I believe this is shaping up to be the third best decade in heavyweight boxing history....

I'm with you.

The past is always seen with rose-colored glasses

And the present is always undervalued by most - until YEARS later...

 

I agree though 1880s-90s and the late 20s-early 30s have a decent argument for number 3 as well

 

I certainly think that now will be looked back on as an exciting time for the division, lots of big names, (some) interesting personalities and talent. I seem to recall that few people in the 90s were saying it was a golden age (which it was).
Sad that not all the top fights happened (e.g. AJ \ Wilder, perhaps Fury \ AJ) but it went that way in the 90s too.

 

I suspect we’ll get Fury-AJ. Wouldn’t be surprised if Usyk is stripped of a belt for BS made up reasons and that belt is put on the line for a Fury-AJ fight. Not because AJ deserves a shot, but because of marketability, they’d far prefer Fury or AJ with a strap than the others.

 

Good shout actually. If it happens, I think it would be the WBO - because their mandatory is next in line for Usyk (iirc), and Arum/Warren have a very good relationship with the WBO, so they could find a way to apply pressure to get Fury to fight for it if they wanted.

 

It's been a solid era but I think some of the top notable Heavyweights have been pretty disappointing outside of Usyk.

I think the early promise Joshua, Fury, showed they haven't lived up to anywhere near the hype they got.

Wilders career has ended pretty poorly.

And whilst we have a good range of contenders none of them have really stepped up to the plate yet although Dubois/Parker will be a good indication.

 

None of that has anything to do with proving this era is great.

Who are those 2 dozen good guys again?

My take. The top 3 fighters of this era until recently were Joshua, Wilder and Fury, and all have been exposed for being not as good as advertised, and that was before Usyk did it. The fact that Wilder , one of the most unskilled HW's in history was top 3 for so many years, alone proves how weak this era has been.

AJ came up with potential, but since he was destroyed by Ruiz, he was not the same fighter despite managing to rebuild himself to a certain extent through very canny match making. He gave Usyk two competitive fights but was then destroyed by Dubois and made to look like an AM.

Tyson Fury, the fighter generally regarded as the best of his era, became a fat lazy slob, beating nobody of note since Wlad other than hype job Wilder (who has since been battered by almost anyone), and last year arguably lost to an MMA fighter in his boxing debut.

Its come to the point that in 2024, one of the top Hw's is a fighter who had previously lost to dillion whyte, and struggled to beat Chisora, and gotten stopped by Joe Joyce, which again demonstrates how the division has regressed.

Another top HW is a 40 year old china man, and below him, apart from a few fighters with potential its looking very barren.

To top it off, a much smaller CW has come up and beaten them all, which is the icing on the cake but as I have described its far from the full story. This era already looked poor before Usyk came on the scene. This era is one of the worst ever imo.

 

Great post.

I don’t know what he’s looking at.

It’s good, as in - there’s some interesting fights to be made.

There’s some good depth.

There’s some interesting prospects starting to come through.

But in terms of quality?

No.

And AJ, Wilder and Usyk probably won’t be here in a few years.

And the rest are mostly B level guys.

So in terms of it being competitive, okay. There’s decent fighters who can all beat each other.

But again, in terms of quality, it isn’t in any way a really strong era.

Who are the great HW’s?

Who will be the great HW’s within the next few years?

It’s nonsense if you ask me.

 

Zhang, Parker, Dubois and Kabayel are all much better than Wilder ever was. We're already in a much better era.

 

But they’re all B level guys.

So better, as in - more competitive.

But not in terms of actual quality.

Apart from Usyk, there’s no great HW’s.

 

Zhang is a threat in any era. I think he's ice Foreman

 

zhang couldnt get past hrgovic and parker, hes done nothing to compare him to george besides being big.

 

Joe Joyce. Hrgovic and Parker were also close fights, with most people having him win the Hrgovic fight.


Look how many times Foreman got tagged vs Lyle. He can't take those from Zhang

 

Peter Jackson was not squeezed out he won every formal belt in existence at the time. I don't count this era as modern boxing either. Sullivan somehow got to keep the belt after the Cardiff fight and 5 years of inactivity and Corbett got to retain his status by fighting no one new except Jackson who he lucked into drawing with by injuring his ribs in a fight he otherwise loses.


The 1910s cannot be judged by the status of the lineal belt during the reigns of Johnson and Willard nor the status of any belt for that matter. Langford and Jeanette fought for the IBU belt in December 1913. This decade was very different in the early and later part.

Dempsey not fighting Wills is the single biggest ducking in HW history. But if we look at who Wills was fighting during his period as number 1 contender in Firpo, Weinart and Floyd Johnson you can see Dempsey had otherwise pretty much cleaned out the division. Heeney was not a bum he got his shot via Tex Richard tournament. Part of this included draws so I don't know how that worked but he wasn't Tunney picking a nobody to fight. The 20s feels like a transition between the 10s and 30s.

I think the 30s was the best era besides the 70s best combo of depth and elite fighters. It doesn't look this way because a lot of the talent retired early. Louis's number 1 title contenders did not stick around long going into the 40s. Braddock, Schmeling, Farr, Lewis, Simon, Buddy Baer, Simon. This is more about the 40s but despite the "bum of the month" club Louis left a fair amount of fights on the table during WW2 in Murray, Ray, Baksi etc. The division was stacked.

"Bum of the month" was meant to refer to Louis fighting every month. It was about the calendar not his SOS. And of Louis's title defenses who are the weak links? Theres Jack Roper, Paycheck and Musto. Al McCoy was an accomplished 175er. After that the weak links are guys like Dorazio, Burman and Harry Thomas who were fine fighters.

The 50s had incredible depth even if it might be the worst era H2H. Marciano fought Walcott and Charles 4x and really didn't fight the best the division had to offer. Walcott getting 5 title shots off losses ground the division to a halt. The 50s reminds me of our current HW division except the size of the fighters.

In the 90s I think after Lewis, Bowe, Moorer, Holyfield, Foreman, Tyson and Golota the cupboard was relatively bare. The divisions had one of the worst depths of any era. Worst 10th best guy, worst 15th worst 20th etc. Buster Douglas retired after 1990. Ibeauchi had short career. I think all the things you're saying about the wasted talent of the 80s are even truer of the 90s. To the extent the talent was there the resumes weren't.

If this era was a HW renaissance in terms of talent Fury, AJ, Wilder and now Usyk prevented us from seeing it by not fighting new contenders. Maybe this is the best HW division in 50 years. Its got a lot of pent up depth. But right now this seems more likely the consequences of the most protected group of champions we've ever had opposed to HW being amazing. The 4 major alphabet bodies have had a combined 12 interim champs at HW. 9 of them are from this era and its about to be 10 if Kabayel beats Zhang. Look at all the new names at HW its not the next generation its this generation who've been sitting and waiting.