Was the 1970s really the golden age of heavyweights?

:thumbsup, CO SIGN..

Cobra i take it your a Carl Froch fan?

 

I am going to list a few eras that might have been rivals to the 70s, if the available human assets had been deployed differently.

The 20s was a bit of a golden era in most divisions, and heavyweight division was always going to be the ugly duckling in hindsight, but if Dempsey and Wills had faced off there would have bee a lot more to play for.

At the tail end of John L Sullivan’s reign, you have Peter Jackson, Jim Corbett, Joe Goddard and Frank Slavin all active in the same field.

At the end of James J Jeffries reign, you had Jack Johnson as the top contender, and guys like Langford and McVea were only a couple of years off being serious challengers.

In the 90s obviously you have Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe and Lewis all playing in the same sandpit, yet for the most part they did not meet in their primes.

Even the 30s and 80s were not actually short on talent.

 

Yeah, he has won me over through his sheer tenacity!

 

The 70's marks the time at which boxing was still a top sport for drawing top athletes and that fighters were less impacted by race restrictions.

 

The 70's bury every other decade IMO...

 

Lyle, Young, and Shavers became top contenders too late. You have too look at the late 60's as well to appreciate Smoke. Norton was a stablemate and wasn't looking for Joe.

 

I think the 1950s were the last great era of boxing.
Not because of the fighters involved, but the prestige of the sport.
The HW champion of the World was the premier figure in all sports, at least in the US.
Everyone knew who he was.
That disappeared in the 60s with Ali's mouth and clowning. He pulled it down to the level of pro wrestling.
It has never returned.

 

The 50's were certainly a prime era for boxing.

 

I don’t agree with you about Ali.

I think that he was a figure of tremendous stature, and that the prestige of the sport declined after his time.

 

I think You make the mistake of holding a very US-centric point of view.

From a marketing - prestige point of view, the 70s is not the golden HW age, it is the diamond age!!!. Never after and before boxing reached such a worldwide status. And Ali was probably the main reason for that happening.

It was the time of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton and so many worthy others ... it was the coming of age of cheap TV sets and worldwide satellite transmission ... when those guys fought the world knew it, and not just the boxing fans. The regular guy followed FOTC, RITJ, TiM, etc.

Today, Kids pretend to be Lebron or Tom Brady, and ask their dads for a basketball or a football (still better than a PSation). But there was a time when kids everywhere dreamed of being the next Ali or the next Fraizer. You would go to the schoolyard and kids would be arranging "HW bouts" pretending to be Ali vs Foreman, etc.

During the early 70s boxing gloves were the hot christmas/birthday item. My dad got me "autentic" everlast boxing gloves (surely a cheap taiwanese imitation). I would take them to the school to challenge other "boxers" feeling like a million dollars.

Ask a regular guy nowadays who the Kiltschko are and he will probably look at you like you are crazy and will ask whether that is a some vodka brand. Even Tyson is known more for his legal troubles than his boxing legacy. Boxing is now a PPV and closed cable thing for the dedicated fan, and that's it.

But there was a time when HW boxing was supreme, and HW champions were kings, and it was the 70s.

 

I'm just speaking of what I know about. I don't pretend to know what the world is doing.
I can tell you that in the US, regular people started losing interest in boxing when Ali came along. He was viewed as silly. They have never regained it.

 

I was a kid in the 70's as well and you're right, everybody knew who Muhammad Ali was.

 

A very good era. The best fought the best, sometimes for free on tv. tickets were reasonable for those who saw events live. The press had for more " boxing guys" and the sport was riding high with great fights, and upsets.

 

I think the 70's was also in such high regard because boxing was so much more 'media friendly' than it is now.Like Flares, Sit com's, Horse racing and smoking,boxing has fallen out of mainstream culture.
It was more fashionable back then

 

I disagree with that, are you saying before his legal problems, Tyson was an unknown? Tyson was huge before prison. After prison be became bigger, but for the wrong reasons.

But everyone knows Tyson as the KO machine.

After Ali, or maybe level with Ali, Mike Tyson is the most known face on earth.