Who was the 3rd best HW of the 1980s ?

He beat Douglas for the belt in 1990.

I'd pick 89 Holy to beat any 80s heavyweight not named Tyson or Holmes and he might have beaten them as well.

 

Maybe, but it wasn,t his time yet, this thread is about the 1980,s my friend

 

I thought it was about who the 3rd best H2H heavyweight of the 80s was, and my answer is Evander "the real deal" Holyfield.

 

This is really crazy because I consider Berbick as a caveman without any bit of craft...............but you make a hard to counter argument. He literally beat one of the men I was gonna say

 

Tucker only beaten Buster Douglas and James Broad in the 80's.

 

It’s hard to pick because other than Holmes and Tyson all the others were too inconsistent erratic and underachieved. They mostly played musical belts with each other. Berbick got at lot out of his limited skillset. Tucker was good. Several like Page and Cooney had huge potential that was never fully developed due to personal problems and bad habits. It really is the lost generation of Heavyweights. By that point the money was getting really big even for alphabet title fights and it made the fighters lazy in a sense. They could make a big payday and sit on their ass for several months doing nothing but gorging themselves on food and cocaine until another fight was lined up.

 

Ah yes, I heard about cocaine being such a big influence on the 80s and entertainment/sports. Is would make sense, but was it actually a factor in top boxing at that time in such a manner that it would influnce top heavyweight's performances, careers and mentality in a systematic way?

 

Holyfield for his wins over Tillis, Thomas, Dokes, Rodriguez and Stewart. The last 3 being in crazy veins of form, all on unbeaten runs and all ranked top contenders.

 

witherspoon is the more concrete 3rd. but Pink for my choice.

it's the 80's heavies scene man. nobody had run longer than 2 years before coke was introduced to them and then the walls came crumbling in.

 

also 80's meaning jan 1980- dec 1989 does mean you get some anomoalies. it's why most will have a venture back and notice dokes has the most top class wins...doubt we are saying he should be there, no?

 

Probably some Soviet monster that wasn't allowed to participate in the pros.

 

I think most would agree theres no clear cut one just a group you can pick from each with their cases.

For me its either Tucker, Buster or Witherspoon. Spinks and Pinklon being reasonable choices but a cut below for me.

Holyfield could be considered part of the 80s generation in the way Holmes can the 70s. I guess H2H you have a creative case to name him number 1 because he beat Tyson, Holmes, Buster and Pinklon. But Holyfield beating Holmes in 1992 doesn't elevate him above Holmes. If you count Holyfield as part of this era he gets added to the pile above.