Which decade contained the best elite fighters?

Disregard my last post, then. Forgot where I was.

 

The poll should have allowed a multiple vote option. The 70's and 80's was a helluva time to be a boxing fan!

 

I cant see how it isnt the 80's..that was magic, they had the best boxers in that era...however not THE best boxer

 

Yup. One of those. I went with the 40's.

 

Jesus... 40's or 80's

Man that's hard...

 

70's. Here's a long, unnecessary post as to why...

Heavyweight - Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Norton, Young, Quarry, etc, with Patterson still around in the early part of the decade, and Holmes in the latter part.

Lightheavyweight - Foster has a dominant reign before leading into the great era of Conteh, Galindez, Saad Muhammad, Johnson, Lopez, etc.

Middleweight - Monzon rides out the greatest reign in the division's history until retiring in '76. Hagler is on the rise as a contender while very good fighters in Valdez, Corro, Antefeurmo, and Minter exchange the title until Marvin gets ahold of it.

Welterweight - ATG Jose Napoles is champ for the early part of the decade, before relinquishing the title to John H. Stracy, who comes undone against the excellent Carlos Palomino, who then loses his belt to ATG Wilfred Benitez. SRL takes command at the end of the decade.

Jr. Welterweight - The great Niccolino Locche is champ at the beginning of the decade, and ATG Antonio Cervantes reigns for the rest of the decade, briefly giving up his title to 17 year old Benitez, who would then move up to capture Welterweight gold.

Lightweight - Buchanan & Laguna lead the pack in the first few years. Buchanan then loses the belt to Roberto Duran, arguably the greatest Lightweight of all time, and a likely top 10 ATG. Duran resides over an outstanding division, with the great Esteban DeJesus in the mix, and excellent contenders such as Suzuki, Viruet, Lampkin, Thompson, etc, before stepping up to Welterweight at the end of the decade.

Jr. Lightweight - Alexis Arguello, the greatest fighter the division's ever known, is the man here. Excellent fighters like Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tyrone Everett, Alfredo Esculera, and Sammy Serrano are champions throughout the decade as well.

Featherweight - Jofre, Saldivar, and Legra are still around at the very beginning of the decade. The great and underrated Ernesto Marcel is champion in the 70's, defeating ATG Arguello before retiring. Olivares and then Arguello reign before Danny Lopez picks up the title. The great Eusebio Pedroza starts his long reign as well.

Jr Featherweight - Wilfredo Gomez is here. 'Nuff said.

Bantamweight - ATG Ruben Olivares battles with outstanding fighters like Chucho Castillo, Rafael Herrera, and Alan Rudkin, before moving up to Featherweight. Excellent fighters like Rodolfo Martinez and Alfonso Zamorra are prominent here until ATG Carlos Zarate shows up. The great Lupe Pintor also comes in towards the end of the decade.

Flyweight - ATG Miguel Canto reigns in this decade, with outstanding fighters like Masao Ohba, Yoko Gushiken, Betulio Gonzales, Shoji Oguma, and Chan-Hee Park in the mix throughout.

The decade features, imo, the greatest Heavyweight, Middleweight, and Lightweight of all time, and a ridiculous amount of other ATG's and borderline greats.

 

Toss-up. If forced to pick, I'd probably take Floyd more often than not. He's the kind of fighter who would give Arguello a lot of problems. Regardless, Arguello beat considerably better competition at the weight, and as such, is the greater fighter.

 

:smoke

 

You left a ****load of names off the 2000's. MAB, EM, JMM, Mosely, Hopkins, the K brothers. It was a good decade, maybe the best ever for featherweights.

 

The 80's also because of Tyson....no decade was bigger than that