From The Ring magazine, March 1990 (on sale from January 9 1990, so there's no hindsight whatsoever), where they ranked different nominations of the 1980's. Star of the '90s Riddick Bowe (h) Nate Miller (c) Andrew Maynard (lh) Frank Tate (sm) Roy Jones (m) Chris Pyatt (jm) Charles Murray (w) Meldrick Taylor (jw) Fabian Tejeda (l) Ricardo Cepeda (jl) Richard Duran (f) Jesus Salud (jf) Raul Perez (b) Nana Konadu (jb) Michael Carbajal (fl) Humberto Gonzalez (jfl) Of these predictions they were correct only about Roy Jones (who only had fought 4 times as a pro at that point, but it was already obvious to anyone just how talented he was), and rather questionably Humberto Gonzales (who probably only got praised because of his win over Chang), all other predictions were wrong (I don't think Carbajal had stellar status or anything like that).
It shows that hindsight is a beautiful thing. All them picks were pretty much playing the percentages: Remember it is December 1989: At Heavyweight Bowe is the obvious pick, he was higher profile and a level above Lennox at the time; Mercer was too old and the likes of Seldon and Morrison seemed to be lacking even then. Khan just looked awesome At Cruiserweight maybe Al Cole, but he was a first year pro. At Light Heavyweight it was either Maynard or Hembrick Super Middleweight was a ******* division playing out the remains of the fab four. Tate was as good as it got at the time. Jones was a no brainer. Pyatt was a naive pick even without hindsight, I would of gone with Kenny Gould. Murray seemed a safe bet at the time; ditto Taylor; indeed looking further down they were all good picks and I would not of disagreed with any of them... maybe Hinton at 122lbs and Hodkinson at 126lbs
Riddick Bowe was also a star, sure he did not take over the divsion like Tyson did. But he was a major star in the early 90's with Holyfiled.
In 89 Holyfield just seemed like he was not going to be good enough to make it to the very top of the division. If he was having wars with Dokes and Stewart; it seemed (wrongly) Tyson would be a whole level above him.
Well thats were styles plays in though. Tyson was a puncher, he could blow the likes of Dokes ete out in a few rounds. Holyfiled didnt have the power of Tyson. So of couse Dokes and Stewart are going to give Holyfiled a harder time, than they would Tyson. Ali perhaps had a harder time with George Chuvalo than either Joe Fraizer or George Foreman did.
Yes, but that is using hindsight; I believe now Holyfield would of won had they met in June 1990 and/or November 1991 like they were meant to. But at the time if either match had happened (Tyson beats Douglas in Tokyo, then fights Holyfield; or Tyson never bumps into a Ms Washington), then at the time I would of thought Tyson was going to win rather easily. By 1996 I had figured Tyson out, to the point of making a nice bit of money when Billy Hill was giving away 24/1 on Holyfield winning.
Riddick Bowe wasn't a bad call. Neither was Meldrick Taylor, he did shine brightly for a little while. Carbajal use to get a lot of ppv fights. When big time fights were 29.95 in advance, and 34.95 the day of; Carbajal fights were like $20.
