Media How are our boxing historians in 2025?

[PBAC]

So Bert Sugar died, Larry Merchant retired. I have heard of someone named Christian Giudice who seems active. In mainstream Paulie Malinaggi has his moments and Mike Tyson still carries of that flame. Bob Arum probably has some knowledge.

Over all I don't hear a lot of knowledge coming out of commentary teams during interviews and fights. They report on the action in the ring, don't seem to really understand techniques. They never talk about foor placement e.g there's little mention of Usyk's foot technique only general over views that he has impressive footwork without say why. There's very little continuties or comparisons to past fighters except for desperate attempts comparing fighters to Ali or Tyson.

Maybe I've watched Hajime no Ippo one too many times but it all feels very reset and devoid of history. There's some good youtube channels on this stuff, so maybe that's where the future knowledge is bound to come from. Always makes me wonder why some of those youtubers are still on the back benches.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

We had another key figure in boxing die months back in Colin Hart. He had been covering the sport for a very long time. In my opinion he was just as knowledgeable as Bert Sugar. Analysts covering fights should be breaking down what fighters are doing well and what they're not doing. That's their job. Many commentators just like to call the action nowadays without offering much insight into the technical details. I'm in the minority here but I actually liked Andre Ward's commentary because he covered that stuff including the psychological aspects as they were unfolding during fights.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

AI has already replaced the vast majority of historians.

That profession ranks among the highest for replaceability.

 

[cblitz]

I miss Bert Sugar.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

AI has already replaced the vast majority of historians.

That profession ranks among the highest for replaceability.

Has it? Last I checked the likes of Monte Cox, Springs Toledo, Tracy Callis, et al., are still around.

 

[soggyfist]

Al Bernstein

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

About 15 years ago I learned of a non-profit boxing research org known as IBRO. They're still around over 40 years later publishing quarterly journals & essays. This organization alone consists of approximately 150 historians internationally. In case anyone here is interested in checking them out I'll link to BoxRec's wiki page about them and their official site below.

• International Boxing Research Organization
• IBRO's official website

 

[ezikel315]

AI has already replaced the vast majority of historians.

That profession ranks among the highest for replaceability.

According to the thread of the guy using AI to analyze boxing champs by race, AI thinks African fighters don't exist. I wouldn't rely on AI for anything.

 

[Seano]

Such a thing is a lot less necessary in the modern era. I can find anything about boxing history with a google search.

 

[ryanrandy]

I really miss ShoBox with Steve Farwood.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

I really miss ShoBox with Steve Farwood.

Farhood. He's another analyst/historian worth mentioning.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Rummy's Corner has popped up quite a bit on my YouTube

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Rummy's Corner has popped up quite a bit on my YouTube

Geoffrey Ciani is always popping up in my YT feed. He works for Ring Magazine now.

 

[mozfonky]

Like everything else in the sport the quality of historians has declined and even in the Red Smith/AJ Liebling days the "experts" were still wrong all the time but they were also compelling and thoughtful.

 

[mozfonky]

So Bert Sugar died, Larry Merchant retired. I have heard of someone named Christian Giudice who seems active. In mainstream Paulie Malinaggi has his moments and Mike Tyson still carries of that flame. Bob Arum probably has some knowledge.

Over all I don't hear a lot of knowledge coming out of commentary teams during interviews and fights. They report on the action in the ring, don't seem to really understand techniques. They never talk about foor placement e.g there's little mention of Usyk's foot technique only general over views that he has impressive footwork without say why. There's very little continuties or comparisons to past fighters except for desperate attempts comparing fighters to Ali or Tyson.

Maybe I've watched Hajime no Ippo one too many times but it all feels very reset and devoid of history. There's some good youtube channels on this stuff, so maybe that's where the future knowledge is bound to come from. Always makes me wonder why some of those youtubers are still on the back benches.

I only read one of Guidice's books, the Camacho bio. It was just ok but it's not as good as some of my fave boxing books.

Also, there are most likely some quality analysts who are just observers of the sport. They most likely aren't seeking careers in the sport though. We are left with shills for announcers.

 

[ryanrandy]

Farhood. He's another analyst/historian worth mentioning.

I live on Farwood haha my bad.

 

[SuperLuigi]

The only boxing historians I need have all already posted ITT.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

So Bert Sugar died, Larry Merchant retired. I have heard of someone named Christian Giudice who seems active. In mainstream Paulie Malinaggi has his moments and Mike Tyson still carries of that flame. Bob Arum probably has some knowledge.

Over all I don't hear a lot of knowledge coming out of commentary teams during interviews and fights. They report on the action in the ring, don't seem to really understand techniques. They never talk about foor placement e.g there's little mention of Usyk's foot technique only general over views that he has impressive footwork without say why. There's very little continuties or comparisons to past fighters except for desperate attempts comparing fighters to Ali or Tyson.

Maybe I've watched Hajime no Ippo one too many times but it all feels very reset and devoid of history. There's some good youtube channels on this stuff, so maybe that's where the future knowledge is bound to come from. Always makes me wonder why some of those youtubers are still on the back benches.

I listened to a podcast a while back and it reckoned that a lot of boxing knowledge has been lost over the years, a lot of the great trainers took their knowledge with them when they died, probably the same with historians which is a shame.

 

[KillerIsBack V2]

AI has already replaced the vast majority of historians.

That profession ranks among the highest for replaceability.

I’m not in the field of history but judging from the name drops replying to you, its safe to assume you are wrong.

I can speak for my field in translation. AI has not replaced any translator anywhere whether it is a student starting out in a third world country or a huge international corporate translation service.

Some translators are using AI tools now to save time on large projects, but other than that the field is relatively almost the same as a decade ago. I’m on every translator forum online, worked in a local union, and have a friend teaching in translation degree who laughs with me on the AI exaggeration.

 

[zapataxiv]

I’m not in the field of history but judging from the name drops replying to you, its safe to assume you are wrong.

I can speak for my field in translation. AI has not replaced any translator anywhere whether it is a student starting out in a third world country or a huge international corporate translation service.

Some translators are using AI tools now to save time on large projects, but other than that the field is relatively almost the same as a decade ago. I’m on every translator forum online, worked in a local union, and have a friend teaching in translation degree who laughs with me on the AI exaggeration.

I believe his comment was tongue in cheek

but I agree with your sentiment. one if my best buds works doing translation for Chinese medicine texts to English or other nations native medicinal systems to Chinese. AI is a great tool in his opinion to optimize time, note taking and even some of the dullerparts of revision in the drafting process. That being said it couldn't do his job or replace him.

I've found that true as well with front end web design. GPT was the boogeymwn according to many. really it's just another tool.