Heavyweight - The British era: it's quite good, isn't it?

[Autobarn]

In the ‘90s the heavyweights were criticised as not as good. Audiences and writers were obsessed with an incarcerated Tyson and critical of the carelessness or inconsistency of Bowe, Holyfield & Lewis which allowed such names as McCall, Bruno, undersized and fragile Moorer & ageing and overweight Foreman to hold title belts...

[Coco]

In the ‘90s the heavyweights were criticised as not as good. Audiences and writers were obsessed with an incarcerated Tyson and critical of the carelessness or inconsistency of Bowe, Holyfield & Lewis which allowed such names as McCall, Bruno, undersized and fragile Moorer & ageing and overweight Foreman to hold title belts...

I think the set of overweight cocaine addled American heavies from the 80's was prob one of the most talented bunch out there.

Tubbs, Dokes, Tucker, Page, Thomas, Witherspoon, Weaver, Smith etc

Obv they under achieved!

[Ezzard]

I grew up in the 80s and became boxing mad during that time. I read The Ring, KO, World Boxing and Boxing News...usually over and over until the next issue came out.

The 80s heavies were considered an all time low for the sport. Lot of crap fights during that era too. All I heard was about how great the 1970s were and how poor the 80s were by comparison.

My uncle gave me all of his Ring magazines going back to the early 1960s. I read them all... Guess what?

In the 1970s the magazines were full of articles about how poor the HW division was and Ali being champion at such an old age proved this. It was the same in the 1960s. If only the HWs were as good as the 1950s etc...

[Cyclops]

Exactly. Fast forward 20 years we'll be telling our grandkids all about how shite their era is and how we had all the champions once, and how they were proper fighters in our day who'd actually hit each other and try to win.

[tiny_acres]

I grew up in the 80s and became boxing mad during that time. I read The Ring, KO, World Boxing and Boxing News...usually over and over until the next issue came out.

The 80s heavies were considered an all time low for the sport. Lot of crap fights during that era too. All I heard was about how great the 1970s were and how poor the 80s were by comparison.

My uncle gave me all of his Ring magazines going back to the early 1960s. I read them all... Guess what?

In the 1970s the magazines were full of articles about how poor the HW division was and Ali being champion at such an old age proved this. It was the same in the 1960s. If only the HWs were as good as the 1950s etc...

Man oh man did you perfectly describe boxing.
It is a rose colored glasses sport.

[Ezzard]

I get irritated with the constant need for the media to tell me whoever is champ now is the greatest ever. So I get some of the backlash against that.

But it's too easy to be over critical of what we have now. I have never known a better time for British HW boxing. And on the world scene it's right up there.

[jameswilson]

Some of the above replies sum it up quite well.

I consider myself fairly thankful for the current era both of heavyweights and boxing in general. I remember I’d stay in on a Friday or Saturday night to watch Enzo Maccarinelli beat Rich LaMontagne in the main event, the chief support was an 8 round 1 sided shitefest of no quality at all. And then after the fight Enzo calls Johnny Nelson out saying that beating the guy ranked 68th on boxrec means he’s entitled to a World title shot.

Now we Moan that people are fighting eliminators and final eliminators ffs. ‘Whoaaa Eddie loves an eliminator.’

[HeavyHitters]

Well, if I truly want to entertain myself with past boxing, I'll go onto YouTube and type in a few named heavyweights from the 90's era. Those were truly some of the most entertaining fights that I've ever witnessed seeing. Heavyweights that came to fight, that KNEW how to fight, and did just that when the bell rang.

It was great, up until John Ruiz came onto the scene. Once he got thunderstruck by David Tua in one round, he decided to reinvent himself so that he would never suffer a one round humiliating KO defeat again. So he learned how to "hug and hold" his opponents when he got into trouble. Unfortunately, Ruiz became quite skilled at this new tactic, to the dismay of most boxing fans. So, once an exciting fighter, Ruiz just became a total snooze fest of a fighter, who became very difficult to watch.

To make matters worse, along came Emanuel Steward, who was one of the best trainers at the time. He got ahold of Wladimir Klitschko, who also needed to reinvent himself after a few knockouts of his own. Manny taught Wlad the tactic of how to "hug and hold" when in trouble, thus rendering Wlad another "unentertaining" and "frustrating" fighter to watch afterwards. Pretty soon, the entire heavyweight division was infected with "hug and hold" fighters. The heavyweight division became extremely hard to watch.

Just go on YouTube and do a search for Riddick Bowe or Lennox Lewis, or Mike Tyson, or Razor Ruddock, or Ray Mercer, or Evander Holyfield, or Tommy Morrison if you really want to see some wildly entertaining 90's era heavyweight fights!!

[ewenhay]

What makes the heavyweight scene good ,, is'nt that there are great fighters around , such has your Ali's , Its the fact that although there not great boxers the top a team and even the lower B team are all evenly matched

When you get evenly matched fights you get good fights ,Put together 2 evenly matched guys who can't fight , has long as they think they can fight , then they will have a fight and you'll get an entertaining fight

Totally agree. Lots of evenly matched fighters makes things more interesting.

I'd still like to see them fight each other a bit more often though.

[dookus]

I grew up in the 80s and became boxing mad during that time. I read The Ring, KO, World Boxing and Boxing News...usually over and over until the next issue came out.

The 80s heavies were considered an all time low for the sport. Lot of crap fights during that era too. All I heard was about how great the 1970s were and how poor the 80s were by comparison.

My uncle gave me all of his Ring magazines going back to the early 1960s. I read them all... Guess what?

In the 1970s the magazines were full of articles about how poor the HW division was and Ali being champion at such an old age proved this. It was the same in the 1960s. If only the HWs were as good as the 1950s etc...

Man oh man did you perfectly describe boxing.
It is a rose colored glasses sport.

As true as that is, I don't think anyone is ever going to get nostalgic for the mid-2000s era of shitty fat heavyweights passing the belts around, only for King Klinchko to come along and bore them all to sleep

[oogiebe]

I grew up in the 80s and became boxing mad during that time. I read The Ring, KO, World Boxing and Boxing News...usually over and over until the next issue came out.

The 80s heavies were considered an all time low for the sport. Lot of crap fights during that era too. All I heard was about how great the 1970s were and how poor the 80s were by comparison.

My uncle gave me all of his Ring magazines going back to the early 1960s. I read them all... Guess what?

In the 1970s the magazines were full of articles about how poor the HW division was and Ali being champion at such an old age proved this. It was the same in the 1960s. If only the HWs were as good as the 1950s etc...

Man oh man did you perfectly describe boxing.
It is a rose colored glasses sport.

The '80's sucked until Mike Tyson. That 3 or 4 years of rotating champs in three sanctioning bodies was abhorant.

[bigjack]

Man oh man did you perfectly describe boxing.
It is a rose colored glasses sport.

The '80's sucked until Mike Tyson. That 3 or 4 years of rotating champs in three sanctioning bodies was abhorant.

Witherspoon,Tubbs,Thomas,Tate,Dokes..... all talented but were either lazy or on drugs

[oogiebe]

The '80's sucked until Mike Tyson. That 3 or 4 years of rotating champs in three sanctioning bodies was abhorant.

Witherspoon,Tubbs,Thomas,Tate,Dokes..... all talented but were either lazy or on drugs

No doubt the promise was there, just not the actualization of their ceilings. And especially Dokes. I was always fascinated by his potential.

[polecateddy]

I think Witherspoon and Tubbs would have given Joshua even more trouble than Andy Ruiz. Dokes had fantastic hand speed. Thomas was good enough to defuse a peak Tyson for a good few rounds. But granted none reached their full potential.

[ewenhay]

Knowing Don King and his son are going to take 80% of your purse is a sure fire way of killing motivation

[oogiebe]

Knowing Don King and his son are going to take 80% of your purse is a sure fire way of killing motivation

[Cyclops]

I don't think anyone is ever going to get nostalgic for the mid-2000s era of shitty fat heavyweights passing the belts around, only for King Klinchko to come along and bore them all to sleep

That's kind of why I made the thread. Back when I first really started to get into boxing in my mid 20's it was Wladimir, Ibragamov, Valuev, Chageav, Povetkin. It was f*cking awful, man. I can remember reading a boxing news feature on James Toney vs Samuel Peter and thinking "heavyweights are crap."

Super middle was where it was at when I really became a hardcore, and obviously Welter.

I noticed recently I rarely post on anything other than heavyweight now. I just really enjoy watching them all and have been kinda blown away by Fury especially, and also Chisora's resurgence as I always thought Fish Eyes destroyed Dereck's career by throwing him in against anybody and everybody too early. I always liked Del because I was a North Londoner for a long time, so he was my boy. It's just a good era. I thought we should just take a step back and acknowledge it. Seems like most of you agree.

[brilo33]

Best ever in British fighters which I mean more than just cooper in his era and Lewis in his. On in My eyes fury number 1 aj 2 than u have Whyte dubious Joyce Hughie fury.