Greatest decade in boxing?

As far as being a fan, probably the last decade was the best - 2010s.

I watched boxing in the second half of the 70s, all of the 80s, all of the 90s, all of the 00s, 10s and so far in the 20s.

You can tell the people who weren't actual fans during some of those decades by their answers.

Someone listed Salvador Sanchez as one reason why the 80s were great. Sanchez won the title in 1980 and was dead by 1982. When I think of the 80s, I don't think of Salvador Sanchez. I just think of the fighter. He was dead practically before the decade began. His entire run as a name fighter lasted about as long as the current pandemic.

Same with Leonard. Leonard quit in 1982 and didn't return (really) until 87 against Hagler. He was a big star the first couple years of the decade and the last couple. But he was basically a no-show throughout.

If you didn't have HBO, you really never saw Hagler fight much after he became champ. I had an aunt who had HBO. I'd go to her house sometimes. But I missed many of his live defenses.

Saad Muhammad lost his title in 1981 and was basically finished. I don't consider him an "80s fighter."

Other than Cooney, most people complained about who Holmes defended against from the Berbick fight on. Tyson didn't appear until the end of the decade. He was great. But it was at the end of the decade.

Same with all the people talking about all the boxing on TV. There is more boxing on TV NOW than there ever was in the 1980s. And hell, half the time they'd show a fight on CBS or ABC in the U.S. on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and show a fight on another channel at the exact same time. No undercards. Usually just two main events on two different channels at the exact same time. And you had to flip back and forth trying to figure out which fight might be better than the one you were watching. Once HBO started staking it's claim around 1982, the number of quality title fights on network TV plummeted.

So this "free" tv era is more looking back with rose-colored glasses. I think Ed "Too Tall" Jones fought on free network TV in the 1980s more than guys like Sugar Ray Leonard did.

You also needed to pay for cable to see ESPN or USA's cards. They were fun. But the vast majority were low level fights. The title bouts those networks showed were a rarity. The Michael Hunter-Jerry Forrest $4 card on Fite TV a few months ago was basically your typical ESPN or USA show.

Most people didn't have VHS recorders until the very end of the decade, so there was no taping what you were missing. And people who had BETA recorders in the early decade had to pay $25 for one TAPE. And it lasted two hours. And most people just recorded over them. Because you couldn't buy one or two $25 Beta tapes every week to record a fight and "save them indefinitely."

By the late 80s, if you didn't STAY HOME to watch fights, and you bought a VCR, and you put a tape in it ... and you went out ... you PRAYED when you got home the VCR had worked or the tape hadn't run out before the broadcast ended. Because, if your newspaper didn't print all the fight results, you didn't know who won until ESPN had their Ringside Report the next week.

Hell, I MISSED Douglas knocking out Tyson because I went out that night. The tape didn't work. And I didn't find out Douglas won until the next morning when I went to buy a newspaper.

People looked forward to reading boxing magazines because there were no forums. If you didn't have boxing fans around you, you read magazines or wrote letters (and actual letter in an envelope) to the magazines and they MIGHT print it and someone MIGHT respond four or six months later.

Alex Ramos was a rising young star in the early 80s with a TV deal. I didn't even know he'd lost in a major upset to Teddy Sanders until a read a year-end issue in one magazine.

And, as far as recording fights or sharing fights in the 80s, forget it. Boxing magazines sold reel to reel films of the same seven or eight fights. I believe Kurt Noltimer was around then because he had a Beta recorder. But he just recorded fights from the opening bell to end of the fight, no intros or anything, because he was trying to save space on his $25 tapes.

There are thousands of people on this forum. People don't know how lucky they are to have sites like this.

On top of that, we can WATCH EVERYTHING now. Don't kid yourself about the 80s. Most of the big fights were on closed circuit. You had to go to a convention center or a theater and pay $10 or more for each ticket and the telecast may not even work. I went to see Ali-Holmes with my dad in a large convention center. They could get the picture in black and white WITH sound or color with no sound. So they opted for black and white and sound. But people went to some screening where the picture never came in. Or they'd lose signal.

Most big fights would finally air on regular TV, but they were often weeks, and sometimes months later. Ali-Holmes was Oct. 2. I'm pretty sure ABC didn't show the fight until Halloween night when O'Grady fought Watt.

Today, you can watch practically any fight from anywhere in the world in your home ... and if you don't want to buy it, you can find an illegal stream. And there seem to be more boxers from more parts of the world than there ever were. It's truly a global sport now.

In the 2010s, there was a lot of boxing on free TV (thanks to the PBC in the US), online message boards, Youtube, free streams. Hell, boxers can even post videos directly to fans on YouTube and fans can respond directly to them in minutes.

I remember ordering the 1994 PPV that was supposed to feature Mercer-Bruno and Morrison-Hide, and when we sat down to watch it, there was a sign on the screen saying the fight had been cancelled. There was no social media. Nobody knew the fight was cancelled until we tried to watch it.

In the 90s, I traded VHS tapes every week with a guy from the UK because he had an PAL to NTSC converter. I sent him any fights that aired in the US. He sent me any fights that aired in the UK. Otherwise, he never saw most of the US fights and I never really saw ANY of the UK fights.

The fact that today, someone on a message board from the UK can put out a call to everyone to join an live chat and watch a live stream of an entire free boxing card stream on Youtube from Russia ... and tons of people all over the world can watch the stream and talk about it live ... and we can all argue and agree and discuss it as it occurs ... and nobody needs to write a letter ... or record tapes and go to the post office ... and wait 10 days for something to arrive ... and wait another two weeks for someone to respond with a letter ...

Is INCREDIBLE compared to even what it was like in the 90s.

That was pretty much a ramble, but you get the point.

You're living in the best boxing era for fans. You truly are. Enjoy it.

 

Absolutely nailed it!

Imagine if we had been born 100 years earlier, and were boxing fans during the 1920s!

Imagine how terrible that would have been... able to attend only the fights that took place in your part of the world, and nothing else. If you weren't located in the US (where nearly all the big fights were held back then)... too bad, you would never be able to watch anything! No internet, no YouTube, no place like this, where you could exchange views/opinions with other hardcore fans. What an awful time that must have been!

Unlike today, where just about every big fight around the world is just a few clicks away, as they take place (or at least the next day on YouTube) - plus being able to watch film of many of the biggest fights that have taken place over the past 120 years or so.

I count myself lucky to be around today!