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View Full Version : When Did Heavyweight Boxing Become Modern?

cross_trainer
06-23-2007, 02:29 PM
At what point did heavyweights begin using a completely modern style of boxing?

Was it Dempsey's era? Louis's? Did heavyweights expand their talents only after Patterson's era? Or are today's boxers much more sophisticated than their 70's and 80's predecessors?

Thoughts?
McGrain
06-23-2007, 02:30 PM
Lennox Lewis?
Duodenum
06-23-2007, 02:33 PM
Toledo, Ohio. July 4, 1919.
dmt
06-23-2007, 02:35 PM
Toledo, Ohio. July 4, 1919.:yep
UpWithEvil
06-23-2007, 03:59 PM
About 10 years ago. Modern medicine and training have produced the boxing superathlete, clearly superior to all predecessors in skill and ability. You look at these so-called "champions" of yesteryear and can't help but guffaw - why, George Foreman couldn't even win a local amateur bodybuilding contest! Larry Holmes was practically bird-chested!

Yet these are the ectomorphs so-called "experts" hold up as great. Ridiculous.
JimmyShimmy
06-23-2007, 03:59 PM
We've talked about this before,

When Ali came along and said: "I am the greatest!" the boxing world was shook up.

What happened was an actual earthquake occured that only people involved in boxing felt. The trainers brains where shook to give better instructions and basically every who had already fought Ali was instantly better because they were now part of this big revolution.

Nat Fleishcer predicted that it would happen.
Duodenum
06-23-2007, 04:36 PM
About 10 years ago. Modern medicine and training have produced the boxing superathlete, clearly superior to all predecessors in skill and ability. You look at these so-called "champions" of yesteryear and can't help but guffaw - why, George Foreman couldn't even win a local amateur bodybuilding contest! Larry Holmes was practically bird-chested!

Yet these are the ectomorphs so-called "experts" hold up as great. Ridiculous.For a big change, I, (of all people) am going to translate this into something brief!
'R-O-I-D-S-!
Bummy Davis
06-23-2007, 04:40 PM
Dempsey
Senya13
06-23-2007, 04:53 PM
1950s.
Zakman
06-23-2007, 05:12 PM
Late 50s. Roughly from the reign of Floyd Patterson forward.
janitor
06-23-2007, 05:18 PM
Never

The sport has always been optimum for the rule set of the time.
Dempsey1238
06-23-2007, 05:22 PM
When the Jew took over the English crown lol.
mr. magoo
06-23-2007, 05:26 PM
When fighters with titles, decided to stop giving shots to guys with records of 56-40-10......
Bill1234
06-23-2007, 05:31 PM
I just randomly clicked one. Don't feel like thinking today...











(don't respond to that smart asses)
Calroid
06-23-2007, 05:43 PM
I'd say when they introduced the neutral corner rule. I can't remember the date. Sometime in the 3 years between the Dempsey/Firpo and Dempsey/Tunney bouts.
ChrisPontius
06-23-2007, 05:47 PM
Dempsey

Agreed. I think Dempsey and Tunney were the first that displayed all boxing skills and technique that have been developed since.
JohnBKelly
06-23-2007, 06:06 PM
Heavyweight boxing became modern when today became yesterday. The sport has always been modern, constantly evolving sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Gloves have got bigger, fights have got shorter then longer, then shorter again. Fighters have got bigger but not necessarily fitter. The 80's made being a fat sportsman acceptable, thanks Leroy and Tony. The 90's made being really tall seem essential, till an overweight Dempsey/Tunney size guy beat 7 feet tall Valuev. It changes all the time, I hope the next change will be when we go back to laughing at how slow overweight giants are instead of claiming they are unbeatable.
janitor
06-23-2007, 06:36 PM
Put it this way.

Could you take any fighter today and with the benefit of modern boxing technique guide them to a win over Jim Jeffries under the rules of his era?

My guess is, No.
amhlilhaus
06-24-2007, 01:25 PM
Never

The sport has always been optimum for the rule set of the time.

correct. if all of a sudden the sport became istantly better by one person using a 'modern' style then that guy wouldn't lose for fifteen years. that's never happened.
Duodenum
06-25-2007, 11:06 AM
correct. if all of a sudden the sport became istantly better by one person using a 'modern' style then that guy wouldn't lose for fifteen years. that's never happened.Well put. With that in mind, Joe Louis didn't lose for 14 years, Jack Johnson had a pair of ten year winning streaks (broken only by an endurance contest against a challenger with vastly inferior skills), and the argument has been made that Ali wasn't legitimately defeated until Holmes did it in 1980, a span of 20 years. What other examples might you be able to suggest?
MrSmall
06-25-2007, 11:28 AM
I'd say when Holyfield got the HW belts.
Because Holyfield was probably one of the first big names to go for good weight training, rather than just the usual bag/pad/bag/sparring meat.
UpWithEvil
06-25-2007, 11:59 AM
Because Holyfield was probably one of the first big names to go for good weight training

"Good weight training" - and we know what THAT'S code for.

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janitor
06-25-2007, 12:02 PM
Agreed. I think Dempsey and Tunney were the first that displayed all boxing skills and technique that have been developed since.

What about Joe Gans?
JohnThomas1
06-26-2007, 04:00 AM
Agreed. I think Dempsey and Tunney were the first that displayed all boxing skills and technique that have been developed since.

Tunney definitely brought boxing forward.
janitor
06-26-2007, 05:24 AM
Tunney definitely brought boxing forward.

Some would say that Tunney was just a carbon copy of his idol Mike Gibbons.

Incidentaly he got the formula for beating Dempsey from Mike Gibbons when he defeated Jack Dillon.
ChrisPontius
06-26-2007, 06:09 AM
What about Joe Gans?
Sorry, i was talking about heavyweights.

(as the thread title reads)