Was the 1980's the best decade for boxing?

40's:
SUGAR RAY ROBINSON
EZZARD CHARLES
WILLIE PEP
SANDY SADDLER
ARCHIE MOORE

80's:
SUGAR RAY LEONARD
MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER
TOMMY HEARNS
WILFREDO BENITEZ
LARRY HOLMES

Names off the top of my head. I have to give the edge to the 40's then to the 80's.

 

Canzoneri
McLarnin
Ross
Chocolate
Ambers
Armstrong
Louis
Lewis
Walker
Loughran
Schmeling
Zale

back-up:
Hostak
Apostoli
Thil
Overlin
Baer
Berg
Petrolle
Singer
Davis
Garcia

Just from the top of my head, guess I forgot a few.
Young Corbett III
Arizmendi

 

80's was probably not the best decade, but in a way, it was.You had superfights, fights on network tv where you could see up-and-coming fighters, and magazines less than $2, at least in the early part of the decade.Then the WBC put their crap in motion with the 12 round title limit, fights left network TV, and the IBF came into being, along with some other organizations, putting into spin a confusion from which boxing may never recover.

 

Not really, Schmeling and Tyson are very close actually. In terms of resume there isn´t much between them at all. Sorry.

 

No, I´m just not glorifying the decade I grew up in.

 

Well as far as list-making bodhi seems to have that covered. Here's how I see it for the 30's: the era was not, IMO, the end of boxing's technical development. However, it was very close, and it was insanely competetive. You have great fighters in that era that easily rank in top 10 in various weight classes and a couplethat rank top 10 in multiple divisions;. guys like Armstrong, Louis, Walker, Ross, Ambers, Canonzeri, Chocolate, McLarnin etc were genuinely great, they fought stiff competition and they fought often.... You have a serious contender for the GOAT and top 3 p4p in Armstrong, and in Louis you have the most fundamentally sound puncher of all time, and arguably the greatest heavy ever. The 30's is ripe with tons and tons of proven all time great fighters at a wide range of weights.

The 40's arguably has an even greater claim. You have an active, prime SRR, Charles, Willie Pep and Saddler, Burley, Marshall, Williams Zivic, LaMotta, Cerdan, , an active but faded Louis, Walcott, Gavilan, Angott... And they all had incredible fights, plenty of classic series like Zale-Graziano. Fighters from this period look very very modern and complete, and the level and frequency of competition is quite high. You see the business aspect of the fight game starting to mess things up a little bit more here, but overall you have a who's who of ATG's.

I guess my original post says 50's, must have skipped a key. Good decade too, but not on the same level as those two, IMO.

 

Agreed. If i could have nominated this period as a decade I would have.

 

30s,40s,60s,70s were better

 

Fixed

 

80s

Sugar Ray Leonard
Tommy Hearns
Marvin Hagler
Wilfred Benitez
Larry Holmes
Mike Tyson
Donald Curry
Evander Holyfield
Michael Spinks
Marlon Starling
Mark Breland

They had some pretty good fighters throughout the entire decade and the superfights were made.