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

I have long considered the 1990's to be the best decade in the heavyweight division's history.

The 70's are massively overrated based largely on the Cult of Personality surrounding Ali. Joe Frazier literally got worse every day of the 1970's. He was better on Jan 1, 1970 than he was on any day after. Foreman was the kind of front runner we have seen in every decade. Norton was cagey but limited. The rest were just a mess. Guys like Duane Bobick, Henry Clark, Larry Midleton, Jose Luis Garcia, Chuck Wepner making the ranking regularly. Give me a break.

 

100% and I’ve felt the same way for a long time. Let’s face it. When all these promoters started putting cards on PPV or premium cable networks they killed their future viewership. Why ? Because a ten year old kid from a low to middle income family who doesn’t know about boxing isn’t just going to ask his parents out of the blue if they can order him a $100 fight. Now if some of these fights were on regular tv or less premium cable channels then maybe younger kids would have more access to them along with a larger segment of the population. As it stands ( and has for a long time ) almost nobody watches boxing anymore

 

Let’s not forget that Mike Tyson also gave up the WBC belt to avoid a fight with Lennox Lewis in the 1990s.

 

By that point it was moot. The damage had already been done to the era.

 

Yeah but wherever something comes up that Tyson also did — like giving up a belt to avoid a top contender — the focus is always on the other person that did it and Tyson gets a complete pass … ‘well you see, it’s not a big deal that he did it blah blah blah …’ — Mike would have gotten his ass handed to him by Lewis and knew it. That’s why he avoided him until he decided to cash in for the big paycheck.

 

Earlier I mentioned that the 2 eras were probably similar in talent, but after thinking about it for a minute, you're right.

Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield, Lewis, Ruddock, Moorer, Foreman, Tua, Ibeabuchi, Bruno, as well as the Klitschkos towards the back end. There were also decent Heavyweights like Mavrovic, Coetzer, Ruiz, Akinwande, Hide, Golota, Brewster, Sanders, Grant, Norris, among others. I suspect that if you were to put a top 30 of the 2 eras side by side, the 90s would be quite a bit deeper.

There has always been corruption, and outside the ring problems with the sport, but I'll still take it the way it was in the 70s, however the talent stacks up. The sport was so diminished by the 90s for the reasons Mr. Magoo laid out above...

 

Meh. They eventually fought. And I remember at the time that Tyson fighting Holyfield was the main focus of both them and the fans.

 

Also, McCall, Seldon, Briggs, a comebacking Witherspoon, and Rahman, Byrd and Maskaev toward the end. It was a minefield.

 

For viewership, nothing. For fight quality? The Holyfield-Bowe trilogy.

 

Between the fighters we both listed, that would be something close to the top 30, and Mercer, Morrison, and Holmes weren't listed.

Yes, I'd like to see a list from the 70s that comes anywhere near this.

 

Not the same. When they eventually fought, Tyson was past it and past caring.

He gave up a title belt to duck his top challenger. For literally any other fighter, that’s considered a crime on this forum. For Tyson, well, he’s a special soul.

 

“ Any other fighter ? “
it was another fighter who also happened to be a belt holder THEN Evander Holyfield just two months after that. If you’re trying to bootstrap this scenario in the same context to Holmes dropping his WBC title to face Marvis Frazier instead of page there’s no congruency there.

 

Not true.

Lewis was a nobody at that stage and had been stopped by a Tyson sparing partner.......with one shot.

It takes two to Tango and Lewis took step aside money. Fact. But the fight was still on the Radar under the condition that Lewis improves his $$$$ value.

Don King looked for the biggest purse and that was Holyfield. Fact.

The Public wanted a Tyson/Holyfield showdown.Fact.

Holyfield derailed the Tyson/Lewis match and Tyson totally went of the reservation anyway.

Lewis, at that time had zero drawing power in the US and improved later under Steward.

Lewis did not make big bucks of himself but needed Oldiefield and the Ghost of Tyson to fill his coffers, their names sold the fights not his.fact.

Today, Mike Tyson is the most recognized Heavyweight price fighter on the Planet..............and the current best Heavy on the Planet bears his name....

 

Tyson gave up the belt rather than fight a nobody? LOL. Then why give him step aside money AND give up a belt if he wasn’t a threat?

It takes two to tango and Mike wasn’t dancing anywhere but as far away from LL as he could get.

 

Hi Saintpat!

Let's not forget that Don King gave up the WBC belt and not Mike Tyson.

Also, didn't Lewis give up 2 different belts instead of facing Ruiz and Byrd?

To answer this topic I'd say the 30's can be considered the best and on par with the 70's & 90's.