It’s an interesting discussion. My old man, born in 1934, ran our local boxing club. I had many hours of such discussions. My angle was that modern boxers, with their diets, athleticism and pure size would do well in an any era. His counter argument ran something like this…’listen son. EVERYONE boxed in the town when I was a kid. You needed 70 fights before you got the chance of a shot at the British belt. There were no JCB’s in them days, men were physically powerful, hand balling on the docks or on the shovel. They only needed to crack you once, they had arms like girders. As for diet, we were on rations until 1955, I was 18 when I saw a fuckn banana, never mind Coca-Cola.’
Dad was a top boxer and boxed for England at ABA level…one name…Sugar Ray Robinson, for him. The only other he loved was a little Panamanian light-weight.