Most Significant HW Title Fight in Each Decade (1890s-2010s)

Now I'm also thinking, what about the 1880s?

I agree with the 1890s, to 1910s picks
For the 1920s, I think a strong candiate is Dempsey Vs Carpentier. First $1,000,000 gate, a big international fight.
I'm not sure about the 1930s. I think the most significant heavyweight fight was probably Baer Vs Schmeling, but obviously it wasn't for the title. I think maybe Baer Vs Braddock, just for the cinderella man story.
I think Ezzard Charles VS Jersey Joe Walcott I is a could candidate for the 1940s. At that point there's only been two black champions, and 5 black fighters who'd gotten title shots (Jack Johnson, Battling Jim Johnson, Joe Louis, John Henry Louis, and Jersey Joe Walcott), now two black men were fighting for the vacant heavyweight championship!

 

For the 1950s, I'd probably pick Jersey Joe Walcott Vs Rocky Marciano I, just pure bias since I love that fight
1960s Muhammad Ali Vs Sonny Liston
1970s Joe Frazier Vs Muhammad Ali I
1980s I'll get back to you on this on
1990s Mike Tyson V Evander Holyfield
I agree with the 2000s and 2010s picks

Edit: For the 1980s, I think I'll agree with Cross and go for Holmes Vs Spinks.

 

Why not Louis vs Schmeling II?

 

I don't see the case for Baer vs Braddock being more important than Louis vs Schmeling 2.

 

Part of that Dempsey/Tunney film looks like it was AI restored. I haven't seen film of that fight at normal speed before.

In terms of fights that foreshadowed what was to come, Dempsey/Willard wouldn't be a bad pick (Dempsey was the first heavyweight who seemed to operate on somewhat modern principles).

But for the 80s, I would say it's unquestionably Holmes/Spinks 1. You've got the same "undefeated guys going at it" thing from Frazier/Ali and Spinks/Tyson, the historic dimension that it was the first time in a long while (since Tunney?) that a lightheavyweight champ won the title, and it's also an object lesson in how difficult Marciano's 49-0 really was. But more than all that, it was the proof of concept for modern sports medicine / strength and conditioning methods (including possibly "nutrition.") Spinks/Holmes 1 was the beginning of the eclipse of the older tradition of training that had evolved over almost 200 years. Tyson/Spinks, while spectacular and significant in lineal terms, doesn't measure up to that, IMO.

 

I'm just not feeling that pick honestly, I find it hard to explain why.

I think Louis Schmeling I and Schmeling Baer kind of cast a shadow over it for me

 

What about Louis/Braddock? Kept the title out of Germany, inaugurated Louis's reign, decisively enthroned a man who epitomized the modern style of boxing when everybody else still looked kind of weird...a lot to like, there.

 

As to the 90s, Foreman/Moorer may be my pick for that decade. For the reasons Rummy discussed. It inaugurated the modern trend that heavyweight boxing isn't really just a young man's game anymore.

It also encouraged a slew of comebacks, with varying degrees of success and/or delusion, from older fighters that continues to this day.

 

I very nearly went with that one. Especially as it finally shattered the color line. But while Braddock put up one of his best performances and went out on his sheild, I think it was obvious before hand that Louis was much better, and the fight was almost a formality.

Plus given the great depression, I think the Braddock fight means a lot for that decade too. At heart I'm just a hopeless romantic.

 

1890s: Bob Fitzsimmons vs James Corbett
1900s: Jack Johnson vs Tommy Burns
1910s: Jack Johnson vs James Jeffries
1920s: Gene Tunney vs Jack Dempsey 2
1930s: Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling 2
1940s: Joe Louis vs Jersey Joe Walcott 2
1950s: Rocky Marciano vs Archie Moore
1960s: Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston 1
1970s: Joe Frazier vs Muhammad Ali 1
1980s: Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney*
1990s: Buster Douglas vs Mike Tyson
2000s: Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko
2010s: Tyson Fury vs Wladimir Klitschko*

*not sure on these.

 

1890s: Fitzsimmons vs Corbett
1900s: Johnson vs Burns
1910s: Johnson vs Jeffries
1920s: Dempsey vs Carpentier (?)
1930s: Louis vs Schmeling II
1940s: Louis vs Conn I (?)
1950s: Marciano vs Walcott I
1960s: Ali vs Liston I
1970s: Frazier vs Ali I
1980s: Tyson vs Spinks
1990s: Holyfield vs Tyson I
2000s: Klitschko vs Chagaev (?)
2010s: Fury vs Wilder I

 

You did good Rummy, really you did.

Now onto the Jack Dempsey video you swore you'd dedicate to me.

 

It's not quite the Spartans sport anymore it was once a lifetimes dedication in the same manner as ballet or gymnastics was with few exceptions. Floyd Mayweather has made the disparity of ethic clear to me.

 

Oh wow...apparently I've never correctly pronounced "Jim Corbett" all these years!

I always thought it rhymed with "corvette". So cor-BETT, with heavier emphasis on the latter syllable with the vowel being short.

Rummy says it "KOR-bit", with emphasis on the first syllable, and that "e" more of a scwha.

I have found just one* pronunciation guide video supporting the version that I'd long assumed it was, but several indicating that Rummy's is correct.

*

This content is protected