Why the 90s aren't the golden HW era?

The 70s had who is considered by most the GOAT Heavyweight, who had massive fights watched by reportedly 100s of millions of people globally. It's hard to compete with that regardless of how good 90s HW boxing was.

What were the 90s equivalent to Rumble in the Jungle, The Fight of the Century, Thrilla in Manilla?

 

Bowe Holyfield was the best thing to come out of the 90s, but even that was marred by Holyfield's health and the fanman, then there's Holyfield Tyson which had potential but was turned into a sideshow with the second fight

There were good fighters but the overall quality of the fights sucked in comparison to when two cream of the crops would touch death over 15

 

One other problem was fights weren’t getting made as frequently in the ’90’s as they were in the ’70’s. I would argue the depth of the division was a little better in the ’70’s, but the real distinction was fights the public wanted came to pass more frequently, & more promptly, in the ’70’s than they did in the ’90’s.

 

Because the 70's took the title first.

The 90's actually had more depth. You had the better front line is a matter of debate. I go with the 70's, as evidenced by the fact that Foreman and Homes were able to make an impact even in the 90's.

 

The 90s heavyweight division Had some of the best individual talent ever.

But you ALSO had:

- Three of the biggest title upsets in history, two of which from fringe contenders and the third by a an aged veteran

- one of the division’s best participants ( Tyson ) was absent for half the decade
- There was a light heavyweight and crusier weight who both captured lineage and the latter was one of the best heavyweights of the era

- You had two 40+ ex champions on the comeback trail, both of whom breached the ratings and one captured the crown.

- There were men like Bruce Seldon, John Ruiz, Frans Botha and others holding fragments of the crown.

- while there were some very good matchups that were made during the 90s, there were several which either came too late or not at all

 

You’ve posed an interesting thought experiment there. Could Holmes & Foreman, in their early 40’s, break into the rankings in the 1970’s? Could Foreman again win the crown, & could Holmes beat whoever your choice for Mercer’s equivalent would be, & also put up a decent fight against one of the best Champions of the era, as he did vs Holyfield?

 

Foreman and to a lesser extent Holmes prevented that from happening. If not for that 90s might be seen as the golden HW era because "the sport was more evolved". But it did happen and theres no getting around it.

The fact old Foreman KO'd Moorer and almost beat Holyfield forever prevented the 90s from supplanting the 70s. The 90s might be the 2nd most popular HW era and is viewed with nostaglia compared to the 21st century. But it can go no higher.

The 90s was top heavy but Lennox Lewis wasn't far enough ahead of Holyfield or Moorer for this not to apply to him.

 

Luckily, they didn't have the 3 or 4 belt problem back in the 70s. If they did, and they had a Don King manipulating the ratings to get guys like the ones you mentioned title shots, they may have had the same problem. There were no shortcuts to a belt back then. No Riddick Bowe situations where he could just dump a belt if he didn't want to deal with that challenger, and keep his other belts. That alone makes 70s Heavyweight better. You had to beat the Man to lay claim, and not just cherry pick the weaker belt holder, then call yourself a champion. Pretty sure the belts were unified for a good portion of the 70s.

 

How did Foreman almost beat Holyfield? Holyfield won that fight by a wide, WIDE margin.

 

It did get rather ridiculous and it’s one of the reasons why I’m not an avid fan anymore. Today you have Pay Per View cards that never would have been pay per view material back in the day. Crap like that killed the sport

 

On points yes Holmes did better against Holyfield. But Foreman was trying to outlast Holyfield for a late KO so thats really not relevant. He wasn't trying to win a decision because at this stage he couldn't.

 

Absolutely. Putting any half-decent card on PPV obviously doesn't give the sport the kind of exposure that network TV once did. Also, the multiple sanctioning bodies, and weight classes every 4-6 pounds have really done a lot of damage.

The talent was similar in the two eras, but the sport was becoming a disorganized mess in the 90s thanks to the sanctioning bodies.

Those are the reasons 70s Heavyweight boxing was the Golden Era (or, at least, the better of the two eras) IMO, not because of any talent gap.