Overrating the Past......? No way!

[marbleheadmaui]

You gotta look at facts. Is there any sport you can think of where the guys from the fifties, sixties and seventies are the best ever? (apart from Pele )

So, it would be odd to expect that boxing is the exception, especially when boxing is probably the sport where advances in all things to do with physicality are most utilized.

Having said that, I still think SRR is the GOAT and Wille Pepp isn't far behind So maybe I'm talking shite

Actually it isn't odd and boxing IS the exception. Why? (in no order)
1. Weaker raw material. 50ish years ago good athletes really only had two ways to make big money in sports. Baseball and boxing. Now athletes can make money in literally dozens of sports they couldn't back then.
2. Half as many fighters. The sport is just a fraction of the size it once was. Most other sports are larger in terms of participants.
3. Fighters fight half as often. Humans get better the more they do something. Doing something less frequently necessarily means less expertise. Other sports are having longer and longer seasons and more and more practices, hence better performance.
4. Declining resources. Boxing gyms are a dying commodity, 90% are gone.
5. Boxing doesn't participate in the size explosion (except at heavy). Basketball is better because point guards are now 6'4 rather than 6' tall. Swimmers are much larger than they used to be, so are sprinters, football players, baseball players etc. But boxing is weight restricted. You simply cannot take a guy fit enough to fight 15 rounds at a rapid pace at 147 and add muscle and still have him be 147. The body simply doesn't work that way. If it did? We'd have a pile of 6'2 welters walking around. But we don't.

There is more, but you get the idea.

[johnsebastianmiran]

As far as I am concerned this is about toughness as opposed to those having access to the best trainers and nutrition etc. Now my point and there are those people that do not understand it but I will try to be brief and simple. Years ago there were boxing gyms all over the place and in order to be tough and be a man your old man dropped you off one rainy afternoon or you went there with your pennies and paid your dues. Desire brought you there and habit kept you there. You felt good and stayed until the draft board or college got you and still some guys managed to keep training and fighting. It was pure heart and muscle. Marciano was only one of thousands but we live in a society controlled by bleeding hearts that did all they could to abolish the gentlemanly art of self defense and they were too soft and delicate to try and better themselves physically in a real man's world and in some alleged fighters this bitching and moaning has appeared while yuppie executives did away with Tuesday night fights, the highest rating show for years even at the cancellation shows us why some people compare then and now and the only thing I want from then is the dedication and thank God for new advancements that may help the fighters with that old time determination survive in modern ring. Give a cool click to the author for effort.

[Mr140]

The only weight class that is effected by the time is Heavyweight because of the no limit weight.