Anyone On Here That Thinks The 70 s, Golden Era, Is Overrated?

Frazier would have knocked out Wilder proving how weak the heavyweight division was while Wilder was champ compared to the 70`s, Norton was a good boxer, Ali was vastly overrated in the 70`s despite stopping a gassing, master finisher like Foreman, they were the top 4 of the 70`s till Holmes came along, so yes in a number of ways that era was overated but not compared to the years Wilder was champ and we had to put up with the AJ v Wilder superfight bull, AJ`s fight v Wlad was overrated too, Foreman was a better finisher than both of them.

 

I do not think the 1970s are overrated. The 1970s were an excellent intersection of a several things that have it considered the golden age of heavyweight boxing. To me, it has to do mainly with the fighters at the time, the fights they made, the cultural significance of both, as well as the fact that the fighters are still relevant in a modern head-to-head boxing nerd sense. I feel the 1980s were a sophomore slump of sorts and definitely gave the enormous legacy of the 1970s adequate room to breathe and take further mental root in the minds of boxing fans--many of the most prominent fighters from the 1960s and 1980s had big moments in the 1970s. As anything that is regarded past its present, cultural memory is most important.

Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, [Larry Holmes], and more: These guys propelled boxing to a crazy high level in terms of entertainment and cultural significance. Frazier was smokin' and had one of the most memorable and intense styles of all time. Foreman took knockout punching to a new level and learned some ring savvy while he did it. Ali was Ali, and the suspension had grown his name and fame more than fighting potentially could have. He put on classic fights and was really popular and created very memorable pieces of Americana that many recall fondly.

Awesome fights: Rumble in the Jungle, Thrilla in Manila, Lyle vs Foreman, Fight of the Century, Holmes vs. Norton. Memorable moments make legends, legends stand the test of time.

Durable contenders in the middle top 10 of the division: Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Jerry Quarry, Shavers, Bonavena, Jimmy Young all had interesting aspects to their game. We even got a couple of years of Floyd Patterson and Jimmy Ellis as top 10 guys as well. So the 1970s looked backwards well in the legacy sense. These contenders provided tough, entertaining fights and made for some excellent legend building for the most prominent fighters of the time.

Larry Holmes carried a lot of the 1970s mojo into the 1980s in terms of perception and legacy since he came up as Ali's sparring partner and won the title vs. Norton in 1978. So for half of the 1980s, a guy who came up in the 1970s held the title and was dominant. The 1980s HWs were regarded as pretty dull until Tyson, who ushered in the highly regarded crop of 90s HWs and is more closely associated with that group anyway. The reign of Holmes was not as appreciated as it probably should have been. Spinks, Coetzee, Tate, and Weaver all competed in the late 1970s at a top 10 level (even Gerry Cooney snuck in there). So much of the pre-Tyson 1980s was influenced by guys who came up in the 1970s as well. Of course decades don't have clean breaks, but still interesting to see and probably contributed to why the pre-Tyson 80s were regarded as blasé. One of the most prominent fighters of the 1970s actually fought in the 1990s and had success! George Foreman really solidified the already sterling reputation of the 1970s by showing insane grit during literal cross-generation fights throughout the late 80s and early-mid 90s. It was like having a time capsule except better, and a totally insane thing to think about.

In a head-to-head sense the fighters can still be regarded as physically and technically competent vis-à-vis the idealized modern heavyweights that came after. Whereas guys like the Rock and Dempsey could be considered too small and slow, or Louis too slow for many modern heavyweights, a lot of the 1970s guys had technique and physical attributes that make them relevant to this day. Many were above 6' and 200lbs and had modern ruleset adapted styles that make hypothetical fights vs more recent fighters interesting. Ali is as quick as anyone has ever been at heavyweight and had size to go along with it that makes him relevant. Foreman as strong as any heavyweight and can conceivably knock out current heavyweights. They didn't just have a timeless legacy, or timeless fights, the fighters had timeless skills and athletic abilities.

 

Fantastic piece of writing - on point and a very enjoyable read from go to whoa.

One thing, though I might be a touch biased, Joe Louis is for ALL time, don’t listen to that crazy Ali guy saying Joe was too slow..Ali understood all too well the time transcendent, perpetual perils of the GREAT Louis, that’s why he defensively talked him down so often.

 

Wonderful summation and a good point re: the relative lull of the 80s allowing the magic of the 70s to take root.

My personal pick for strongest HW era H2H is the 90s, but it lacked several of the factors that made the 70s so special. There were tons of great brutal fights but the magic just wasn't there for much of the time.

 

Yeah, the 90's were sooo good a 45 year old dinosaur from the 70's won the heavyweight championship.

 

There`s no way a 45 year old could have won the heavyweight title during the 70`s, a fat,old version of Foreman probably couldn`t have even beaten Leon Spinks.

 

Thanks and I definitely rate Louis a bit higher in terms of being able to compete than some, he sure was great. My grandpa would always tell me about listening to him on the radio and it was some early experience of mine with boxing, so much much respect to Louis. I just think he has fallen a bit recently in the h2h talks.

 

Lol today's Foreman would crush Spinks.

 

He could have been talking about Ali-Frazier but he was talking about San Francisco in the mid-60s. Love Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

 

By pure luck, due to a lucky punch

 

If Spinks would have been dumb to just stand in front of Foreman like Moorer was,than yeah, 45 year old Foreman could have won the title. Moorer simply needed to move, he was way in front on the scorecards, but he got too cocky.

 

Overrated???? Well, to that, all I have to say is:
Muhammad Ali
Bob Foster
Victor Galindez
Matthew Saad Muhammad
Carlos Monzon
Rodrigo Valdez
Jose Napoles
Nicolino Locche
Antonio Cervantes
Wilfred Benitez
Roberto Duran
Ken Buchanan
Esteban DeJesus
Danny Little Red Lopez
Wilfredo Gomez
Carlos Zarate
Ruben Olivares
Rafael Herrera
Miguel Canto
Betulio Gonzales
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No, he set that up.

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Foreman used his savvy.