70's Heavy Really the best

I don't know if I agree that the 80's were better than the 90's, but I certainly concur that the 90's were overrated.

Here are some reasons as to why:

1. We never saw some of the big matchups that the 90's needed to make an argument for it being a strong era. Bowe-Lewis was one of several examples.

2. You had two 40+ ex-champs coming back after extended retirments, both of whom breached the top ten, while one of them became a world champ.

3. You had a former cruiserweight and a former lightheavyweight who both became world champs, and one of them was even considered by many as the decade's best heavyweight.

4. You had two monumental upsets by fighters who many considered fringe contenders/journeyman. Douglas's upset over Tyson and McCall's upset over Lewis.

5. Too many guys who were either past their primes or not very good were able to win titles. Frank Bruno, Bruce Seldon, Buster Douglas, Oliver Mccall, Frans Botha, John Ruiz, etc.

6. One of the division's most prestigious participants was abscent for half of the decade ( Mike Tyson ).

 

Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe, Ruddock, Morrison, Golota, Moorer, Mercer, Tua, Botha, Ibeabuchi, Bruno, Holmes, Foreman, Golotta, Buster Douglas, McCall, Sanders, Herbie Hide, Akiwande, Briggs, Tony Tucker, Maskeev, Larry Donald.

The 70s does not have 25 up there with those, below the top 6 the era isn't particularly impressive. Akiwande and Hide are 2 of the worst of those top25 but are on par with the bottom of the 70s top10

The Top4 from the 70s are probably slightly better than top4 from the 90s but this is very debatable

 

1. We had Holyfield against Tyson/Lewis/Bowe - pretty big 6 fights

2. The best HW of the 70s was champ into his late 30s - equivilent of 40s today. An old Liston may have done some damage in the 70s

3. Ali/Frazier both started as what is cruserweight today. Holyfields bigger than Frazier. And Ali was arguably beaten by a LHW, Foreman was beaten

4. Upsets happen in boxing, ie Foreman-Frazier, Ali-Spinks. Douglas and McCall were good fighters.

5. They were good fighters, at least as good as Leon Spinks. Ali was past his prime yet dominated the division

6. Frazier/Holmes/Foreman didnt fight big fights in most of the 70s

 

Lyle and Young are far superior to those two. Hide had the chin of a flyweight (not even a sturdy one at that, probably Charlie Magri league). Akinwande made Tony Tucker look flexible.

No it isn't.

 

I think the 70s were an era that no hw boxer, regardless of era, would have gone through undefeated.

 

The 2nd and 3rd best heavyweights of the 1970s were beating up two of your probable Top 10 list of the 1990s, when into their forties. :good

 

Agreed,

and I'm going to expand upon that even further by adding that those same two 40+ ex-champs also went the distance in competitive fights with what was possibly thee best heavyweight of the 90's.

 

Good post and add the Klitschko's to that list.

Manassa also made a good point about some 70's fighters becoming name fighters just because they lost to the big boys. A guy like Bonavena basically lost everytime he stepped up. A guy like Axel Schulz, just a random example, beat the **** out of Foreman (lineal champ) but was robbed by the judges. Which is more than Bonavena did, but no one would consider Schulz to be on par with Bonavena.

The 70's had a great top4 and was great because the big names fought each other, but other than that the contenders were nothing special. They're just made more special because they lost to Ali etc.

Another thing is that the 70's, though i didn't live through them, most have been pretty boring between '75 and '80. You had an old Ali basically keeping the title hostage while not facing any mandatories but bums like Wepner, Evangelista etc and then to improve things, Leon Spinks becomes the champion.

Not saying that the 90's had it all, Tyson in prison sucked, Bowe ducking Lewis sucked, Tyson not fighting Lewis, etc etc. But no one mentions that the 70's also had their share of problems.

 

1. I was refering to the likes of Bugner who was a top 70s HW. Having said that Hide/Akiwande may beat Young

2. Why not? Lets see how these match ups go:

Holyfield-Frazier
Tyson-Holmes
Bowe-Ali
Lewis-Foreman

They are all fights that could go either way

 

Bonavena was a very decent fighter who even managed to give Frazier problems.

 

He certainly deserves to be considered in a Heavyweight head to head list.

 

70s - Ali, Foreman, Norton, Holmes, Frazier, Lyle, Quarry, Shavers, Bonavena, Patterson, Chuvalu, Mac Foster, Bugner, Young, Ellis, Bob Foster, Mathis, Blue Lewis, Spinks, Bobick, Tate, Coetzee, Howard Smith, Weaver, Leroy Jones, Cooney.