Funny cus George Foreman said the same thing about men in the 90's compared to men in the 70's. "STRONGEST Ron Lyle: He was the strongest man I ever faced in any fight. The likes of Shannon Briggs, and men like that, didn’t affect me because they were just ordinary fighters. They didn’t make an impression and I just chased them around. The men I faced in the seventies were more fearsome than the ones I faced in the eighties and the nineties, with the exception of Evander Holyfield. Evander could have competed in any era." Although I gotta agree with the sentiment, men seem to have become softer with the years despite advances in sports science and nutrition.
Is the ducking really worse today than in Eubanks' time (or earlier)? Maybe it just seems that way, because we now have sites like this, where we can discuss these things. I remember when Conteh and Galindez were the two top light heavyweights back in the mid-70s. Conteh the WBC champ and Galindez the WBA title holder. They were "parallel" champs for 2½ years, but there was never any talk of the two meeting to unify the division... as both were obviously content to make money with their "half" of the championship. No outcry from fans, who demanded they should grow some balls and face each other - because there was nowhere they could vent their frustation! There were other parallel champs who could have met back then, in what would have been really big fights, but never did... such as Cuevas/Palomino and Pedroza/Sanchez. And of course there was a time when a Lewis-Bowe fight would have been absolutely huge... which we also never got! Ducking and playing it safe isn't a new thing - it just seems more obvious today, where we can talk about it.
I don’t recall anyone hyped up for Eubank to face Nunn. I recall everyone hyped up for Eubank to face Benn. No internet then.
How you manage to answer every topic with Tyson Fury is really something. Likely, if you ever wrote a thesis on biotechnology or whatever, Fury will be in there too at some point. Really impressive stuff
I'm going to take your word on the 70's era stuff. A bit before my time. I didn't start following until the mid 80's. And those are good points, thank you. BUT I do believe it's I think it's worse today, and has steadily been getting worse. The obvious culprit is the # of belts per division. When 4-5 guys can call themselves a champ, who's to force anyone to fight another or unify? And of course, there's politics as well. Those between rival promoters, rival belt orgs, and the whole "U.S. vs rest of world" stuff. Popular American fighters felt they never needed to travel far, champions in the UK and Europe felt they didn't need to cater to the US demands. With the Euro/UK boxers becoming much more prominent in the sport, thankfully that last one is not as prevalent. And the closest thing to an American Superstar is a Mexican. Guys fight less, seems to make more money (At the top at least), they don't need risky fights because of the ability to tick and choose which belt holder is deemed safe. Good call on Bowe/Lewis. I loved Bowe back then. Never quite warmed up to lewis until he was gone, seeing the void he created. And there was some ducking in the 168 division for some while, won't deny that. That even bled to the 90's with Sven and Joe C shamelessly setting title defense records at the same time. I partially blame the WBO organization and their strict 'no-unification standard' they kept for much too long. In a weird way, I am glad there was not an internet in the 80's. Jerks on this page who LOVE Hagler would be claiming he ducked Spinks and is living off wins against smaller guys. Pernell Whitaker would likely be called a feather fisted runner. Oh well
McCallum wasn’t American and brought nothing to the table - no TV or fanfare. The others were the best ever. So why would he? If you lose, you lose TV and fanfare - it’s a job and a business, not a sport. When he wanted to fight them, King and Arum put up barriers.
Eubank basically was an european champion who held a paper world belt for years fighting second rate or worse opposition.
He was the WBO world champion, not the EBU champion. Hence defending against the top 10 world contenders like all the other world champions.
Since Tyson beat Wlad the division opened up and shook itself out. We're as close as we've been since to having a legit undisputed champ.
I said he was a "world" champion but he was a paper one, he defended his belt against ebu caliber opposition while avoiding the other champions and top contenders. Take away watson and benn and his resume is thinner than jeff lacy one
Hey azzhole, Eubank also defended against the world class former undefeated IBF titlist, Graciano Rocchigiani of Germany...in Berlin.
But the same opponents also challenged for the other three world titles and most weren't from Europe?
