Each division's Golden Age?

Middleweight, mid 1930s right through the 1940s and into the mid 1950s.

 

Welterweight : early 80s to mid 90s

Heavyweight : 70s

 

Bantam 60's

 

There isn't one really just eras with more stacked divisions and higher standards and eras that are lesser. For instance HW would be 70s and 90s, the 80s had a great level of talent but with little motivation for the most of them.

MW 80s into the 90s was the most it's ever been stacked followed by the 40s, so decades apart.

 

Lightweight: 1930's
Welterweight: late 70's/early 80's
Middleweight: 1920's (this one is hard)
Lightheavy: 1920's/ late 70's/early 80's
Heavyweight: 1990's

 

:good

Don't forget Wee Willie Davies, the Welshman who beat most of the guys you just listed (I always feel the need to plug this neglected great). Also Kid Chocolate's capable cousin, Black Bill. An excellent fighter (and a sad suicide).

 

Took the words straight out of my mouth!

 

approx 10 years gone and a ton more too!

 

No love for the mid-40s LWs huh?

Jack
Williams
Armstrong
Joyce
Bummy Davis
Larkin
Zivic
Angott
Montgomery
Jenkins

That is bananas.

 

Flyweight: For me, I can see McGrain's point entirely, this era is probably the best. But as there is not one bit of footage of these guys (bar Wolgast, but not at fly) I'll make the case for the 60s and up to the early 70s as some of these guys carried on to a high level, before Canto (although he was creeping into the ratings as this 'era' came to a definitive close, Betulio and Oguma were at the top,which was undeniably brilliant. Kingpetch, Accavallo, Harada, Burruni, Chionoi, McGowan, Ebihara, Efren Torres, Tanabe, Bus Station, Salavarria, Ohba, Hanagata, as well as Betulio at his very best and many, many more

I think it's clear that all this was over with when Ohba died and Borkhorsor moved up.

Bantam As McGrain said. There is a massive amount of depth here, if I named all the fighters who competed on an even level or beat top class fighters we would be here all day. A brilliant International field in the 60s, then taken over by unarguably the most prolific period of excellence for Mexican boxing.

Feather 30s; From Battling Battalino as champion to Henry Armstrong focusing more on larger targets, many talented fighters of varying styles set up shop or passed through the division during this time, from sweet boxers to violent *******s, from good to superb, such as Kid Chocolate, Arizmendi, Belloise, Sarron, a pre-prime Chalky Wright, Freddie Miller, Larbarba, 'Seaman' Watson, Rodak and many more.

Light I am tempted to go with Gans' era, but bar Gans I'm not massively impressed by his contemporaries on film (admittedly there ain't much of it) Canzoneri, Ambers, Ross, Berg pushes it close also but I've already had one division from the 30s and we know how great an era it was across the board already. So I'm going for the Angott, Jack, Williams, Joyce, Montgomery days. Intensely competitive and we know of each man's prowess. It barely makes it through on the footage criteria mind you. What we have is proof; Angott a ******* to fight, Ike Williams a very bad man and so were the others, bar Joyce, who was cute enough to tame the monsters.

Welter From Ray Robinson through to Saxton, taking in Gavilan, Basilio, Graham etc etc. Although Griffith, Stable, Ortega, Cokes, Rodriguez, Paret, Federico, Napoles etc etc etc is damn fine in the 60s.

Middle McGrain has already made a good shout, so I'm taking Greb's era, say '18 to '26 or summat, although it[d be nice to include Darcy as both he and Greb beat Chip, so extend it a year or two if you want ; you can see how great it was just by taking a look at who Greb fought there, let alone the rest, but I'll include some of the others as well. Loads of solid welters and bigger guys that would go on to light heavy (and beyond); Walker, Flowers, I think he fought both Gibbons' around middleweight at some point or another but they were both there, McCoy, O'Dowd, Wilson, Kaplan. Dave Shade was obviously one of the brilliant guys that Greb didn't share a ring with also. I might be wrong but Rosenbloom and Loughran might've fought at middle during this period as well, can't be arsed to check. Loads of good fighters still fighting around that time that again would take ages to list. Bokaj makes a very convincing case for the 80s in another thread today though, one I'm inclined to agree with.

Light Heavy While Loughran, Rosenbloom, Greb, Tunney, Tommy Gibbons, Carpentier etc etc etc is a deserving choice although a lot of those bouts came over the limit at well, or with one man over. Anyone weighing above 160 and up to 175 in Moore and Charles' day is the obvious and wholly justified call, but I'll go for the 70s, but I'll define it as being from Ahumada being robbed against Foster, to Saad being beaten in the next decade by Qawi. Insane time, lots of footage, showing a varied bunch of stylists, in some incredible fights. I can see the arguments for other era's but I'm taking this one.

Heavy If they hadn't all been wasters in some form or another, it could've been the 80s, Tyson might not have smashed everyone quite so easily. It could well be the 90s, but Bowe-Lewis not happening is a shame. So, I'll go with the predictable choice of the 'Golden Era' of the 70s.