Best Fighters of the 1980's, 1-10

Hey JT - Thanks for taking the time to respond. I knew you'd give well-reasoned answers.

I think between yourself and Unforgiven, the dilemmas and paradoxes involved, for people looking at this from various angles, have been generally covered.


My questions were quite obviously geared at looking closer at the impact a 'big win' or a 'big loss' has on rating a boxer, against the longer-term efforts of the more pervasive and consistent practitioners, over the decade. Hagler is, in many ways, the fulcrum of these two sides of the assessment; a great boxer, who carved out a great contribution to the '80s but who, with that one loss, in the last fight of his career, takes a considerable hit, whilst elevating Leonard.

The effect of expectations vs actual outcomes is also an interesting factor and, again, seems to be a prevalent aspect of the Hagler/Leonard bout. But then, it was also a prevalent aspect of the scoring in the first Pacquiao/Bradley bout.

One of the questions touched on the manner of victory/loss, as well.
Your assessment of Spinks Tyson is fair. However, I'd have to suggest that, expectations or no and from a cold light of day perspective, a 91-second blow-out compared with a disputed SD should perhaps be taken into consideration.

Just my tuppence-worth...