I agree with all of that with the exception of punching. I think Hopkins was a pretty good puncher at Middleweight, but I don't think he really carried the snap up with him & his drop in speed & work-rate has seen his power fall away. But, yeah I do agree on the standard of US teaching. I will hold that I didn't go to the best gyms in the city because I wasn't so desperate for quality sparring that I was willing to get shot or robbed

I also box at one of the better clubs in London, where there is a deeper pool than elsewhere, so maybe I'm just comparing an apple with a mouldy orange. But it really did shock me how unrefined these guys were. They didn't work behind the jab so much as flick it out as a distraction as they tried to line up the big back hand or lead hook. I definitely think it's a decline. There's probably a strong argument that there's been a decline over here as well, but probably nowhere near as huge.

I mean going back further, I remember when I first watched footage of Jake LaMotta. I was watching a lot of Cotto fights at the time, a man who was considered a combo of power & technical skill. I expected to see the LaMotta I'd heard described, a messy brawler. Instead I saw a guy doing all the things that I so admired watching Cotto for, using a clever jab & nice head movement to get inside. I think maybe too many guys watched Raging Bull or Rocky & thought that is how you actually box
Yup. You watch footage of men with reputations as hard men or unskilled brawlers like LaMotta or Tony Zale or Carmen Basilio and you realize they really knew what they were doing. But you have to be an educated fan to know what you're watching.

I don't know that ten year old kids bring preconceptions with them to a boxing gym that last very long. In my expereince they are pretty malleable, at least initially. It's the teaching and the teachers.