When did you start watching boxing and how does "your era" compare to the era today?

im from the UK 80s brigade , at least at that time the best still faced the best and we got great fights at all the weights unlike it is now with everyone dodging each other and running scared of facing someone that could cause a loss on your record . sadly we will never get those days back , in fact it will get far worse , the business side of boxing has taken over and its the fans that will suffer .

luckily for us in UK we have huge domestic fights that are far better than any world title fights you see nowadays where it is usually champ v bum once a year (twice if your lucky)that you have to buy on PPV .

so as a boxing fan i would say "no" boxing does not look bright .

 

First fight I can recall was Duran/Leonard I. I was too young to really gauge the era or even the one that followed but I am just fine with the current one. This current era is more global and far more fighters from more diverse backgrounds and cultures can participate and have drastically impacted the sport, regardless of what many status quo partisan posters will claim.

 

:thumbsup

The 80s was a truly golden age (God that really does confirm that I am an old fart) and not just the fantastic British scene. It was the time of Leonard, Hearns, Duran and Hagler, Holmes then Tyson at HW , Holyfield at CW, Spinks at LHW, JCC, Mike Mccallum, Aaron Prior, Azuma Nelson, Jeff Fenech, Sanchez, Pedroza...I could go on and on and I know ive missed plenty of other greats.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if we'll ever see such a great decade. Don't get the wrong , the 90s had some superstars, but those guys from the 80s were Awe inspiring.

I was in my early teens and used to devour every article from The Ring, KO and every other publication I could get my hands on.

 

I started watching recently, 2008-2009 or so.

 

In the 90's

 

I have been watching since I was about 9 or 10 (over 30 yrs) and I always just loved the sport at first. I never had a few guys that I always rooted for as I just enjoy the fights.

As I got into my teenage years that started to change as you got more interviews on TV. I loved Hagler, Vinny Paz, Big George, Chaves Sr and even Sugar Ray before he stole that fight from Hagler:twisted:

:bbb

smoke

 

Lucas Matthysse vs John Molina Jr. (light welterweight) 2014
Orlando Salido vs Terdsak Kokietgym (super featherweight) 2014
Monty Meza Clay vs Alan Herrera (lightweight) 2014
Tim Bradley vs Ruslan Provodnikov (welterweight) 2013
Marquez vs Pacquiao IV (welterweight) 2012
Brandon Rios vs Mike Alvarado(junior welterweight) 2012
Robert Guerrero vs Andre Berto (welterweight) 2012
Roman Gonzalez vs Juan Francisco Estrada (Light Flyweight) 2012
Pawel Wolak vs Delvin Rodriguez (junior middleweight) 2011
Victor Ortiz vs Andre Berto (welterweight) 2011
Marcos Maidana vs Erik Morales (light welterweight) 2011
Ivan Calderon vs Giovani Segura I (straw weight) 2010
Paul Williams vs Sergio Martinez I (middleweight) 2009
Juan Manuel Marquez vs Juan Diaz I (lightweight) 2009
Bernard Dunne vs Ricardo Cordoba (super bantamweight) 2009
Israel Vazquez vs Rafael Marquez III (super bantamweight) 2008
Israel Vazquez vs Rafael Marquez II (super bantamweight) 2007
Corrales vs Castillo I (lightweight) 2005
Erik Morales vs Manny Pacquiao I (super featherweight) 2005
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales III (super featherweight) 2004
Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez I (featherweight) 2004
Gatti vs Ward III (light welterweight) 2003
Gatti vs Ward I (light welterweight) 2002

That's when I started watching boxing, Gatti vs Ward I. In 35 years, I think people will have a ****ty high profile fight and look back to our time wishing they could have fights like those.

Thank you youtube and streaming video. This generation has probably seen more fights online than any before it saw live and on television. Imagine being a fan of this sport forty years ago when you either saw the fight live as it happened or you got to maybe read about it in the papers. Remember 2006's fight of the year Sithchatawal vs Monshipur? Nobody in America would have ever even heard about it before the advent of the internet. But now some obscure fight in France can be watched globally and become fight of the year. I just watched Fighting Harada vs Pone Kingpetch I, one hell of a fight, which I assume only Japanese people saw when it happened. Meanwhile, if you are a fan of Akira Yaegashi, Takashi Uchiyama, Naoya Inoue, or Kazuto Ioka it doesn't matter where you live because you can see their fights.

You can't talk about boxing one on one with the guy on the street, but you can talk about them with a community of likeminded enthusiasts here! This kind of forum didn't exist back in the day.

 

:thumbsup

An outstanding post that was a thoroughly enjoyable read!! Thanks OE.

 

Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko was the figh that made me love boxing, I was 11 back then. Still waiting to see that kind of HW action.

 

Started watching boxing with re-runs of Tyson (as did most kids from soviet union). Only really got into it after I watched Jirov nearly kill Joe Messi (I was rooting for Joe at the time but Jirov since then opened my eyes to his talent).
What really solidified my love for boxing was first putting on the gloves in 2001...been hooked since then.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Klitschko-Lewis thriller gave me the goosebumps the first time I saw it.

As for the future, its brighter than ever. We have Lomachenko, GGG, Kovalev, Povetkin, Joshua, Wilder, Brook, Rigo, Thurman, etc etc so many great names that are ready to rip the old timers to shreds and take their place at the top.