1970s are an overrated heavyweight era

Yes - but those eras never had 3, arguably 4, of the top 10 ATGs in the division plying their trade at the same time.

The nearest to it is the 90s with an older Tyson, Bowe, Fields and Lewis and Bowe threw his belt in the trash and jail time, potentially roid side effects and other factors saw them not fighting each other at their absolute best/close to the best available version of themselves all circumstances considered.

 

Probably not, but born in this era, they may likely have weighed more on the scale with a more regular adoption of functional weight training, the hormonal effect of today's food compared to their day and outright sophisticated anabolic programmes that are most certainly rampant across most elite levels of sport today.

I don't see any reason to think that if they could carry an extra 15 - 20 lbs of size, plus chances of being taller born in a later era, why a Quarry and Bonavena wouldn't prove tricky for many an overweight, low work rate HW.

 

Holmes had the most memorable fight of his career vs Norton in the 1970s and went 32-0 overall.

Holmes lost 3 times in the 1980s and went 16-3 overall.

The heavy lifting of Holmes's resume is due to his work in the 1970s despite the more quantity of title defences in the 1980s.

In any case Holmes should be mentioned in the 1970s era.

Arguably Holmes is a top 5 Heavyweight of the 1970s even without including his 1980s resume.

 

Ali fought too many dangerous fighters. When his manager matched him with Shavers in 1977 he should've been arrested.

 

Whilst agreed, it's a fundamental factor - otherwise no point in comparing fighters separated by 50/60/70 years in hypothetical H2H match ups.

A very real reality between Marciano and Bonavena and today's fighter is they didn't have the benefit of eating pharmaceutically laced foods or the exposure to sophisticated PEDs access and implementation.

Marciano wouldn't get to 220 lbs given his stature and training style. He may very well sit around 195 - 205 lb given the style we saw from him. Less conditioning required and he may get up to 215 ish lbs.

I hear what you're saying tho, loud and clear.

 

I lived during the 70`s and believe me it is not overrated

 

Many of the fighters of the 70s had name recognition from being hyped up for their fights with Ali. Ellis, Terrell, Bonavena, Shavers, Mathis, Bugner, Lyle, Chuvalo, Young, Spinks, Quarry and even Norton. Remove Ali from the era and most of them are obscure contenders long forgotten. Foreman himself wasn't a technically great fighter, I thought he was a better fighter during his comeback.

Regardless, if you put some of them in any era they would be top ten contenders. Chuvalo, Norton, Bugner, Shavers, Young would give just about any HW a good fight.

 

You could say that about any era.

Bowe without Holyfield is a pretty forgettable resume.

McCall without Lewis.

Ruddock against Tyson.

And so on and so on.

I would say though someone like Ellis had a pretty good run without Ali. He won the Heavyweight tournament in the 1960s beating the likes of Bonavena, Quarry, Patterson, which is impressive.

Foreman without Ali would've probably had a much longer reign in the 1970s until he run into maybe a prime Holmes.

 

Kabayel has plenty of fat

 

For matchups we generally take fighters as they actually existed though. Otherwise the 50s would be a potentially great era if we just all make Marciano, Charles, Moore, etc the size of Lennox Lewis and put them all on PEDs

 

That wasn't what I was trying to say.

I'm saying in the hypothetical realm of H2H, it's reasonable to asterisk later generations who are noted for PED use and food technology that wasn't available to earlier generations.

I'm not supposing any of them to be Lewis' size but I don't see why they may not be half an inch or an inch taller with some additional, functional muscle packed on via a systemic sports science programme, with a better understanding about optimal nutrition and PEDs.

Likewise, if Lewis, the Klits and Fury were born 50 years earlier, they likely wouldn't as tall or weigh as much.

It does nothing for assessing how good they were in their own ears but unless there's some sort of adjustment, a hypothetical H2H isn't an apples and apples piece of mental gymnastics unless there's some nuance.

Not a hill I would die for/on but certainly something that I've pondered over the years.

 

Name three.

 

1970s are under rated when comparing to earlier eras and over rated when comparing to the more recent eras.