Comparing fighters from different era's
Posted: 04 May 2011, 05:10
Good day,
As those of you who know me (not too many!) or reguarly read my posts (even less!) I was a huge fan of 90's boxing. I was only dead young but I had a huge obsession with the sport; so much so that I could name every champion in nearly every weight division and tell you their recrod, best wins, losses etc.... Something I couldn't hope to do today.
The game has greatly changed- even in just the last 18 years or so that I have followed it. Its a completely different sport in many ways. Being a champion no longer means as much- the big fights are suprisingly more likely to happen these days (though not so much recently). Unification is common. There are hardly any decent american heavyweights. Being a former heavyweight champion now means very little. Some awful matches are now avoided thanks to the internet and ability of the public to voice an opinion; So manychanges some good, some bad.
The purpose of this thread is to consider whether the standard of the boxers has improved, declined or stayed the same.
Has the bar raised at the top of the game as much as it has the grass roots? Is Manny Pacquiaou hugely ahead of Roy Jones jnr? Is Wlad ahead of Lewis? At a slightly lower level is Macklin better then Eastman? Munroe better then Brodie? Was Paul Wesley more dangerous then Paul Samuals? Was Robert Harper more reliable then Howard Daily?
How do you compare the era's and the fighters
As those of you who know me (not too many!) or reguarly read my posts (even less!) I was a huge fan of 90's boxing. I was only dead young but I had a huge obsession with the sport; so much so that I could name every champion in nearly every weight division and tell you their recrod, best wins, losses etc.... Something I couldn't hope to do today.
The game has greatly changed- even in just the last 18 years or so that I have followed it. Its a completely different sport in many ways. Being a champion no longer means as much- the big fights are suprisingly more likely to happen these days (though not so much recently). Unification is common. There are hardly any decent american heavyweights. Being a former heavyweight champion now means very little. Some awful matches are now avoided thanks to the internet and ability of the public to voice an opinion; So manychanges some good, some bad.
The purpose of this thread is to consider whether the standard of the boxers has improved, declined or stayed the same.
Has the bar raised at the top of the game as much as it has the grass roots? Is Manny Pacquiaou hugely ahead of Roy Jones jnr? Is Wlad ahead of Lewis? At a slightly lower level is Macklin better then Eastman? Munroe better then Brodie? Was Paul Wesley more dangerous then Paul Samuals? Was Robert Harper more reliable then Howard Daily?
How do you compare the era's and the fighters