remember when we were kids and we all looked up to a fighter for one reason or another...when I was a Kid Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler were all guys we would imitate when we shadow boxed or when we slap boxed and got the better of someone we would say stuff like..."Yeah I just did Frazier on your ass"...These guys and others of theor day were the reasons why we continued to follow the sport and became such huge fans....

Today fighters don't seem to have that appeal...Yeah we have the Calzaghe's and the De La Hoyas that everyone knows and we have the guys like PBF who is greatly skilled and their skill can not be denied..There are the Hatton's who draw tremendously but still they just don't seem to have that aura like the guys did back then....

Anyone else agree or is it just me


Hold on a second everyone...I may have not made my point exactly clear because everyone keeps mentioning us not being kids anymore lol...I was speaking in the context of the next generation of kids coming up and their being the guys that attract them to the sport like it did to us...my fault

[Kev]

I think it's just because we are getting old mate.

When I was a kid Christmas was awesome, the most magical time of year, it snowed every year and we went sledging anf built snow men.

That's how I remember it anyway

[C-Lo]

I was like that with Tyson. When I was growing up it was around the time where Mike was just destroying people. I wouldn't exactly call him a hero, but when people got in school-yard fights and someone got knocked out or beat up, someone would say something around the lines of "he just got Tysoned!"

To tell you the truth, even though I know that many hate on him, Manny Pacquiao is the epitome of a hero to Filipinos. I'm an American, but my nationality is Filipino. It's very rare anyone from the Philippines becomes world famous, let alone a world champion. Filipino adults live-and-die by everything he does in the ring. And my little cousins (numerous kids, ages between 4 through 13) shadow box each other and say Pacquiao's name as they do it.

[Preme]

Remember when we were kids and we all looked up to a fighter for one reason or another...when I was a Kid Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler were all guys we would imitate when we shadow boxed or when we slap boxed and got the better of someone we would say stuff like..."Yeah I just did Frazier on your ass"...These guys and others of theor day were the reasons why we continued to follow the sport and became such huge fans....

Today fighters don't seem to have that appeal...Yeah we have the Calzaghe's and the De La Hoyas that everyone knows and we have the guys like PBF who is greatly skilled and their skill can not be denied..There are the Hatton's who draw tremendously but still they just don't seem to have that aura like the guys did back then....

Anyone else agree or is it just me

boxing now costs a lot of money to watch these fighters.

Before when you watched the said names you could watch them on tv, everyone knew them, people in the us knew british fighters, people in the uk knew all the americans....

Now people don't know half the names, or young people don't. When you are a kid you idolise and look up to, respect fighters more coz kids are more impressionable. As an adult you have a different kind of respect towards them, kids of young ages don't get to form the kind of relationship we did when we were growing up looking up to these guys.

Another big reason is back then the best were fighting the best. People respect that more.

[DaxxKahn]

I think it's just because we are getting old mate.

When I was a kid Christmas was awesome, the most magical time of year, it snowed every year and we went sledging anf built snow men.

That's how I remember it anyway

Well Thank You for reminding me...TBH I can not remember the last time it snowed on christmas or even within a few days of it...The closest thing we get now a days is rain

[DaxxKahn]

I was like that with Tyson. When I was growing up it was around the time where Mike was just destroying people. I wouldn't exactly call him a hero, but when people got in school-yard fights and someone got knocked out or beat up, someone would say something around the lines of "he just got Tysoned!"

To tell you the truth, even though I know that many hate on him, Manny Pacquiao is the epitome of a hero to Filipinos. I'm an American, but my nationality is Filipino. It's very rare anyone from the Philippines becomes world famous, let alone a world champion. Filipino adults live-and-die by everything he does in the ring. And my little cousins (numerous kids, ages between 4 through 13) shadow box each other and say Pacquiao's name as they do it.

I don't mean hero in the traditional sense but guys we used to imitate and thought were iron men...We have a few guys that kids follow like Manny who is a national hero at home...same as Hatton Calzaghe etc but back in the day it wasn't one or two it was dozens we followed....

It is what youn said about your little cousins that made come up with this thread (not them in particular but kids)....at the local gyms where the younger guys work out and the after school programs I was amazed on the fact that only like 1 out of 5 even knew half the names outside of DLH and PBF....

Amat has a point thpugh a lot of it has to do with that it is not like fighters are as accessible as they once were to watch

[Kev]

I think it's just because we are getting old mate.

When I was a kid Christmas was awesome, the most magical time of year, it snowed every year and we went sledging anf built snow men.

That's how I remember it anyway

Well Thank You for reminding me...TBH I can not remember the last time it snowed on christmas or even within a few days of it...The closest thing we get now a days is rain

Yeah but you know what I mean, nostalgia makes us look back on everything in our past and think it was ace.

I remember it snowing all the time when I was a kid. I havn't seen snow in my home town in over 20 years now.

[Wayne]

I agree with Bilbo. On Christmas eve I couldn't go to sleep until around midnight. I cut my teeth on Tyson and since him there hasn't been another fighter who's had that kind of hold on me. But I've seen better than Tyson.

[LEGION]

Good question Khan. Maybe it's like the poster above said, we're older and as that happens we don't have all the time in the world to dream about heroe's{unless you're Bilbo}, or we become more cynical.

There are guys like Marquez/Vasquez I admire greatly, but my days of having heroes is long gone. I tend to be much more critical of all fighters these days if anything.

Also, it does seem it gets all down to the $$$ in this game now; and when I was a kid I just watched the fights and didn't concern myself about the politics of the Sweet Science.

[brucelee]

Remember when we were kids and we all looked up to a fighter for one reason or another...when I was a Kid Tommy Hearns, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler were all guys we would imitate when we shadow boxed or when we slap boxed and got the better of someone we would say stuff like..."Yeah I just did Frazier on your ass"...These guys and others of theor day were the reasons why we continued to follow the sport and became such huge fans....

Today fighters don't seem to have that appeal...Yeah we have the Calzaghe's and the De La Hoyas that everyone knows and we have the guys like PBF who is greatly skilled and their skill can not be denied..There are the Hatton's who draw tremendously but still they just don't seem to have that aura like the guys did back then....

Anyone else agree or is it just me

This is what you call " OLD AGE Syndrome"

[Preme]

I was like that with Tyson. When I was growing up it was around the time where Mike was just destroying people. I wouldn't exactly call him a hero, but when people got in school-yard fights and someone got knocked out or beat up, someone would say something around the lines of "he just got Tysoned!"

To tell you the truth, even though I know that many hate on him, Manny Pacquiao is the epitome of a hero to Filipinos. I'm an American, but my nationality is Filipino. It's very rare anyone from the Philippines becomes world famous, let alone a world champion. Filipino adults live-and-die by everything he does in the ring. And my little cousins (numerous kids, ages between 4 through 13) shadow box each other and say Pacquiao's name as they do it.

I don't mean hero in the traditional sense but guys we used to imitate and thought were iron men...We have a few guys that kids follow like Manny who is a national hero at home...same as Hatton Calzaghe etc but back in the day it wasn't one or two it was dozens we followed....

It is what youn said about your little cousins that made come up with this thread (not them in particular but kids)....at the local gyms where the younger guys work out and the after school programs I was amazed on the fact that only like 1 out of 5 even knew half the names outside of DLH and PBF....

Amat has a point thpugh a lot of it has to do with that it is not like fighters are as accessible as they once were to watch

who are you calling amat:P?

[CutMeMick]

I used to pretend I was 'Maromero' Paez with my cousin and he was Calvin Groove.

It was the 15th round.... Calvin (My cousin) was up by points and he was moving around well. Paez (Me) was desperate and needed a miracle the crowd in Plaza Calafia was going crazy and I came back to knock him down 3 times to win the fight by MD.

Great times spend in Mexico, pretending to be Jorge.

[No Contest]

It may be higher expectations causing it, it seems like to qualify nowadays you gotta be a undefeated monster just dominating the division. I don't know it may be the lack of boxing on free t.v. less children are exposed to it? Maybe its all the damn titles and this damn pc everyones a winner crap. I think there were clearer defined leaders back in those days....I'm not sure just spitballing.

[No Contest]

I used to pretend I was 'Maromero' Paez with my cousin and he was Calvin Groove.

It was the 15th round.... Calvin (My cousin) was up by points and he was moving around well. Paez (Me) was desperate and needed a miracle the crowd in Plaza Calafia was going crazy and I came back to knock him down 3 times to win the fight by MD.

Great times spend in Mexico, pretending to be Jorge.

I used to pretend I was George Foreman and pull my short up above my bellybutton(talking about comeback days), and try the crab defense. I was pretty good in our neighborhood boxing fights (big ass 16 oz gloves on preteens)

[CutMeMick]

I used to pretend I was 'Maromero' Paez with my cousin and he was Calvin Groove.

It was the 15th round.... Calvin (My cousin) was up by points and he was moving around well. Paez (Me) was desperate and needed a miracle the crowd in Plaza Calafia was going crazy and I came back to knock him down 3 times to win the fight by MD.

Great times spend in Mexico, pretending to be Jorge.

I used to pretend I was George Foreman and pull my short up above my bellybutton(talking about comeback days), and try the crab defense. I was pretty good in our neighborhood boxing fights (big ass 16 oz gloves on preteens)

"and pull my short up above my bellybutton"