Rank the decades starting at 1960

For any particular weight classes or in general ?

 

Ok then well here’s a rough idea:

1. 70’s
2. 90’s
3. 80’s
4. 60’s
5. 40’s
6. 50’s
7. 30’s
8. 20’s
9. 2000’s
10. 2010’s
11. 1900’s

 

1. 1970s
2. 1990s
3. 2020s (can still go up)
4. 1980s
5. 1960s
6. 2010s
7. 2000s

 

Is the 2020s a strong heavyweight era?

Absolutely.

Four years in we have had:

Fury Wilder II
Fury Wilder III
Joshua Usyk I
Usyk Joshua II
Fury Usyk I, and presumably II

Plenty of interesting fights below title level to boot.

 

I see it exactly the same. I think the 2020's have some very special guys especially Usyk. The 90's were definitely special but nothing will ever come close to how great the 70's heavyweights were. So many special fighters with contrasting styles. 2010's were boring but the Klitschko's were pretty dominant dudes.

 

1. 70's
2. 90's
3. 2020's
4. 1960's
5. 1980's
6. 2010's
7. 2000's

 

I don`t think Fury v Wilder 2 was a good fight, it was completely one-sided and not much happened in Usyk v AJ 2 either, it was a pretty comfortable win for Usyk aside from round nine, in most rounds there was only a decent amount of action, but it was fairly one-paced throughout the fight. The main thing than made Usyk v AJ 1 exciting was the crowd, it was a miss-match.

 

After Lennox Lewis retired, we went more than a decade without seeing the two best heavyweights in the world fight.

I often bring this up in defense of Rocky Marciano, because he sometime fought the #1 challenger twice in the same year.

In the 2020s, the best men are fighting each other.

You are seeing the quality fights.

 

The 90s were pretty hot, starting with Douglas' KO over Tyson, then Holyfield, guys like Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer, Razor Ruddock, George Foreman, Tyson's two fights against Holyfield, decade ends with Holyfields two fights against Lennox Lewis.

70's also exciting, right to the end of the decade, with Holmes win over Norton ( very exciting) and then Holmes - SHavers II LOL

looking backm 80's do not impress. Tyson fought mostly stiffs. Too bad IBF Champion Tony Tucker was injured in the fight against Tyson. I was very impressed with him. Here's a youtube video of Tucker's most impressive knockouts. I think he was 34-0 when he went against Tyson.

5 Tony Tucker Greatest Knockouts - YouTube

I stopped watching in the 20th.

 

1990s
Second golden age. Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson and Bowe were joined by literally dozens of competitive guys like Mercer, Morrison, Moorer, McCall, Holmes, Foreman, Douglas, and on and on to make what I think was actually the greatest era. Top because there is even more depth than the 70s.

1970s
One of the two Golden eras. Great fighters like Ali, Frazier, and Foreman fought each other while good one like Norton, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers, Leon Spinks and Jimmy Young got in the mix.

2020s
Because of good fighters and partially because of Saudi money, we have seen the first undisputed champ crowned in 20 years after a little mini-tournament that involved great fights like Wilder-Fury 2, Wilder-Fury 3, Usyk-Joshua 1, Usyk-Joshua 2, and Usyk-Fury. What is really great, here, is that because of the Saudi suger, we have guys on deck. Parker, Kabeyel, Zhang, Bakole and Dubois have all been given the opportunity to further their own careers, and have made good. Other fighters are on the way. The cherry on top is, that just like in the 90's, there are literally about 2 dozen good guys underneath the A-team, wanting to get back in.

1960's
Won't find many epic fights at the top end, here. Patterson is squashed by Sonny Liston twice in one round each. Liston, who many thought will be a long-reigning guy, loses two controversially to Ali, who steamrolled competition until his title was taken away from him by the government. Ends with Frazier winning and defending the NYSAC version of the title, while the WBA has a tournament which is won by Frazier in the 1970s. Good fights UNDERNEATH, though, with Liston unofficially bossing a talented division.

1980's
Good potential went nowhere in a poor era. The first half was Larry Holmes squashing bums and old-timers while potential challengers had a moment and flamed out due to obesity and drug-abuse. Then, Holmes started openly ducking fighters, lost to a LHW, and was replaced by Tyson, who steamrolled the division in thrilling, but non-competative fights. The era has good guys in it, but it never jelled.

2010's
Strange and uneven era. Started with Wlad's continuing his problematic era, visibly declining, and his brother exited, adding some clarity, but this is when Wilder held a belt hostage by defending against guys who simply were not qualified to be title contenders.

Wladdy was beaten by Fury...who promptly disappeared from fear of UKAD.

Joshua came in, finally adding some stability with wins over WladKlit, Povetkin, and Parker, but could not get Deontay in the ring, and inexplicably lost to Ruiz.

Then Fury came back and drew with Wilder in a fight that everyone thought he won.

Some good stuff in this era, but very uneven and unsatisfying.


2000's
This was a awful era. Vitaly Kltichko failed to take the torch from Lennox, and that was a disaster, as the titles remained fragmented without even a lineal guy. Though he was eventually recognized as champ, so were Byrd, Brewster, Ruiz, Peter, Maskaev and a host of others. The WBO suddenly became recognized, meaning there were more titles as promotors scraped the barrel to find guys like Golota and Rahmen to come back as challengers. Even Middleweight James Toney was almost a champ. The immediate post-Lennox years were the the worst I've ever seen...the hangover after the party.

Things were somewhat stabilized by Wladimir Klitschko unifying some belts and having a good 17-defense run, but the problems were multiple. As a a champ, few could forget Wlad's multiple early stoppage losses. His competition was thin, with his best opponents--Povetkin, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Haye--were significantly smaller guys who made for bad optics. The fights often stunk. Worse still, Wlad and his brother divided the division and further diluted the competition.

 

You have it almost exactly except that I sacrilegiously think the 90s is a hair better than the 70s.

 

70's
90's
80's
60's
2000's

the End!

 

To some level, however AJ v Usyk was not the two best heavyweights in the world fighting, that was the billing used to describe Fury v Usyk though and I am looking forward to there rematch.