1978

They were shown on closed circuit in my hometown, in Az, the night of the bouts, but those fights were shown a week later on Wide World Of Sports.

 

I do remember that.

 

Some love for the little men

Betulio Gonzalez vs Guty Espadas
Shoji Oguma vs Canto I & II
Zarate vs Davila
Arguello vs Escalera I
Gomez vs Zarate

 

Yes... I do remember watching Ali Bugner 2 on ABC TV after the fact with Cosell as the commentator. Horrible fight with Bugner pretty much refusing to fight.

 

That period was great for boxing fans because the fights were on television every weekend on the major networks and we had a chance to follow careers .. there was terrific match making. Amateur boxing was also on with the USA Against the World series and we got to follow many young stars on the way up .. I remember watching Johnny Bumphus, Rocky Lockridge, Greg Page, Jimmy Clark, Mark Brelansd and many others .. on the weekends we saw lots of Arguello, Duran, the golden age of the light heavyweights, Little Red Lopez, Sanchez, Hagler pre-HBO and of course Ray Lenard .. there were prime time heavyweight title bouts where Ali, Holmes, Norton and Young were featured .. HBO was also getting deep in as well .. it was a great and easy time to follow the sport.

 

You old timers always think the good old days were better. Bet you weren’t thinking that at the time though?

 

History is always in retrospect. We realize how great it was because of how bad it’s become. Unfortunately.

 

Not me. I was loving it as it was. I was in pugulistic valhalla. It couldn't get better. And then 1984 it started avalanching down the hill. Never to be the same again. Now we live here in the WASTELAND. Each man striving and battling for himself. TIGER!!!!TIGER!!!! The apocalyptic ending of a great bloodsport. ThE great time of the prizefighter lives now,,,,,,, ONLY IN OUR MEMORY.!!##$!##!##!!:_

 

1978,,if you paid for a fight then it was generally well worth it