Modern Fights with Old School Safety Rules

With a severely split nose, Marciano pleaded with the referee for the fight to continue. It was a moment of indecision, but the referee gave Rocky the chance and he responded by knocking Charles out. In the modern game, however, it’s unlikely Rocky would have got that chance. If the fight was almost halted back in the '50s, I can’t see it continuing with today’s more stringent safety measures. In that sense, the modern game would deny Marciano his unbeaten legacy and boxing one of its great turnarounds.

It’s possible that modern safety practices would reverse the results of many historical fights, but what of the flipside of this. If the safety measures today were those of – say - Rocky’s era, are there any fights where, in your mind, a turnaround was on the cards but the fight was stopped through injury?

Taylor wouldn't have been stopped against Chavez if it took place in the 50's, thats a big one that stands out for me.

azania wrote:

I didn't really answer the question there, I'll try again. I havent seen the fight in a while but if memory serves Gatti was still very much in with a chance of taking out Angel Manfredy before being stopped on cuts, that may have had a different outcome with the relaxed safety laws of the 1950's.

One thing that strikes me when I watch the old fights is the way that before the 'neutral corner' rule a guy would knock down his opponent and then stand over him, arm cocked, ready to unload more punishment as soon as his victim looked like he might have started thinking about possibly maybe getting to his feet.

This would make the first knockdown crucial, and any modern fight where a guy has gotten up off the floor to win wouldn't have happened.

Larry Holmes v Ernie Shavers in this day I believe the ref would stop it,brilliant powers of recovery by Holmes but he was on rubber legs when he got up.