BoxRec

The 1980s decade was an era that changed in almost everything from music to fashion to politics to sports.

Especially, in boxing. It was a magnificent era of great fighters and great fights. Would there be another era like it? It was a very glamorous era in boxing, especially in the middleweight and welterweight boxers. But, I see pound per pound, from flyweight to heavyweight, a great crop of fantastic fighters: Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous, The Hitman, Salvador Sanchez, Eusebio Pedroza, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Mike McCallum, Julio Cesar Chavez, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Azumah Nelson, and of course, the man that became the personality of the 80s: Mike Tyson.

It was an era greatly to talk about. Was there any era like that one? What made that era so great according to your view?

elmersalsa wrote:The 1980s decade was an era that changed in almost everything from music to fashion to politics to sports.

Especially, in boxing. It was a magnificent era of great fighters and great fights. Would there be another era like it? It was a very glamorous era in boxing, especially in the middleweight and welterweight boxers. But, I see pound per pound, from flyweight to heavyweight, a great crop of fantastic fighters: Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous, The Hitman, Salvador Sanchez, Eusebio Pedroza, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Mike McCallum, Julio Cesar Chavez, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Azumah Nelson, and of course, the man that became the personality of the 80s: Mike Tyson.

It was an era greatly to talk about. Was there any era like that one? What made that era so great according to your view?

If u read ko magazine through the mid 80s (84-mid86) that idiot jeff ryan was calling it a,"star starved decade".....sure srl and ali werent around......but what boxing would give for hearns,curry,hagler right now

My overriding impression of the boxing media was that all those involved wanted to be back in the 1970s. In fact the whole of the cultural world wanted to be back in the 70s too.

Most people who were writing for magazines and newspapers claimed the 1980s were a terrible era. But the same happened in the 1970s and 1960s too. Boxing really suffers from this.

At the same time nobody likes to be constantly served diarrhea and told it's gravy (Mayweather's fights). It's a tricky line to walk.

Looking back a number of things happened. Colour TV kicked in completely and fight nights made the most of this...

12 rounds were ushered in - favouring the faster sprinter-types...against the durable stamina-types.

In a way the best things were the class of 76 Olympians maturing. Then the 84 guys coming along.

But the best things were often those that were from before... Fights on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons shown on TV. Quality journalism. 15 rounders.

The decade started with Ray Leonard who was a supremely gifted and charismatic superstar. Even better...he had an array of ready made villains to defeat in and around his weight class. Ray went after them with real verve. Not pickpocketing wins (he had the talent do it if he had wanted) but instead looking to win fights convincingly and bring entertainment.

Then there was the hole in the middle when he was retired.

Finally, we got the end years. Ray manipulating the sport within an inch of it being scripted drama. Opening the doors to Jones, Mayweather and Wlad who all took the methodology to it's logical extreme...loading the dice to a sickening degree...

Ezzard wrote:Finally, we got the end years. Ray manipulating the sport within an inch of it being scripted drama. Opening the doors to Jones, Mayweather and Wlad who all took the methodology to it's logical extreme...loading the dice to a sickening degree...

I think you sum it up well, Ezzard. I can forgive Leonard his late-career shenanigans because of the heroics of his prime. But all the in-ring dice loading, not to mention the sanctioning body-sponsored division hopping in order to cynically embellish his achievements, have had horrendous consequences for boxing. Fighters today like Floyd Mayweather are obsessed with their legacies to the point of stage managing their entire career. I'm sure the concept of legacy never entered a fighter's head prior to Leonard. Mayweather retires with many fans calling him the best ever and he never placed himself in a 50/50 fight.

You can be certain the next wave of stars will be following the Mayweather, later Leonard career plan, and amassing all sorts of impressive looking stats and silverware while steering all risk. So no, there will never be another era like the 80s. Never.

I think there is always a tendency to look back to when you were younger ,those glory days and its perhaps more pertinent with music. Maybe it's nostalgia? When I was watching the heavies of the 1990's I was yearning for the legendary 70's Heavyweights my dad always talked about...and I missed the point that the 1990's was one of the best eras ever for this division. I didn't live that moment.
For me the 1980's are up there as the best along with the 1950's. To me they are the glory periods of boxing (taking away the 1970's heavyweight division) Both eras had their negatives in respect of monopolies and proliferations of titles.

The only thing that I wanted in the 80s was more rematches. For example, Leonard vs Hearns II and Duran vs Leonard III were far too late. Those fights should have been made before 1984.

And also a Leonard vs Hagler fight would've been fitting nice between 1982-84 years, and happened when both were not in their primes.

Also, the sudden death of the great Salvador Sanchez and Sugar Ray's retirement in '82 were a huge blow for boxing. They were the two to major superstars at the time.

A Sanchez vs Arguello fight would've been a significant match. Also, a multimillion dollar featherweight unification bout of Sanchez vs Pedroza.

Sanchez vs Chavez by 1985 would've been a great one, too. But, I think by that time, Salvador would've been slowed down a bit.

But, I loved how the decade ended with the great Mike Tyson as the savior of boxing. Man, he was something special!

Tuan_Jim wrote:

Ezzard wrote:Finally, we got the end years. Ray manipulating the sport within an inch of it being scripted drama. Opening the doors to Jones, Mayweather and Wlad who all took the methodology to it's logical extreme...loading the dice to a sickening degree...

I think you sum it up well, Ezzard. I can forgive Leonard his late-career shenanigans because of the heroics of his prime. But all the in-ring dice loading, not to mention the sanctioning body-sponsored division hopping in order to cynically embellish his achievements, have had horrendous consequences for boxing. Fighters today like Floyd Mayweather are obsessed with their legacies to the point of stage managing their entire career. I'm sure the concept of legacy never entered a fighter's head prior to Leonard. Mayweather retires with many fans calling him the best ever and he never placed himself in a 50/50 fight.

You can be certain the next wave of stars will be following the Mayweather, later Leonard career plan, and amassing all sorts of impressive looking stats and silverware while steering all risk. So no, there will never be another era like the 80s. Never.

And I agree entirely with your sentiment in bold. At least Ray lived it in the early years. And he always looked to entertain in the ring.

I am afraid there won't be another era like that. Depending on the division, 90's were also really good (or I am just getting old )

I think the main reason is that people are less and less interested in boxing (both as spectators and participants). At 90's, everybody knew who is Mike Tyson... even on the "wrong" side of Europe. Wlad's reign was much longer, but I do not think he got half the recognition... and frankly, I am not surprised. And because people are less interested, promoters are selling worse and worse shit to TV stations and fighters are rarely taking fights which they are not guaranteed to win. Also, the talents tend to choose other, safer and less demanding sports.

(and when I say "less interested", I mean the real interest - not for example PPV numbers that had to go up as the technology & availability went up as well)

Edit: I saw that when I used the word s_h_i_t it was automatically "translated" to "poo", even as the context was not offending to anyone (other than possilbe boxing promotors promotors here... but I would still say this is just mere statement of the fact)... anyway, welcome to The New Brave World and pls forgive me any other mistakes as (1) English is not my mothertongue (2) it is Friday evening Central European Time so my BAC could be at the levels not accepted in the other parts of the world

Also a Leonard vs Pryor fight would've been a money maker no matter the outcome

@ezzard- some absolutely fantastic posts here from u and also everyone else.

My own 2 cents worth.....i think the 80s was a magnificent era....all the fighters and fights are mentioned already.....but take a look at the mw shake up 1987-89 post srl-hagler .........look at the depth of the supporting class .....sumbu kalambay,mccallum,nunn,jackson,benn,graham,tate,barkley,olajide,rjj jnr,roldan and sibson.....the mw division was strong

I guess what made 1990-95 a strong period for boxing in the uk, was that u pretty much saw all the fights were free on terrestrial tv.....late 95-99 that stopped and boxing vanished to pay tv pretty much in entirety....we went from feast to famine....most people did not have the dough for sky tv and even if they did the coverage could be limited.the 2000s changed that.boxing appeared back on free tv.....sky improved its matchmaking massively...we had a new player setanta in the late 2000s but my best memory of 2000s boxing is 2000-2002 and a little channel called eurosport showing cedric cushners hw explosion episodes and also all of sven ottke and tony ayal jnrs fights every tuesday on freeview.

Tv and the ability to see fights also elevates an era for me

But like u say emersalsa we were 1 way or the other deprived of some great matches in the 80s....due to for example srls retirement 82-85, salvador sanchezss death, tony ayala having his prime cut, cooney looked to be a dead cert as an 80s star but after 82 he was an inactive busted flush....likewise mcguigans implosion in the desert just as his prime beckoned ..breland disappointing......camacho taking one punch in 1986 and going from mr exciting to mr boring.

We missed out on hagler v curry 86, nelson v mcguigan 86, mcguigan v esparragoza 87, fenech v jcchavez 1989,tyson v holyfield 89..hearns v mccallum 86,hagler v srl 82, nunn v srl 89.....foreman v tyson late 89......what we did get though was great

I agree with everything above, mugabi, except Tyson vs Holyfield.

elmersalsa wrote:I agree with everything above, mugabi, except Tyson vs Holyfield.

You don't think we missed out on Tyson vs Holyfield?

keithmoonhangover wrote:

elmersalsa wrote:I agree with everything above, mugabi, except Tyson vs Holyfield.

You don't think we missed out on Tyson vs Holyfield?

No. I don't think that the great Evander Holyfield was ready for Iron Mike just yet.

elmersalsa wrote:

keithmoonhangover wrote:

elmersalsa wrote:I agree with everything above, mugabi, except Tyson vs Holyfield.

You don't think we missed out on Tyson vs Holyfield?

No. I don't think that the great Evander Holyfield was ready for Iron Mike just yet.

Holyfield would have beaten Tyson then. Styles make fights and Holyfield's style was perfect for Tyson.

It was actually Tyson vs Ruddock that was scheduled for late 89 - King and Tyson seemed happy to defer Holyfield until a few more routine engagements against the likes of Razor and Buster Douglas.

keithmoonhangover wrote:

elmersalsa wrote:

keithmoonhangover wrote:
You don't think we missed out on Tyson vs Holyfield?

No. I don't think that the great Evander Holyfield was ready for Iron Mike just yet.

Holyfield would have beaten Tyson then. Styles make fights and Holyfield's style was perfect for Tyson.

Not in the 80s. The 80s was all Mike Tyson!

To be fair theres not been many bad decades in boxing most of them have a strong argument for claiming top spot, the 80s was a cracking decade although it could of done without the alphabet boys messing the heavyweight scene up for a bit, 90s for me, every division barring cruiser had its superstars and the heavies really spoilt us

I really started watching and following boxing as a kid in the 80s.....kind of liking the fact that I followed a sport that was different to what my mates were into at the time and surprising my parents by asking for boxing books for my birthday.

It was a good time to be a young and enthusiastic fan as well; every newspaper covered the big fights in enormous detail and ITV and the BBC were actually competing over covering fights and turned them into major events.

And it was not just boxing on Saturday night; the BBC gave you British and European midweek fights on Sportsnight and my local ITV region did whole world championship cards from all over the world.

Want to watch the Hilton brothers, Lalonde, Jorge Paez, Troy Dorsey or Fenech? Not a problem thanks to Gary Newbon and the ITV Central guys in Birmingham. Boxing was on all the time.

And fights like Kaylor-Christie and Kaylor-Graham - just big domestic rumbles really - were headline news.

I still really love some of the fights from that era with McGuigan-Pedroza being an all-time favourite.

elmersalsa wrote:

keithmoonhangover wrote:

elmersalsa wrote: No. I don't think that the great Evander Holyfield was ready for Iron Mike just yet.

Holyfield would have beaten Tyson then. Styles make fights and Holyfield's style was perfect for Tyson.

Not in the 80s. The 80s was all Mike Tyson!

Not a chance. It shows how little you know about styles making fights. Prime Holyfield beat Prime Tyson every day of the week.

The great Mike Tyson was too devastating in the 80s. The great Evander Holyfield was too small and just campaigning at heavyweight division when he beat Michael Dokes. Tyson would've not struggle with Dokes.

It was into the 90s that Evander started to bulk up. Then, I bet on The Real Deal any day of the week. He ain't beating the Tyson of the 80s.

elmersalsa wrote:The great Mike Tyson was too devastating in the 80s. The great Evander Holyfield was too small and just campaigning at heavyweight division when he beat Michael Dokes. Tyson would've not struggle with Dokes.

It was into the 90s that Evander started to bulk up. Then, I bet on The Real Deal any day of the week. He ain't beating the Tyson of the 80s.

It doesn't matter what Tyson would have done to Dokes. That has nothing to do with what would have happened in Tyson-Holyfield.

It was a fun decade. I love boxing from the 60's - early 90's. The 80's were solid. Even the heavyweights which were supposedly so boring, produced good fights. This actually surprised me. I know all the fights of the 70's but I was a kid in the 80's. I assumed everything between Ali & Tyson was boring. I remember how everyone went nuts over the Dokes vs Holyfield fight & hailed it as the best heavyweight fight since the 70's. I've since watched a lot of those fights & they're pretty good. The divisions problems stem from too many belts & fighters with a lack of...discipline? Drive? Plenty of talented guys who fell short. The other problem was too many slick boxers & not enough brawlers. Holmes, Thomas, Tillis, Page, Tubbs, Williams, were all too similar. That's why Tyson was so refreshing.

The other divisions were in pretty good shape. The decade started with the light heavyweights being in a virtual golden age! There were plenty of good bouts on FREE tv every weekend. I remember following fighters on ESPN & USA Network, then seeing them on NBC, ABC, or CBS, & then graduating to HBO. I regularly bought magazines just to keep up with the sport.

Boxing had a certain glamour to it. I remember the big fights at Caesars Palace with all the celebrities at ringside. TV broadcasts were more polished I thought with higher production values. I enjoy that decade quite a bit.

elmersalsa wrote:The 1980s decade was an era that changed in almost everything from music to fashion to politics to sports.

Especially, in boxing. It was a magnificent era of great fighters and great fights. Would there be another era like it? It was a very glamorous era in boxing, especially in the middleweight and welterweight boxers. But, I see pound per pound, from flyweight to heavyweight, a great crop of fantastic fighters: Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous, The Hitman, Salvador Sanchez, Eusebio Pedroza, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Mike McCallum, Julio Cesar Chavez, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Azumah Nelson, and of course, the man that became the personality of the 80s: Mike Tyson.

It was an era greatly to talk about. Was there any era like that one? What made that era so great according to your view?

70s era was great instead of 80s