The 1920s' FOTYs MAY reflect the mediocrity of the times (for heavyweights at least)

There's footage of Loughran Vs Lomski on YouTube.

I'm not sure bad decade overall, but it was very poor for heavyweights.

 

Not such an eye catching title then though.

In all seriousness, Greb-Tunney and Greb-Walker should be classics but of course, there's no film.

I wouldn't take the Ring's FOTY choices from back then as a reflection of the best fights of the year - maybe some of them were just bigger events than great fights.

 

I think the perception of a great fight was different then.

A big difference between those days and now, I think competitive fights were usually the norm, which is something we would be crying out for today. It was expected then.

When boxing relied on a live gate, fighters had to deliver much more value. The card had to produce a full evening of entertainment. The gate paid the wages. And this amount of value had to be offered at club level as well as top level. So you had competitive preliminary bouts leading up to competitive main events on club shows as well as big shows. Too many bad fights would kill a show.

There was no TV money.

A modern Televised event in the modern age only really needs one “competitive” bout. The rest of the card is made up of prospects beating up the losers. Often the main event isn’t necessarily a competitive match either. It’s the name guy vs the opponent too. The TV covers the show. Less importance in satisfying the live audience.

I get the impression A really brutal war of a fight could be seen on any given night in any given fight town in those days.

What we call a A great fight today, was probably just the norm then. Great fights among unknown fighters were ten a penny. So the “fight of the year” was more likely to be just the most high profile match that year. So long as the fight had not stank.. it made fight of the year.

So a great fight then, a fight of the year, might have just been a highly anticipated show down between famous fighters. Or the best fight between famous fighters.

 

Sorry but this thread is ridiculous. One of the greatest decades for action fights in history.

 

I've always thought that the 1920s were one of the most interesting eras of HW boxing with plenty of interesting characters, but that it fell way short of its potential because the unofficial color line was still in full effect.
There are a lot of fights we should have seen from that decade but didn't.
Props to the fighters who DID get it on, they may have been questioned at the time for doing so, but history remembers them much better than the fighters who didn't.
But as far as an era to look back on, the 20s is a fascinating era. I wish there was more film available of some of the black fighters of the day, but I'll take what I can get and love finding old film or radio broadcast from this era.

 

Some of those were very fine fights.

 

By the way, it might just have been the best decade in boxing history!

The lightweight division was as good as any in the sport's history.

Greb vs Walker might have been the best p4p fight of all time!

 

Did black fighters even come into consideration for Ring FOTY in the 20s? Surprised not to see the names Flowers or Wills up there.

 

Probably not at all. Imo the FOTY back then was more of a popularity contest than actual action packed fights. Notice how each year Dempsey fought during that stretch, his name is listed. Jack Dempsey was an entertaining fighter but I'm sure there was something more entertaining than Dempsey-Tunney 1 and 2 during those years...

 

Exactly .. seem based on significance ..

 

Outside of 1922, 1923, and 1925 I'm sure it was probably more of a popularity contest than actually what was entertaining. Had Dempsey fought during 22,24, and 25 I'm sure his name would be up there regardless if they were great fights to watch. Out of the 8 or so weight divisions in those days between 8 years, half of them were heavyweight fights with the same name in 3 of those years. Tunney-Dempsey 1 and 2 were decent scraps but if those truly were the most action packed entertaining fights in all 8 divisions between contenders/champs during those two years then you're right. The 20s (at least the late 20s) truly were awful years for boxing.