The Golden Age of Boxing lasted from 1920 to 1946:
Socially this was the springtime of boxing, when the largest gates were drawn, and boxers were considered not only the greatest athletes but the toughest men and best fighters in the world. As with baseball many of the best fighters had their careers gutted by World War Two.
There was boxing all the time, for everybody who cared to go to a club, theater or stadium or tune in on the radio.
Just as the first experiments with motion pictures began early in the 1890s with boxing, the first experiments with televised sports began with boxing in 1931. You must imagine, with only one camera, separated from the announcer, how difficult it would have been to televise baseball or football. In our own time we take the camera-angle changes and all of the work done by the film crew and onsite film-editing staff for granted. This made boxing the obvious subject for early TV. By 1944 NBC was airing fights, and by ’46 Conn versus Louis became the first televised heavyweight championship.
Very quickly this apparently good thing crushed local boxing shows, the theaters that hosted them, and the clubs that fielded the fighters. Why watch Joe Shmoe and John Doe at the local club when you can get Joe Louis at home? As with many trends in boxing it took one or two generations of fighters for this to effect significant change in the talent pool. Less local pro shows [in Baltimore, a half dozen a week in the 1920s to as many a year in the 1990s] resulted in a steady decline in the numbers and quality of opposition faced by top boxers, eventually resulting in a gradual decline in their functional skill, particularly versatility in the ring.
While the “golden age” had great fighters — Tunney, Greb, Robinson, Armstrong, etc. — it is impossible to compare because of the population changes and training techniques, diet and Compubox stats. I believe the best of the golden age would statistically stack up 80% to today’s fighters. Conversely, I believe today’s fighters would fare slightly better on average to about 85% 65-90yrs ago. For example, Duran would defeat four of every five champions at lightweight from 1910–46.