Era's

[HomicideHenry]

The 1970’s is generally accepted as being the greatest era of the Heavyweight division. With such men as Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali leading the charge, the ‘second best’ to them were guys like Earnie Shavers, Jerry Quarry, Jimmy Ellis, Buster Mathis, Rudi Lubbers, Al Lewis, Oscar Bonavena, George Chuvalo, Floyd Patterson, Joe Bugner, Ron Lyle; just to name a few and the majority of those guys could have been champions had they existed in other eras.

But the question I ask is what was the next best era?

Joe Louis’ era was somewhat lackluster considering some of the top contenders were Tami Mauriello, Johnny Paycheck, Gus Dorazio, Jack Roper, Harry Thomas and Red Burman. But then again the era was ripe with genuinely solid heavyweights of all styles and pedigrees, considering Max Baer, Primo Carnera, Tony Galento, John Henry Lewis, Max Schmeling, James Braddock, Tommy Farr, Bob Pastor, King Levinsky, Jersey Joe Walcott, Turkey Thompson, Lou Nova and others were right up there in comparison to some of the better eras.

The era of Walcott, Charles and Marciano was in ways weaker than Louis’, but by the time Marciano was ready to retire guys like Eddie Machen, Floyd Patterson, Bob Baker, Nino Valdes, Bob Satterfield, Tommy Jackson and an up and coming Sonny Liston were on the rise and with division jumpers like Archie Moore and Harold Johnson around, it was a era that was ripe with some serious talent, though few and far between.

It can be argued that probably no other champions in history, outside of the 1970’s era, ever had to face the best of the best consistently as much as Marciano, Charles and Walcott had to do, as those men constantly battled each other.

The 1960’s gave rise as guys like Eddie Machen, Sonny Liston, Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Tommy Jackson, Henry Cooper, Ernie Terrell, Zora Folley, Leotis Martin, Doug Jones, George Chuvalo, Oscar Bonavena, Buster Mathis, Cleveland Williams, Alonzo Johnson, Karl Mildenberger, and Brian London, to name a few, were all battling each other out; not to mention that both Ali and Frazier were also in this era.

The 1980’s was possibly the weakest division in Heavyweight history as the majority of its champions and contenders didn’t capture the imagination(s) or interest of the fans and lost as many times as they won. The list of men that follows is just from the WBA ‘champions’ lineage: John Tate, Mike Weaver, Mike Dokes, Gerrie Coetzee, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Tim Witherspoon, and ‘Bone Crusher’ Smith. Most of these men lost their title in their very first defense.

Another thing that hurt the 1980’s was that the title(s) were not unified until 1987 when Mike Tyson went through WBC champion Trevor Berbick, WBA champion ‘Bone Crusher’ Smith, IBF champion Tony Tucker and he won the ‘lineal’ title from Michael Spinks in 1988.

Though in most people(s) minds the ‘true’ champion of the late 70’s to mid 1980’s was IBF/WBC champion Larry Holmes. Holmes is clearly a top 10 Heavyweight champion, but like Joe Louis, he had a lack of ‘live’ opponents. Arguably his two best title defenses were against Gerry Cooney and Earnie Shavers. The rest of his other 18 title defenses were against the likes of Marvis Frazier, Scott LeDuex, Scott Frank, Alfredo Evangelista and Randall Tex Cobb, just to name a few.

The 1980’s was a jumbled up mess to say the least.

In a lot of people’s minds probably the last ‘great’ era in Heavyweight history was the 1990’s. With a line up of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Ray Mercer, Oliver McCall, Razor Ruddock, Fransesco Damaini, Tommy Morrison, Frank Bruno, Tony Tucker, Andrew Golota, Shannon Briggs, Tyrell Biggs, Ossie Ocasio, Henry Akinwande---how can you not argue the potential this era has for a possible number two spot?

Some of the best fights happened in this era: Tyson-Holyfield (1), the Bowe-Holyfield trilogy, the Moorer-Holyfield fights, Moorer-Foreman, Lewis-Ruddock, Holmes-Holyfield, Mercer-Lewis, Briggs-Lewis, Bruno-Lewis, Bruno-Tyson (2), Holmes-McCall, the list just can go on and on with great Heavyweight fights and knock outs.

The present era, our own, is eerily similar to the 1980’s with a number of different title holders and lackluster performances: the Holyfield-Ruiz trilogy, Ruiz-Johnson, Rahman-Toney, Williams-Klitschko, Liakhovich-Briggs, Brewster-Meehan, Ruiz-Oquendo, Holyfield-Donald, Byrd-Holyfield; need I continue with this snooze fests?

Outside of the boring fights and multiple title holders, the major thing that is against this era is that no one fighter particularly sticks out in the public eye. Wladimir Klitschko could be argued as being the most noticeable, but then again the majority of his popularity was before winning the title and only his two wins over Byrd and Peter pulled him out of oblivion. For this era to get any better there needs to be unification and there needs to be better fights---its not that this era lacks the talent, it lacks the motivation.

The mid-late 1920’s and mid 30’s had such men as Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Max Baer, James Braddock, Primo Carnera, Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling leading the way as its top men. The ‘second best’ were guys like George Godfrey, Harry Wills, Tom Heeney, Paolino Uzcudon, Ernie Schaaf, Johnny Risko, Ed Bearcat Wright, Georges Carpentier, Luis Firpo, Young Stribling, Walter Neusel, Larry Gains, Art Lasky. Throw in division jumpers like Mickey Walker, Harry Greb, Tommy Gibbons and Tommy Laughran and that’s a pretty dangerous group of individuals to go up against and that’s just naming a few of the good ones.

It’s no wonder that the champions of that era could barely hold on to their titles; Schmeling made 1 successful defense, Tunney made 2, Carnera made 2, Dempsey made 5 defenses, while Braddock, Sharkey and Baer failed to make passed their maiden defense of their title in victory.

The early days of the division from 1885 to 1909 is one of the most talent rich eras in history, though it wasn’t until 1895 that the Marquis of Queensbury would be not just the exception but as the rule. Picture this amazing line up: John L. Sullivan, Charlie Mitchell, Jem Mace, Jake Kilrain, James J. Corbett, Joe Choynski, Peter Jackson, George Godfrey, Denver Ed Martin, Sam McVea, Joe Jenette, Sandy Ferguson, Bob Fitzsimmons, Tom Sharkey, James J. Jeffries, Dominick McCaffrey, Peter Maher, Steve O’Donnell, Gus Ruhlin, Herbert Slade, Bill Lang, Hank Griffin, Tommy Ryan, Joe Goss, Charles ‘Kid’ McCoy, Jack Munroe, Marvin Hart, Jack Root, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, George Gardner, Tommy Burns, Jem Roche, Mike Schreck, Jim Flynn.

And that is just a small group of many great boxers including division jumpers Sam Langford and other black greats such as Jack Johnson who would become champion in 1909. Then after that some more contenders came around, some on the above list still fought on passed the 1909 date. Some of the contenders that spawned off in what became known as the ‘great white hope era’ were Luther McCarthy, Jess Willard, Billy Wells, James Gunner Moir, Tony Ross, Al Kaufmann, Frank Moran, Jim Stewart, and many others. It was once quoted that the ‘white hope’ era was a promoters dream with so many fighters all fighting for contention against Johnson and/or for the ‘white’ title.

And what many forget is that 45 and 20 round fights were still in practice, and these men fought constantly on a regular basis, they were always in shape and ready to fight. If you look at these men’s records they were either fighting up to four times a month in either exhibitions or legit matches. These were high quality athletes.

In my own personal opinion the greatest era’s list goes like this:

-1970’s
-1909 to 1915
-1885 to 1909
-1990’s
-Mid 20’s to mid 30’s
-1937 to 1949 (Joe Louis era)
-Present Day Era
-1980’s

[HomicideHenry]

Do you see Holyfield and Bowe and Lewis and others fighting under the London Prize Ring rules in bouts that were 'fights to the finish' against guys like John L. Sullivan with no gloves and the possibility of fighting for hours on end?

I can't see it. Guys in the 90's might have hit harder, but if they threw the hard punches that they did in their era against the 1880 guys with no gloves on they would more than likely break their hands early and be completely useless against guys who were not just skilled boxers but who had good wrestling experience (round ended when a man was either thrown or knocked down to the ground).