Why have we not seen too many legendary light heavyweights for quite some time now?

If you can only become a legend, if you have a ****load of fights - then modern boxers don't have much of a chance!

If it's about how good you actually were in your prime - then we have obviously had many LHWs in the past couple of decades, who could compete with the best oldtimers: Calzaghe, Ward, RJJ, Kovalev, Bivol, Beterbiev, Hopkins.

 

It's rarely a division that appeals to the casual market. It's not as glamorous as welterweight, middleweight, or heavyweight, especially because it has "light" in the title. You have to be a very phenomenal boxer to stand out as a light heavyweight.

What helped old school champions in the past such as Bob Foster or Spinx is that they cleaned out their divisions and tried to fight everyone. That's pretty rare nowadays. Having half a dozen belts and multiple streaming services just makes the average fan more confused and less invested. If Beterbiev can unify with Bivol and it's promoted well, the winner can end up becoming a big star attraction.

 

If you're hoping for an analogue to the freakily awesome late 70s to early 80s era, at this point it looks extremely unlikely. In fact, half the time I try to watch the modern day light heavies I just end up searching youtube for anything Marvin Johnson, Saad Muhammad, or Spinks. It was such a great joy to watch back in the day. Sigh....sorry, I'm old.

 

I think Roy Jones was the last truly great light heavy. And there are some who didn’t consider him such . Since then you’ve had a few who were “ good” but not great

 

Artur isn’t even a LHW…

 

In a world with proper weigh ins and no bullocks weight classes he’d be in the mix with the HWs and not be much of anything I think.

 

The Maske//Michalcczewski era was the apex of the division.

 

Dariusz was a fairly decent fighter

 

The year 1978 had a top ten that looked something like this :
Franklin
Conteh
Galindez
Lopez
Scott
Johnson
Not too shoddy.
stay safe buddy.

 

Maske could take the lot of them in a fortnight.

 

Tee-Hee, keen sense of humor.

 

Throw in Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Mike Rossman (on a good night) and then Richie Kates plus Jesse Burnett along with a host of other at least very good fighters. And Qawi on the way.

That late 70s/early 80s division at 175 is the best IMO of any division at any point in time. Murderer’s row for real.

 

Seamus begs to differ ? or maybe he is pulling my leg....
stay safe buddy.

 

He walks around at 194 so he would be cruiserweight at best

 

I consider CW a bullocks weight class.