Heavyweights: Paulino Uzcudun vs. Alfredo Evangelista

[scorpio83]

15 Rounds Heavyweight Bout

In the battle of the Spaniard, Uzcudun would swarm and overwhelm Evangelista with body punches before knocking him out with a big left hook in 8 rounds. What do you guys think and who do you got?

[HomicideHenry]

Uzcudun either by comfortable unanimous decision or stoppage in around the 8th, as you said. Evangelista was in an extraordinarily weak time in heavyweight boxing (late 70s early 80s) and only got on the work stage to begin with because Ali cherry picked him as a defense in order to hold on to the title longer than he should've had it.

[Ambling Alp II]

Absurd to think that the late 1970s/early 1980s was an extraordinary weak time in the heavyweight division. Was not the best, but it certainly wasn't weak.
Having said that, Uzcudun would have easily beaten Evangelista.

[DrDuke]

Talking about eras, they actually were quite even and similar in many aspects. The mix of fighters in the gap between Tunney and Louis with the following Louis era is probably even worse than the mix between Ali and Holmes with the following Holmes era.

Apart from the era stuff, Uzcudun could beat the likes of Baer and Wills, while Evangelista's biggest scalp was in SD over Renaldo Snipes. Alfredo indeed became known for being cherry picked by the fading Ali. Uzcudun was a legit top fighter of his times.

[Ambling Alp II]

Sure there were stiffs who got in the lower end of the top 10 for a year before it was obvious that they weren't for real. That happens all of the time.

In the late 1970s you had Holmes, Norton, Young, Shavers and Lyle. Young-Norton and Holmes-Norton were spectacular fights.
Right at the end of the 1970s you had not great but good fighters like Tate, Coetzee, and Weaver.

Early 1980s, you still had Holmes, still had Coetzee, and Weaver. Also now had Cooney, Dokes, Page, Thomas, and Witherspoon. That's not bad.
It suffered in comparison to the period right before it, but there were certainly weaker eras.

[HomicideHenry]

Absurd to think that the late 1970s/early 1980s was an extraordinary weak time in the heavyweight division. Was not the best, but it certainly wasn't weak.
Having said that, Uzcudun would have easily beaten Evangelista.

No, the division was weak during that time. Just look at the caliber of the guys who occupied the lower half of the top ten during those years. Leroy Jones, Scott LeDoux, Ossie Ocasio, Domingo D'Elia, Lorenzo Zanon, Marty Monroe, Lucien Rodgriquez, Alfredo Evangelista, and Scott Frank are just a few of the less-than-impressive fighters on this list.

On top of that, there was a group of vulnerable heavies ranked at that time who were better than the guys I just named, but who fell short of genuinely qualifying as real contenders. Fighters in this category are the ancient version of Ken Norton (38 y.o. and long past his prime), the old, blubbery version of Jimmy Young (nothing like the fighter he was in 1975-77), Kallie Knoetze, Bernardo Mercado, Tex Cobb, Leon Spinks, and even Marvis Frazier.

So....I would have to agree with the claim that the late '70s and very early '80s were a time when the quality - or depth of talent - of the worldwide top-10 was in crisis.

Thank you