Heavyweight talent in the mid eighties..

Page was the most talented heavyweight of the era. He was also the laziest.

 

A well trained Trevor Berbick has my vote for being one of the better fighters of that bunch. Tim Witherspoon and Mike Weaver are good picks to. If all these guys were at their very best ( and I emphasize "if" ), they might have been very good fights for champions of other eras like Dempsey, Marciano and Louis.

 

Tim Whitherspoon would be the King of the Lost Generation, except you know he would either be to lazy or to ****ed to go to his own Coronation.

 

Tim Witherspoon was very talented just like Pinklon Thomas and Greg Page were. The 80s was not as bad as people made it out to be.

 

Oh they were; we had Thatcher to start off with.

 

80s were better than dempseys era and the 30s.

 

As good as the 80's fighters were, there never was (and thankfully, hasn't been) an era so dominated by fighters who were able to look so good at one moment, and so bad the next due to drugs, money, lazyness, etc.

 

A lot of those guys were decent "meat and potatoes" fighters.

 

A side order of Coke too.

 

I'd take Mike Tyson over most of these guys.

Hey, you said mid 80's. Tyson won the title in 1986. I know that's not what you meant, just fooling around.

I really do think some of those guys were pretty talented. Tubbs was a decent boxer, and it took top 20 guys to beat him up until his mid 30's. Thomas had skills, just not a big will to win. Dokes had a will to compete, just not to train. Weaver was strong, but not a great student of his craft. Everyone had a critical flaw or two, but on any given night could have been a handful for most anyone.

 

Forget it, Tyson was all pomp and circumstance during his brief/dominant prime. At least that is what some think/post

 

Probably Greg Page.He had all the tools,was just lazy and didn't have probably the best business sense.

 

Aside from Tyson and Holmes (the undisputed best two of the decade), I'd say overall (in order):

Witherspoon
Thomas
Page (perhaps the most naturally talented of this bunch)
Weaver
Berbick
Williams
Dokes
Tubbs


... I've left Tucker out of the equation since he was a Joe Bugner replica regarding offensive desire (or lack of!). Plus the fact that the majority of his career record was padded out by feasting on utter tomato cans. How he gained the title shots he did is anybody's guess. :huh

 

A lot of them had talent. But talent alone isn't worth much.

I do think the 80s heavyweights were better than the 00s heavyweights (today's) and probably just as good as the 90s heavyweights.
I reckon the heavyweight division has been in a continous slump since the 1970s in all likelihood, perhaps longer.