The 80s are the most criminally underrated era in HW history

I agree! don,t forget Young Holyfield and Ruddock , Foreman ( 19-0 in the 80,s !! 18 ko,s )

 

Very talented. Unfortunately the drug epidemic of the 80's derailed many careers, Dokes, C ooney, Tucker, Thomas all never achieved as much as they could have same goes for Tyson.
Many elite athletes today live a far cleaner life style. Which allows more consistency and longevity.

 

Jesse Furguson was very good in the 80's.

Wasn't even in the top tier back then but still better than guys like Maskaev , Valeuv , Peter , Haye and they were all major title holders in this era.

 

It was a great era that unfortunately due to corrupt politics combined with two very dominant champions ( Holmes and Tyson ) prevented other talents from reaching true greatness. Tim Witherspoon, Trevor Berbick and Mike Weaver in particular were solid heavyweights who each had several big wins. The physicality of the men from that era were more ideal in my mind as well.. Most of them ranged from 6'1" to 6'5" and weighed anywhere from 205-225. Hence they weren't the cruiser weight sized heavys of old and nor were they the gigantic slower moving super heavys of later. There were some who had conditioning issues and substance abuse problems, but frankly you have some of that in every era.

 

Spoon n bone crusher could and would give any HW in history all they could handle. Spoon in particular when in good shape and right mentaly was a very dangerous would destroy most heavy weights around today watch some of his stuff on utube chilling!.

 

"Criminally Underrated" is a strong term.
What crime is committed by underrating these people?

 

When well trained and motivated ( not always the case ) Tim Witherspoon had both the style and physical attributes to beat certain lineal champions we can think of for sure. He'd be a force in any era.

 

well I don't think he meant it verbatim as in "criminal"

one of those "figures of speech" I think :rasta

there was a fair glut of decent talent at heavy in the 80's imo.

 

Its called an expression.. Definition provided below.

Expression - a word or phrase, especially an idiomatic one, used to convey an idea.

 

yes so true!!

that right was so sneaky it was deadly. He could release it from very close and generate such force on it. Some guys were hit barely seeing what hit them.

 

I wonder what would've happened if Haymon ran things instead of King. A lot of guys who "blew it because of drugs" were actually getting screwed over by King in terms of securing fights and getting paid reasonably.

 

he nicknamed that overhand right " The can opener. " The knockout he scored over Anders Ecklund was so chilling it was almost disgusting. Ecklund was no world beater but he was probably a step above journeyman level and about the same size as Vitali Klitscko.