Best filmed display of boxing skill by decade

there was footage of Theo Medina vs Jackie Paterson on youtube a few years ago, very good.

Canzoneri vs Glick, Lynch vs Brown, some South African footage of Johnny Ralph - the film is more than good enough to get 'a proper' glimpse of just how good about half a dozen or so some second tier fighters really were.

there is some proper looking footage out there proving these old eras were just as good... and it only takes one piece of film to prove it anyway .

quite simply if the fighters in it are good, great or very good, it proves that ALL their 'top' peers were too, in spite of miles & miles of
s h i t e footage.

 

Jones? That was more athletic talent against a near-dead Toney.

For sublime technical precision, Toney's performance against Barkley might be the best of ANY decade.

 

In the 80s Id be very tempted to place Kalambay-McCallum over Duran-Leonard.

 

The first half of the 90s had more complete masterclasses than any period I can think of

Toney-Barkley
Douglas-Tyson
McGirt-Brown
McCallum-Watson
Whitaker-Chavez
Jones-Pazienza
Whitaker-McGirt II
Eubank-Jarvis/Giminez/Rocchigiani/Wharton
Hamed-Robinson

 

And then you haven't even mentioned Holyfiled-Bowe, McCallum-Toney 1&2 and McCallum-Kalambay 2.

 

Chavez-Rosario is the best filmed example of infighting.

A fight like Jones-Paz is just a mismatch of a true super middle against a roided up Guido lightweight. Nothing special about it beyond that.

 

Close, two-way battles of skill, not one guy mastering another completely and schooling him.

 

Robinson-Galivan I and Eubank-Watson I were classical two-way chess matches.

 

1900's: Gangs-Herman
1910's: Dempsey-Willard
1920's: Tunney-Dempsey I
1930's: Schmeling-Louis I
1940's Cerdan-Zale maybe?
1950's: Robinson-Gavilan
1960's: Pastrano-Johnson
1970's: Ali-Foreman
1980's: Lots of good candidates here. I'll go with Duran-Leonard I
1990's: Toney-Barkley
2000's: Hopkins-Pavlik
2010's: Not sure. Maybe Mayweather-Alvarez

 

Does one piece of tape prove that? What if the only tape you had was of Buster Douglas beating Tyson? That's neither representative of Douglas nor Tyson. It's a career best performance for Douglas, and then you go to his record and see all the guys who beat him, and you go "He wasn't even that good! How much better must everyone else be?"

I think that the limited amount of tape limits the amount of conclusions one can properly draw from said tape.

 

Mayweather-Gatti was unbelievable. People seem to forget that one. Gatti was even favoured! This was the last time Mayweather threw combinations, and boy did he let those hands go wonderfully - bunches of pin-point power punches in clusters to the body and head, at speed and timed just right.

 

Likewise, Barkley was favoured over Toney!

 

Ok, so that's the criteria. But then Duran-Leonard doesn't qualify either.

 

Good point. Kalambay-McCallum would be my choice, Duran-Moore is up there and so is Nunn-Tate and Watson-Benn, and to a lesser extent Chavez-Rosario, Sanchez-Gomez, Camacho-Ramirez, Curry-McCrory, and Starling-Honeyghan.