32-42 or 15-25. The 70s can't really be buffed that much by changing around the years. Now you've got to take out Holmes. And you get Terrell and old Liston in exchange.
I'll go from 1926 to 1935. You get both Dempsey - Tunney fights plus five different undisputed heavyweight titlists in the 1930s.
I think this is spot on, but I’m biased since I was obsessed with heavyweight boxing during this time. Tyson, Bowe, Lewis, Holyfield, comeback Foreman and Holmes, Morrison, Briggs, Tua, Golota, Mercer, Rahman, McCall….
The 1968–78 era—and in my opinion, nothing else comes close. We have the Ali-Frazier trilogy featuring two classics, the Rumble in the Jungle, the "mother of all wars" between Foreman and Lyle, and finally, the magnificent Holmes-Norton fight that saw the birth of a new champion. Ultimately, we have four outstanding heavyweights in their prime who fought one another.
If 99 isn’t part of it, it’s not the right list (Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson, Ike, Tua, Byrd, Vitali, Wlad, Sanders, Rahman, Grant. Golota).
What major fights took place in 1999? What classics—comparable to Ali vs. Frazier, Ali vs. Foreman, or Holmes vs. Norton—did you watch back then? Which boxer looked like a force of nature on the level of the 1971 Frazier or the 1973 Foreman? Which victory was as epic as Ali’s win in Kinshasa?
I was going off depth, but off the top of my head…Lewis—Holy I and II, Grant vs. Golota, Harris vs. Jefferson, Ike vs. Byrd, Tyson vs. Botha, Rahman vs. Maskaev, Briggs vs. Botha, Ike vs. Byrd.
Fair enough, I respect that, but do you really consider those fights classics? I remember the widespread disappointment after both Lewis-Holyfield bouts; the Ike-Byrd fight was completely forgettable; and Golota-Grant was frankly embarrassing. After the Botha-Tyson fight, someone wrote an article saying it was less exciting than watching a cleaner sweep the MGM floor, and most people regretted spending money on that "spectacle." Harris-Jefferson was great, but it was a bit like Knyba-Ruiz—completely inconsequential to history.
Yeah, the notion that Lewis-Holyfield are classics is a stretch at the very least. The first fight was an aberration and the second one just isn't very good. Technically impressive, close enough to keep you involved, but it never caught fire.
It can't be 1968-78, because that's not a decade, it's 11 years. It can be 1968-77, or 1969-78. Relax, you're not the only one who made that mistake; almost everyone did. Rummy counted the decades as 1990-99, and 2000-2009. In this decade that I chose, Holmes is out, but the last year of Ali's first reign falls in.
87-97 You get peak Tyson. As well as the historic upset by Douglas. Then during his incarceration the rise of Holyfield and Bowe in their primes. With great fights. A still formidable Foreman. The Bowe Golota wars. Then as they all fade the incoming Lewis.
It can't be 1987-97, because that's not a decade, it's 11 years. It can be 1987-96, or 1988-97. Relax, you're not the only one who made that mistake; almost everyone did. Rummy counted the decades as 1990-99, and 2000-2009. 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 That's NOT a decade; that's 11 years.