What was the hardest heavyweight era?

excellent at what? Smoking a pack of Chesterfields before "training"?

 

And how many of those men would you pick to beat Beterbiev?

 

Bundle them up into one fighter and you still don't have Usyk.

It kills me that no one appreciates the present.

 

I think Foreman, if he had come of age in the 90's would have been in the NFL. If he DID opt to Box, he would have been a Heavyweight Ray Robinson of sorts.

George was an amazing fighter. Ali and Frazier were, too. I think the management and career development was much better in the 90's though.

 

A lot of those guys are absolute rubbish. But the very best really are amazing.

 

I could see a 45 year old man with the advantages of modern 90s training winning the title in some stretches of the 1970s. It was an era where Leon Spinks took the crown.

Old George himself, for example, would probably beat late 70s Ali.

 

fair point, sir!

 

Excellent at actually fighting. I guess back then they didn't have social media so they didnt spend time spreading motivational messages like Wilder, Fury, they had to fight, the best fought each other and there was onc champ.

 

Funny, Fury can party, spread videos on social media that change peoples' lives and still have more skills than any of them.

 

Beterbieve is very stationary, he can only knock out the heavyweights who stand still and fight him, no one can be that ignorant to stand and fight another fighters fight. Beterbieve is a 175 lb fighter, I do not judge heavyweights by today's standards of weight and size, let's be honest, back then heavyweights did not use a certain thing called Steroids like today, no one can grow in size to those proportions without a chemically induced liquid. Size and blubbery weight do not impress me. Why do we have to compare heavyweights of the past against the fighters of today? We should enjoy the accomplishments of their era, not hypothetical fights against different era's fighters, not realistic.

 

Just this. 70s by UD.

 

Totally agree, the fighters of today need the help of a liquid in a bottle and a syringe. Yesterday's fighters did it the manly way, they trained without the use of artificial means that later destroys their bodies, vanity over common sense is very ignorant.

 

I agree about the 70s, but am surprised the 90s didn't get more votes.

 

It's either the 70's or 90's.

I think the 70's had the highest overall skill level. You had such a diverse set of fighters: sluggers, inside fighters, movers, boxer punchers, counter punchers, etc. Both the elites and B level guys were often always in shape, tough, and determined regardless of size. There was virtually no ducking and you had some of the most legendary trainers in HW history in this era (an overlooked fact). The only criticism for this era would be that there were some dodgy decisions (the vacant HW tournament, some of Norton and young fights, etc) that could have changed history had they gone the other way. The contenders became very weak towards the end with guys like Wepner and Spinks somehow getting title shots.

90's had less variety, a lot of guys tended to be big and heavy hitting, but defensive fighters and inside fighters were slowly becoming a dying breed. On the other hand, this era produced some of the best big men who could fight on the outside and improved the stamina and skill of big men in general. One of the worst cases of a big fight falling apart was the infamous Bowe vs Lewis incident. Like the 70's, it got pretty weak towards the end with undeserving contenders getting shots or undeserved decisions.


I'd lean slightly towards the 90's. I think the 70's had better mid level/B level contenders and journeymen skill wise, but the 90's had so many impressive elite fighters, Bowe, Holyfield, Tyson, Foreman, Moorer, Mercer, etc compared to the 70's that had arguably 3-4 truly elite A level fighters passing the belt back and forth feasting on the same contenders. In the 90's we had so many shocking upsets and crazy wars while in the 70's, the excitement died down for the most part after 74.



I think the 80's COULD have been just as good as these two decades, but the epidemic of drug abuse, ducking, and laziness ruined it. The talent level was as good as any era.

 

Most of them.Beterbiev is not quick ,gets caught square and is ploddingly predictable a fast man with a good jab slices and dices him.