Your Thoughts On The 1990s Heavyweight Era?

My favourite era of all time. Not the strangest one, but the most exciting IMO.

Unlike 70s, a lot of fights were missed - Lewis vs Bowe, Lewis vs Tyson, Bowe vs Tyson, Lewis vs prime Holyfield, Foreman vs Holmes (yes, it would have been a great fight in the first half of 90s), Moorer vs Mercer etc. Ibeabuchi went off the rails instead of challenging Holyfield or Lewis, Tyson was very inactive for long period of times and not in his prime anymore, Bowe burned himself too quick, guys like Bruce Seldon held the title etc, etc, etc. BUT! It was extremely exciting and unpredictable era, especially on the lower-tier echalon of fighters. There wasn't any other HW era that contained so many contenders/fringe contenders who were glass cannons. And it made fights between them very exciting and unpredictable. I enjoyed that era very, very much.

 

Tyson's upset loss against Douglas opened the division unexpectedly.
Combined with the rise of the 88's class and the resurgence of the old guard (Holmes and Foreman), the early part of the decade (1990-1993) was full of talent and delivered some of the most exciting fights ever. And it could have been better if Tyson rematched Douglas and fought Holyfield before prison, without counting the very promising but never fulfilled Bowe/Lewis rivalry.

However, I feel that after Holyfield won the rematch against Bowe, the division started to take a nosedive. Holyfield lost uninspiredly to Moorer who himself was knocked out by Foreman. After that, the titles were completely splintered among unconvincing champions, whereas Lewis suffered a dramatic loss to McCall and Bowe was frozen out of the title picture.
1995 saw dreadful world championship fights (McCall/Bruno, Seldon/Hipp) but ended with hope and a high note, thanks to the return of Tyson and the conclusion of the fantastic Bowe/Holyfield trilogy.

In 1996, the division started to regain credibility with Tyson and Moorer regaigning world titles and Holyfield putting one of his best performance ever in defeating the seemingly invincible " Iron Mike ".

Nevertheless, three world championship fiascos marred 1997, with the infamous " Bite Fight " being among one of biggest boxing disappointement.
Simultaneously, new contenders started to emerge (Tua, Ibeabuchi, Rahman, Grant) with various success, and the end of the decade established Lewis as the new undisputed king.

So it was a great decade full of upsets (better early on than after IMO) but could have been better if some fights materialised.

 

Thank you

 

When it came to just raw talent it might well have been the best era ever. What hurt the decade however was the following:

1. You had three of the biggest upsets in history
2. You had two 40+ former champs on the comeback trail. Both breached the ratings and one even captured the title.
3. You had two men who came from lower weight classes. Both captured lineage and one even became the decades best fighter.
4. You had one of the divisions best participants absent for half the decade ( Mike Tyson. )
5. You had a handful of important fights that never got made.
6. You had guys like Bruce seldon, Oliver Mcall Frank Bruno and a few others holding titles.

 

Good post,Fergy as always.

Probably my second favourite heavyweight era of my lifetime - 1970s being my number one fave,of course. Some fine fighters: A couple of all time greats in Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. A near great in Riddick Bowe. A post-prime but still dangerous Mike Tyson and some fine fights. Shame that some match ups did n't come about.

 

It's the best era of Heavyweight Boxing I've ever seen. Maybe the best era for Boxing PERIOD!

 

It was certainly loaded with special fighters. It was a fun time to be a boxing fan with HBO,Showtime and ESPN Friday night fights.

 

The best decade ever for the division. I will die on this hill.

 

90'S HEAVYWEIGHT ERA
RATING: A+
You have the fall of Iron Mike and his attempted return, the one-hit-wonder Douglas shocking the universe, smaller names like Seldon and Bruno swooping in like vultures trying to keep relevant, the rise of Real Deal Holyfield but later along the line his decline caused by Bowe and Moorer usurping the titles and Lennox Lewis slowly making his way through the division's top contenders, the Dirty Pole's antics, Kid Dynamite's Bite Fight, the Fan Man, and don't forget, Uncle Foreman and Uncle Holmes climbing the ladders, the most successful out of the two being the former. Future contenders like David Tua, Chris Byrd and Hasim Rahman were bred in this landscape, and the bogeyman Ike Ibeabuchi tried to make his name known across the world, but a "divine" intervention from evil spirits and demons halted his hype train.

This era was probably the most impactful out of all there was:
- The era started with one of the biggest upsets in not just Boxing but Sports OAT. (Douglas knocks out Tyson)
- The era's competitors, before Lennox Lewis changed the course of the division indefinitely by capturing the titles, were American, exceptions were Razor Ruddock from Canada and Frank Bruno from England.
- The era reached it's peak, in popularity, during the long-awaited return of Mike Tyson and his quick victory over Peter McNeeley, the demolition job of Buster Mathis Jr. and knocking Frank Bruno out for good, not to mention Bruce Seldon's dive. The apex of the Tyson hype train was the Bite Fight, which resulted in Tyson's hiatus from boxing.
- As Tyson was in prison, Lennox Lewis slithers from the lowlights and captures the WBC belt from Tony Tucker, who endured a 12-round punishment from Tyson himself, fends off the low blow specialist Golota, scares Bowe into dumping his championship, controversially outpoints Mercer, dethrones the Duke, spikes the Cannon, beats the undefeated Mavrovic, and as the millennium comes to a close, secures all 3 belts (additionally the unknown IBO title) for Mother England. He later goes on to beat Mike Tyson in a 8-round lopsided torture in 2002.
- Evander Holyfield knocks out Douglas with a crisp right hand to the chin and becomes undisputed, but loses it to Riddick Bowe, partially regaining control after beating Bowe but once again loses his gains to Moorer, beats Tyson after 11 rounds and tries to regain glory in 2 12-rounders against Lennox Lewis.
- George Foreman becomes the oldest heavyweight champion (of the world) (Joe Bugner is the oldest heavyweight champion but NOT of the world) after his master plan is executed and he breaks Moorer's mouthguard and busts his lips, and is no longer haunted by the ghost of Zaire (a phrase coined by Boxingpedia). He loses to Shannon Briggs after a 4-win streak and retires at 48 years of age.
- Larry Holmes tries to do the same but fails after losing to Evander Holyfield, and ends his career beating Butterbean by points.
- The talents Tua, Ibeabuchi, Byrd, Grant and Ruiz (IF we ignore his beating from Tua) are, as mentioned before bred in this era, and sadly, only 4 of them ever made it on the world stage, Ibeabuchi incarcerated until the 2010s.
- The era's competitors, after Lennox Lewis changed the course of the division indefinitely by capturing the titles, were no longer American in majority, the only limelights from the US being Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz.
- The era ended with Lennox Lewis changing the course of the division indefinitely by keeping Britain sovereign over the heavyweights of other countries, until he retired after a upset TKO over Vitali Klitschko.

 

Its overrated the 30s and 10s should be rated higher. It was a top heavy era built around 6 people in Lennox, Bowe, Moorer, Holyfield, Foreman and Tyson who mostly didn't fight each other except Holyfield who fought everyone and went .500. Because of Golotas DQs the only guys outside this group with wins over it are Oliver McCall, Tommy Morrison and Shannon Briggs. Also the 90s was chaotic and somehow despite avoiding each other and not losing to anyone else no one could hold on to belts long.



So A)the best didn't fight each other B)the champs didn't lose to nearly anyone else and C)no one kept belts because of alphabet stuff. Feels like the era fails on all counts of how you'd rate quality except Lennox and cos spot on AT lists which is admittedly the most important thing.

The 80s for example had incredible depth and the best fought each other more as a group its just we think the best 90s HWs beat the best 80s ones because Lennox and Holyfield beat Tyson. And thats true but the 90s/early 00s era itself that led us to that conclusion was not great. While that top 6 rates well H2H against the other modern eras they were all not conending or fighting for various reasons for large parts of the decade for this reason or that reason.

Note-Lennox probably beat 6 of the top 10 just because whoever you have at 7-10 they are most likely all Lennox opponents unless you put Ibeauchi. But still no Bowe,Moorer or Foreman.

 

2010s for heavyweights is possibly the most underrated decade. Fighters were pretty technically sound relying on size and defense more so you didn't always get brawls but still.

 

I'll be honest I was referring to the 1910s there.

But yeah the decade is underrated because of Wlads dominance and Fury doing Fury things.

I think both the 2000s and 2010s had better depth than the 90s. For me 05-15 does better as an era than 2000s or 2010s.