Best heavyweight eras

@bummy Davis I was in the crowd that night for Vitaly vs Johnson and was waiting for the rematch with Lewis I think it would of been HUGE. Not to be though. And I agree with your assessment all era's have peak and valleys.

The early 90s were great you had the phenom of the 80's Tyson, the hold over legends in Foreman and Holmes, the Young guns in Lewis, Bowe and Holyfield.

I also imagine the 30's were fun with the back drop of the war looming and so many European fighters portrayed to represent their countries ideals. Like Schmeling, Carnera, Uzcudon taking on Louis and the other top heavies of the U.S. Probably made all the fights seem bigger than life and in the case of Louis Schmeling 2 it was.

 

I agree .. not sure what constitutes an era but 86 - 96 with prime Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis right there had three all time top ten guys and a fourth that when in shape was in there as well .. the 70's were next for me ..

 

For #3 you could make a prety good case for:

The early 1890s

The black dynamite era (mid 1900s).

These were eras where a lot of talent was around.

 

I just don't see the era that beats a top ten that included Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers, and Young.

 

Good shout this one - there was a ton of good scrapers around this period aswell endless amazing match ups: aswell as the above you had

Young Peter Jackson
Jack Blackburn
Jeff Clark
Harry Wills
Battling Jim Johnson
John Lester Johnson
George Godfrey
Sandy Ferguson
Jim Barry
Porky Dan Flynn
Jim Flynn
Gunboat Smith
Frank Moran
Jess Willard
Pelkey
McCarty
Moran
Levinsky
Carp
Dillon

All the guys in the mix at some stage of development and all registering good results over the period against one or the other on the list

 

I agree with you there. The problem is many boxing critics always claim boxing 'currently' is the weakest ever. If you dig out articles from the 80s, 90s, 2000s and read between the lines the message is always the same.

 

The blue guys did nothing at heavy, the purple guys were from 1915, 1920, the red fighters weren't very good, the yellow fellas did there best work at middle and L/Heavy and whats left is pretty slim pickings.

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Battling Jim Johnson

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Sandy Ferguson

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Dillon personaly.

He was legitimately viewed as the logical challenger for Willard at one point.

 

1- Late 1960s - Early-to-mid 1970s
2- Late 1980s - Mid 1990s
3- Bum of the Month Club
4- 1946-1956
5- 1956-1962
6- Mid 70s - Mid 80s
7- 2000 - 2010s