The 80's - Were People as Critical...

I never thought that people were that critical of the '80s decade in boxing. There were some great fighters during that era, including Holmes, Tyson, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, etc.

If you are talking about how sportswriters characterized the heavyweights of Holmes's era, you need to realize that many of those journalists are lazy and/or incompetent. They have a tendency to write ridiculously negative things about boxers because they can't think of anything else to say. In other words, a lot of those journalists don't even know boxing.

 

Writers and the general boxing public were VERY appreciative of the dearth of talent we/they enjoyed in the 80's.

 

mainly I have always thought that the press, fight commentators and the fans themselves are almost always overly critical of the fighters who are fighting at the moment. You can hear it in the commentary of fights from the past 30 years, as it is easier to come across fights with live commentary on them.

It is kind of the cowards way out. Few people will say "this guy is a great fighter" because in the next moment, he can be lying on the canvas. So, while living in the moment, it is safer and it is easier to dog the current crop of fighters.

Larry Holmes is a prime example, and more recently, Lennox Lewis. I wasn't there to see Holmes fights take place live in front of me, but most everything I read, and seeing all of his fights in retrospect, its kind of like at every turn "is Larry going to do enough in this fight to earn respect" or "Is Holmes going to show that he is a great heavy?" Now it is almost a given that he goes into peoples top five.

I have seen Lewis though fight to fight before, during and after they happened, and remember that hardly nobody at the time was saying that Lewis was anything special (apart from his die hard fans).
In the past few years I have seen Lewis go from "best of a weak era" to top 20, top ten, and now many people putting him in the top five.

I wrote on this site a few years back "is Lennox Lewis a top ten heavy" and there were some people who kind of laughed at that. Now, it is very rare to see him out of the top ten.

I think a fighter is liked by his observing fans at the moment he is fighting, has to bear the brunt of being unfairly put down against the fighters who came in the thirty years before him, then after he is done fighting, his stock begins to rise. It continues to be high for the next 30-40 years and then it starts to slide back down.

There probably isn't a heavyweight out there right now who anyone will say "he is a top ten all time great heavy" but if a heavy would go on and dominate right now for a few years, they would probably earn a spot on peoples future top tens.

 

There was recognition that we were witnessing some really great moments with great fighters, but one thing that stands out is the memory of how much fun was made and how many disparaging remarks were made about the heavyweights, and their inability to hold a title. Coetzee, Page, Tubbs, Spoon, Thomas, etc. They were sort of taken to the verbal woodshed at the time.

 

I think people badmouth the 80's HW scene because the previous era was strong and famous.

 

I dunno.

Get some old magazines and read?

 

The 1980's gave us a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly.

We had many great champions in every division- Holmes, Hagler, Leonard, Duran, Chavez, Curry, Nunn, McCallum, and several others. Also, thanks to alphabetism we had great contenders who became champions like Berbick, Thomas, Tate, Weaver, Tubbs, Witherspooon and Page. Of course, we can use their championshiptism's to create any history we want, but the fact is they were pretty decent fighters, considering they were following the awsome aura of the 70's.

The 80's were a time of prosperity. A time of the " Me " generation. We can't really compare most other eras to it. Let's face it, the 80's weren't really a boxing decade, they were a celebrity era. Sure, the Tyson's, Holmes's, and Leonards would have sized up to many fighters of future and past eras, but thats not what it was all about. This was a decade of image............

 

I don't either.

Wish RING would archive their stuff online.

 

Of course, 80s Heavyweights sucked then, for some reason they get a really good press now, that is where the revisionist history is.

It was made even worse in that the Lost Generation were not without ability, and yet blew their talent on drugs and poor conditioning. Also with the Fab four around; so with the exception of the odd superfight (Holmes/Conney; Holmes/SpinksI and II and then Tyson's era) and the latest future Lost Generation fighter comming along, no one really took the heavies that seriously.

 

You have nailed it with the 80s hws.

Aside From Tyson and Holmes none of them had the discipline to perform with consistency.

In pure talent the 80s was the best era for HWS ever In dedication and desire to be great it was the worst era ever.