Nowadays, everything is pay-per-view but I became a big boxing fan in the 70's and in retrospect, there were some awesome cards, all for free. I remember when Ali lost his title to Spinks. I think Danny Lopez was on the undercard and he did his usual slam-bam fight KO'ing somebody. For the Ali-Spinks rematch in New Orleans, I remember Victor Galindez losing his title to Mike Rossman. Can't remember the opening match. I also remember CBS did a card "Night Of The Champions" a 3 hour prime time card. I do remember Danny Lopez on this card also. The main event was Carlos Palomino against Everaldo Costa-Acevedo. Acevedo was a safety first fighter who skittered around the ring. Carlos never caught him and the fight was a borefest. ABC countered with "Night Of The Heavyweights" and guys like Ron Lyle, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes were all on this card. I think Norton fought Lorenzo Zanon here and Jimmy Young fought Jody Ballard I think. I think Holmes beat Young Sanford and Lyle beat Stan Ward. Decent bouts but nothing great. We all saw SRL win the welter crown against Benitez in 1980. The undercard here was Hagler-Antuofermo 1 and Galindez-Johnson. These were all good fights. I know I saw so many others but these came to mind. Anyone else remember the network fight cards?
I also remember NBC Sportsworld boxing shows on Saturday afternoons. You could watch up and coming fighters as well as tried and true veterans in some good fights. Imagine being able to see such fights like Holmes vs Norton, Ali vs Spinks, Hagler vs Antuofermo and Leonard vs Benitez without having to shell out 50 big ones on pay per view. That ruined boxing. But then again money is ruining other sports as well...at least for the average 9 to 5 joe who can no longer afford to take his family to ball game anymore or pay a bundle to watch a title fight. It's not the same anymore and that's a shame.
I don't recall the undercard, but I think Holmes - Truth Williams was one of the last of this kind in '85.
Many great afternoons and Friday nights recalled. Great announcers like Tim and Gil, Alex Wallau, Cosell, etc.. Three title fights on one card sometimes. And I saw those Tony Baltazar fights that were mentioned. I recall Gil Clancy raving about Tony's left hook.
