So... Seems like whenever I'm looking into fighting from the 70s, I can seem to find great fights every single year...except. 1971 you only ever hear about Ali-Frazier 1. Or if you do hear about a fight, the quality is never spoken of, it's only the historical significance... CAN ANYONE NAME A GREAT/GOOD fight from 1971? What would of been FOTY if FOTC hadn't of gone down?
I think Buchanan-Laguna II got 2nd in the fight of the year votes that year. Olivares-Castillo was probably in the top 5 too. But yeah, you are right, wasn't much in the way of great fights that year. I think a lot of it had to do with the great champions of that year, Foster, Monzon, Napoles, it was tough to test those guys. I'm sure there were some slugfests amongst the lower ranked guys, but not a lot of great championship fights.
1971 was a great boxing year. You had Foster, Monzon, Napoles, Locche, Buchanan, Olivares, Canto all defending their crowns...many others too that I didn't name.
Agreed....great champions, biggest/most lucrative fight in history being made, worldwide TV coverage....strong healthy time in the sport. But where are the Great/classic ring wars. Aside from Ali-Frazier...I know of 0 shootouts, wars of attrition, slugfests, high drama? None. I even looked up the Laguna-Buchanan II fight. It's like there's no posts or reviews on it whatsoever. The 1st fight there is. But none on the 2nd. I'll need to watch it later.
Bugner vs Cooper was a good fight. Historical significance, a changing of the guard and controversy as well as being a good fight that was very close.
Chuvalo fought like **** in that fight. When you are as supposedly tough and strong and Chuvalo its probably best not be seen getting manhandled by an ex middleweight who wasnt considered an overly strong HW. Chuvalo consistently being backed into corners and battered didnt help either.
It was a nice tripleheader. Are these fights out there on the collector's circuit? I'd think a card with this many names would be, considering it was a closed circuit telecast. I've had no luck searching You Tube. Anyone know if it was replayed on free TV later? Klompton?
I've been studying the heavyweights of the 1970's lately. Other than the FOTC, these are the instances in which top 10 heavyweights fought each other in 1971: May 10: (2) George Foreman TKO 10 (9) Gregorio Peralta May 10: (4) Jimmy Ellis W 10 (7) George Chuvalo July 26: (1) Muhammad Ali TKO 12 (3) Jimmy Ellis 'Course boxing isn't just about the heavyweights.
I have the old magazines that covered the tripleheader. Story article was titled One Great Fight, One So-so, and Terrell
