BoxRec

Having just got round to watching David Haye this morning it seems to me that a lot of the 'new generation' of fighters around just now have questionable stamina. Haye, Harrison, and for me theres a bit of a question mark over Froch also, Greenberg looked either lazy or lethargic as well, to mention just a few.

Now these guys arent exactly novice pros having to come to terms with switching from the amateur game to the pro ranks, their all relativly seasoned now and should be at a better fitness level that it appears they are at.

Is it the case that they are being matched too easily during the early part of their careers, winning fights in a round or two and not getting the rounds under their belt to develop their stamina or have modern day training techniques changed to focus perhaps too much on fitness and cardio vascular regimes to the detriment old fashioned stamina building techniques?

fighters of the past used to have to go for 15 rounds maximum, in these days of 12 round bouts it seems that a lot of guys begin to struggle around 4 or 5

neil r wrote:Having just got round to watching David Haye this morning it seems to me that a lot of the 'new generation' of fighters around just now have questionable stamina. Haye, Harrison, and for me theres a bit of a question mark over Froch also, Greenberg looked either lazy or lethargic as well, to mention just a few.

I assume you mean Audley not Scott Harrison?

I think another factor may be that due to pressure from TV/fans/manager atc for stunning KO's from fighters every fight, some fighters feel they need to produce spectacular KO's all the time to increase their popularity and therefore get bigger purses etc.

Therefore a side effect of this is that in training they concentrate on punching power and neglect the stamina side of their training routine.

I think another factor is that fighters today generally fight much less than they did 20 years ago... and if someone is boxing just 3 times a year then you can guess that they are not going to spend loads of time in the gymn keeping fit etc. Years ago when a boxer took more than 3 months out of the ring he was considered to have had a layoff, now if fighters fight more often than every three months they are considered busy!....... 8)

With people like Frank maloney advocating mismatches with statements like "The fans want to see value for money" is anyone surprised? An unbeaten record is the law these days and tests are so few and far between, i agree with everything you said in your post neil r