[Scruff]

I'm getting ready to start a semi-realistic universe from the beginning.

The 'oldest' fighter in the DB is Yankee Sullivan, who started fighting in 1832.

I'm going to go back a little further, and using the random fight generator (but basing the ratings and styles on actual fighters from that timeframe), I'll start around or a little before 1800 with fighters mostly from England. Then I'll work in the fighters in the DB as they came in in real life.

I haven't decided if I'll rename the generated fighters to their 'actual' names or use the fake names and maybe see if people want to guess who the fighters are based on.

Then I'll add fighters as their careers actually started. I haven't decided if I'll use auto-aging or do it manually. Leaning towards auto-aging (and open to recommendations!)

What are some good numbers for min/max for career stage lengths, that will handle all weight classes reasonably well?

The plan is to go on until modern times, although I realize that's ambitious. Hopefully by starting slow and early, I'll be able to keep moving forward.

I'm going to schedule fights on the actual dates they occurred as well, at least until the beginning of Sullivan's career, with some changes if a different fighter wins than did in real life, etc..

I've been using the Cyber Boxing Zone to get most of my information, since BoxRec doesn't have much on these guys. Are there other sources I should we aware of? Is there an encyclopedia or something I can buy that lists all fights by date, as opposed to by boxer (so I could see all of the recorded fights from 1802, or 1902, etc.)?

Right now I've got most of the fight careers of these guys (up through about 1850) entered into a spreadsheet. Hopefully I can get the rest entered by the end of the weekend and start some fights next week.

This should be fun, hopefully I can stick with it.