Prety good call. Most of the good fighters up to this point had hailed from Britain but a major crackdown on prizefighting in Britain forced many British figfhters like Goss to emigrate to the USA. Boxing in this period was withjering in Britain and still embryonic in America. You havd Paddy Ryan as world champion having beaten a faded Joe Goss. Ryan was not thought to be in the same class as a prime Joe Goss, who in turn had been prety much thought of as a second rater in his own prime.
I dont see any reason why this had to be a weak era. The talent was there and the depth was there. Politics messed it up.
The 1930's must stand out as the poorest era, regarding any visible footage. Prior to Louis claiming the H/W title, the exchanges of the title is measured by the ridiculous happenings. The fights inwhich the titles were exchanged, remain pathetic... not only for visual reasons, but contractual also. The last of the farcical encounters occurred when Loius belted the **** out of Braddock... alas.. the contract regarding Louis' future earnings epitiphies the era.
It didnt have to be that way though. It is possible to imagine an alternative timeline wherew the title changed hands either less frequently or less controvertialy. Lets say that Max Schmeling was awarded the decision against Jack Sharkey in their second fight as most American papers thought he should have been. Schmeling was the most consistent of the champions of that period both in terms of training habits and results in the ring. He would in all probability have defnded the title a few times before loosing it and would only have been seperated from it by one of the stronger fighters of the period. What if Braddock had simply never got his title shot? He was fortunate in some ways to navigate the tightrope to the title shot. Steve Hamas should probably have got a shot at Baer instead of taking the rematch against Schmeling that resulted in a career ending beating. Also Earnie Schaff would probably have fought for the title verry soon if he had not been killed in the ring. Carnera navigating his way towards a title shot and being sucessful in it is not a given under an alternative timeline. What if he had had his day in court against sombody more consistent than Sharkey?
Again I dot really see it. The 50s had great fighters and great fights. The 80s was a moras of potential. It could have been an awsome era. It is verry hard to find a genuine example of an era that was weak because the talent simply wasnt there.
I think a lot of talented athletes are moving away from boxing and focusing on MMA or other sports in the last few years. I would say 2005 to Current has been pretty weak with no Undisputed HeavyWeight Champ. That is why Economics plays a role in boxing -If you have big money you get big talent.
Sonny Liston, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, Harold Johnson, Archie Moore, Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Cleveland Williams, Nino Valdez, Bob Baker, Rex Layne, Roland Lastarza, Clarence Henry.....Your calling this Weak????
Its hard to say, there have been spells in every decade...usually if you have a dominant Champ everyone says his opposition is weak., Louis,Marciano,Ali,Tyson,Lewis...If the title changes hands a lot or guys split wins Sharkey/Schmeling Ali/Frazier Ali/Norton, Lewis/Rahman,Patterson/Johanson Bowe/Golota people marvel at the competition but sometimes it is a matter of styles...I have watched a lot of boxing and If we could take some of the guys from today and place them about in various decades they may surprise us and we may take some of the fighter from years a go and place them in the 70's and 80's 90's etc and they may surprise us.......weak spells and strong spells every decade has them
1978 through 1980 was a pretty weak period. Larry Holmes had no real competition, aside from Ken Norton and Earnie Shavers. A few other worthy names rounded out the top five, such as Gerrie Coetzee, Mike Weaver, and for a brief time, John Tate. During this period Ali was either semi-retired or retired, and he was not really a factor in the division anymore. If you check the ratings for 1978-80, you'll see that lots of "B" level fighters -- guys who were not bonafide contenders -- filled the slots of the worldwide top ten. I'm talking about boxers such as Alfredo Evaneglista, Ossie Ocassio, Scott LeDoux, Lorenzo Zanon, Leon Spinks, Leroy Jones, Bernardo Mercado, Kallie Knoetzee, Mike Koranicki, and others. The 1978-80 period was bad because the cream of the talented '70s crop had just retired, gotten too old, or simply drifted away from boxing. Not until 1981-82 did lots of tough names -- such as Berbick, Cooney, Page, Dokes, Weaver, Coetzee, Thomas, Witherspoon and others -- again fill all of the slots in the top ten ratings.
As for Carnera's day in court ,the jury's still out on that one ,as far as I'm concerned. Schaaf died in the hospital after regaining consciousness and briefly talking to his mother ,he relapsed into a coma and passed away.