Can 1982 be viewed as the apex of the sport of boxing?

I don't know about apex, but pretty damn close.Unfortunately, you also had the death of Salvador Sanchez, the retirement of Ray Leonard, and the biggie, the WBC choosing to go the 12 round way.

 

I'd put his return only slightly higher in acclaim than the return of a tumour

 

It was a great time. You had it all. Punchers like Hearns. Leonard the superstar. Hagler the sturdy middleweight. Mancini the scrappy kid, Pryor. Even a great champ in Holmes, who like Hagler worked his way to the top. I do think Ali set a high standard and those guys went up to his level and that is why it was a great era. Later the level went down with the standard set by fighters in the 1990's who did not fight the best like Jones or later Mayweather.

 

**** it. I just went through '71, '74 and then '75 to find a better year, but no luck. I'm going for somewhere in the '60s.

 

I think the era was just great. Can you imagine the welterweights in 1980 had Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, Wilfred Benitez,Pipino Cuevas. 5 ATG fighters. That is rare. Similar to Ali,Norton,Frazier,Foreman etc. Who knows why. Timing worked out well.

 

The 70's..epecially the early to mid 70's were the best boxing decade for me, followed by the 50's and 60's.

 

In the 70's you had Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Young, Foster, Galindez, Monzon, Napoles, Buchanan, Duran, Arguello, Gomez, Olivares, Canto...just to name a few.

 

However a strong case could be made for 1980.
Heavyweight Champion: Larry Holmes. contenders, Norton, Ali, Leon Spinks.Big John Tate, Shavers.

LightHeavy. had: Saad, Mustafa, Rossman, Scott, Conteh, Marvin Johnson, Victor Galindez, M. Spinks.

Middle: Hagler, Antuofermo, Minter.

Welter: Leonard, Hearns, Cuevas, Duran, Palomino.

Jr. Welt.: Pryor, Antonio Cervantes

Light: Arguello, Mancini, Watt, O'Grady

Jr. Light: Chacon, Limon, Edwards,

Feath: Pedroza, Sanchez, Danny Lopez, LaPorte,

Bantams had: Gomez, Pintor, Chandler, Zarate.

Great fights:
Leonard-Duran
Cuevas-Hearns
Weaver-Tate
Saad Mohammad-Lopez II
Sanchez-Lopez

 

Ali, Conteh, Zarate, and Galindez were all done by 1980. Why even include them?

 

That was the biggie all right...a huge chunk taken out of the integrity and tradition of the sport.

 

Conteh had his epic fight with Saad Mohammad at the time. Galindez was still Champion. Zarate just "lost" to Pintor. & could easily have fought at any time. Ali was only included, because he was involved in one of the years biggest fights against Holmes. Although it was onesided...