On another forum I have been arguing with people who feel the 90s were a great era for heavyweights while the 2000s were much worse. This argument has never made much sense to me because many of the guys around in the 90s were still near the top of the division in the 2000s. I think guys like Povetkin, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko and Chagaev would do pretty well in the 90s and of course you still had a prime Lennox Lewis.
We had to deal with Don King constantly trying to shove John Ruiz down the public's throat. Holyfield and Tyson getting old and losing to guys they have destroyed in their primes. Never getting a Lewis vs Klitschko 2. So yeah it was kind of bad.
2008-2010 had players in the division. The best match-ups didn't always come off though and the ones that did often were duds, largely due to Wlad's total domination mixed with octopus.
Exactly thats the damn point. That the old shot and beat up versions of 90s guys were still near the top. If an inferior version of a fighter still occupies the same position in the next era, then that era is obviously weaker. And for all the guys calling the 80s HWs crap, why were the top 80s guys still in the mix and sometimes even giving real trouble to 90s stars a decade later when they were shot old and deep into drug addiction? The 2000s and first half of 2010s were very weak for the HW division Around 1983-1999 was a great time for HW boxing give or take a few years. The HW division just didn't get alot of attention during Holmes reign because he was in Ali's shadow. But all the top contenders in that time were really really talented and skilled