BoxRec

Which was boxing's greatest era?

the 80s...The era of the fab 4
the 50s...Robinson, Marciano, Gavilan and Moore
the 70s...Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton
the 60s...Ali, Ali, Ali
the 90s...Tyson and the heavyweights
the 20s...Dempsey and Greb
the 30s...Probably the greatest non heavyweight era in history: Canzoneri, Chocolate, Berg, Ross and Armstrong

Late 70's - early 80's for me.

Sanchez
Lopez
Chacon
Boza-Edwards
Limon
Gomez
Arguello
Mancini
Bramble
Ayala
Mugabi
Hagler
Hearns
Leonard
Duran
Franklin
Braxton
Spinks
Gregory
Holmes
Snipes
Cooney
etc

These guys were pure excitement.

Cant think of a better era

90's were good but you have tyson listed.
he sucked in the 90's

40s middleweights,

p4p the greatest division in boxing, strong & big enough to take on L-HW's & HW's and lean & fast enough to fight like the little men and the 40s produced many of the best of them.

Too hard to choose really!

I guess that I would have to go with 1900-1910, 1930-1940, 1970-1980 in no particular order...any of these three would be a good choice!

Barrys right.
Its hard to pick one.
One era I enjoyed were the times of those Philly middleweights in the 70s.
Bennie Briscoe
Cyclone Hart
Willie Monroe
Boogaloo Watts.
Kitten Hayward (jr. middle)
Gypsy Joe Harris (welter)
Not champs, but tough fighters who brought it.

The 112-118-126 and 135 pounders of the 1970s were as exciting as any era in history. Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Ruben Olivares, Chuchu Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Romeo Anaya, Chango Carmona, Alfonso Zamora, Carlos Zarate, Mando Ramos, Clemente Sanchez, Jose Legra, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, Ernesto Marcel, Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez, Roberto Duran, Ken Buchanan, Chartchai Chionoi, Miguel Canto, Ricardo Arredondo, Sammy Serrano, Eder Jofre, Beutilio Gonzalez, Esteban DeJesus, Alfredo Escalera, Luis Estaba, Ernesto Espana and Alberto Davila.

Not to mention all the contenders such as Art Hafey, Octavio Gomez, Rodolfo Martinez, Antonio Puddu, Frankie Crawford, Jean Mateo, Ray Lampkin and Charky Ramon!

The 1970s was simply a great and exciting era in boxing...wouldn't it be nice to have a glimpse of that nowadays?

barry wrote:The 112-118-126 and 135 pounders of the 1970s were as exciting as any era in history. Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Ruben Olivares, Chuchu Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Romeo Anaya, Chango Carmona, Alfonso Zamora, Carlos Zarate, Mando Ramos, Clemente Sanchez, Jose Legra, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, Ernesto Marcel, Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez, Roberto Duran, Ken Buchanan, Chartchai Chionoi, Miguel Canto, Ricardo Arredondo, Sammy Serrano, Eder Jofre, Beutilio Gonzalez, Esteban DeJesus, Alfredo Escalera, Luis Estaba, Ernesto Espana and Alberto Davila.

Not to mention all the contenders such as Art Hafey, Octavio Gomez, Rodolfo Martinez, Antonio Puddu, Frankie Crawford, Jean Mateo, Ray Lampkin and Charky Ramon!

The 1970s was simply a great and exciting era in boxing...wouldn't it be nice to have a glimpse of that nowadays?

barry I started a few threads about octavio gomez because I wanted to know more about this guy who cleaned out my wallet and that I was so impressed with that I didn't even care......what a fight he put up with Danny Lopez. During the fight Danny commented to his cornerman about Gomez's strength. Coming from Little Red that says a lot. Do you have any info on him that you could share?

barry wrote:The 112-118-126 and 135 pounders of the 1970s were as exciting as any era in history. Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Ruben Olivares, Chuchu Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Romeo Anaya, Chango Carmona, Alfonso Zamora, Carlos Zarate, Mando Ramos, Clemente Sanchez, Jose Legra, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, Ernesto Marcel, Rodolfo "El Gato" Gonzalez, Roberto Duran, Ken Buchanan, Chartchai Chionoi, Miguel Canto, Ricardo Arredondo, Sammy Serrano, Eder Jofre, Beutilio Gonzalez, Esteban DeJesus, Alfredo Escalera, Luis Estaba, Ernesto Espana and Alberto Davila.

Not to mention all the contenders such as Art Hafey, Octavio Gomez, Rodolfo Martinez, Antonio Puddu, Frankie Crawford, Jean Mateo, Ray Lampkin and Charky Ramon!

The 1970s was simply a great and exciting era in boxing...wouldn't it be nice to have a glimpse of that nowadays?

A great list.
Ive seen many of these guys fight.
Nice to see Irish Frankie Crawford get a mention.
One of my favorites of the west coast lighter weight fighters of that era was Alberto"Superfly" Sandoval.

The 1970s wins clearly for me personally, although there are also other great eras.

the 90s...Tyson and the heavyweights

Interesting you named Tyson as the fighter in the 90s, when he was at best the 4th best heavyweight of that decade, behind Lewis, Holyfield and Bowe.

People often idolise the older eras and fighters, but the 90's WAS a good era.... talent and excitement

Ricardo Lopez
Micheal Carbajal
Daniel Zaragoza, Jeff Fenech
Naseem Hamed
Barrera, Morales, Azumah Nelson
Julio Cesar Chavez, Kostya Tszyu
Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya
Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor
Mike Mcallum, Roy Jones Junior, James Toney
Michael Nunn, Nigel Benn, Michael Watson, Chris Eubank, Gerald McClellan, Steve Collins

And thats WITHOUT the Heavyweights, and more names could go on that list

Some eras had great heavyweights, others middleweights or lightweights etc. Overall you could make a case for almost any decade.

No one has talked about the 1940's, but it had some great fighters as well.
You had Louis,Robinson,Armstrong,Charles,Moore,Pep,Cerdan,Ike Williams, Manuel Ortiz, and Saddler .
The 1960's had a lot more than just Ali.

You also had:
Jofre,Griffith,Napoles,Saldivar,Tiger,Harada,Benvenuti,Ortiz,Locche,
Rodriguez,Elorde, Loi etc.

The 40s did have some great fighters as well as some great battles...Graziano-Zale was among the best, but I think 1941 thru 1945 was greatly hindered due to the war.

For me it would be between three though...the 1900s, 1930s and 1970s.

As to Octavio Gomez...I do have a bit of info about him, but I'll have to wait a few days to post it as I need to recuperate from a very severe sunburn and can only stand a few minutes at a time in front of the computer. Gomez should have been a world champion though.

I too feel it was the 1970's
I remember as far back as when Rocky Marciano retired

Funny thing about the 1970's - during that time people were complaining that it was dead!

Aside from ALi Frazier Duran and maybe Napoles- casual fans in the USA were not feeling many of the fighters.

for me it's the 80's just because I grew up in the 80's. Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Whitaker, Duran, Arguello, Pryor and Tyson.

barry wrote:The 40s did have some great fighters as well as some great battles...Graziano-Zale was among the best, but I think 1941 thru 1945 was greatly hindered due to the war.

For me it would be between three though...the 1900s, 1930s and 1970s.

As to Octavio Gomez...I do have a bit of info about him, but I'll have to wait a few days to post it as I need to recuperate from a very severe sunburn and can only stand a few minutes at a time in front of the computer. Gomez should have been a world champion though.

barry...there is this new amazing stuff called sunscreen...works wonders.....but I found out the hard way that it does you no good just sitting in it's bottle.

boxings greatest era has yet to come. just you wait for the future

In terms of popularity, I feel that boxing reached its
peak in the United States during the 1920s. At the
time, there was a staggering number of boxing clubs
staging cards on a very frequent basis. One also
has to consider that a lot of boxing fans of the era
had good-paying jobs because of the booming
economy. This meant that many of the 1920s
American fight shows did very well at the box office,
resulting a lot of fighters getting good purses.

I often point out that California had over a thousand
pro boxing shows a year during the late 1920s.
This was in a state with a population of about
five million people! At the present time, California
has about thirty-seven million people, but only
about one hundred pro boxing cards a year!

During the 1930s, so many American people
were unemployed or underemployed, resulting
in many boxing clubs slashing admission prices
drastically. This often resulted in much, much
smaller gate receipts for boxing shows at
almost all American venues when compared
to the 1920s. But there still were a staggering
number of boxing shows staged in the U.S.
during the 1930s.

- Chuck Johnston

Decagon wrote:Quantity doesn't mean quality. During the 1980s, nearly every kid in America played football, and football clubs were hugely popular, but the U.S. team never made the second round of the World Cup.

true, but in 94 you got to the quarter finals, and held the eventual winners to a 1-0 loss only.... i think you have to look at such things 15 years after the kids start playing, then you see the kids as adults and you know the real effect.... if that makes any sense

I'd like to hear from the experts: How about the era with the most exciting fights and stellar matchups?

This link should sort out some of the debate.

http://www.boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... ight=1970s

Foy nostalgia the 1980s was my favourite. If only we'd had the internet technology that we have now back then. It was a poor decade for HWs but the action was elsewhere. Of course the broadcast were in colour too (sorry, "Boxers of the past" heresy to say such a thing).

The one thing I disliked about the 1980s was the fact that the Communist countries did not compete professionally. Now they have joined the pro game it's good for the sport. The more nationalities represented the better.

I liked the 1970s because we had the great men from Panama, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Columbia, etc... and we had Monte Carlo as a venue. The sport back then seemed much more international. The 1970s also had the HWs.

The 1990s were great for HWs too. This decade has not been so great IMO but I truly believe we are on the cusp of a renaissance. Boxing seems to be gaining momentum again.

I guess it depends upon what criteria we use to determine what makes a great decade.
First you have to have great (and a lot good) fighters. almost every decade had that, it's just that they are in different weight classes.

You also have to have a lot of great fights. As barry pointed out, the 1940's lost some great fights because of world War II. Still there were a lot of great fights in that decade.

A major problem with boxing today (and to some extent in the 1990's) isn't the lack of talent. It's the lack of competitive matchups. For one thing there are too many weight classes which divides up the talent. The top fighters just don't fight each other enough. Occasionally the top 2 guys will meet in a Pay Per View.
It used to be common place for two top contenders to fight each other. 2 top 10 contenders rarely ever fight each other. However with the present situation of 4 titles, it's too risky for a contender to fight another contender. Now, it's smarter for a contender to bide his time fighting journeyman until he gets a title shot from one of 4 "champions".

The best decade for being a boxing fan would have to be the 1950's, 1960's or 1970's. Fights were regularly on TV for free. (Of course it's a different story if you lived in New York City and could see all those great fights live in the 1920's,1930's, and 1940's )
By the mid 1980's the networks gradually gave boxing less and less coverage.
If you have ESPN, all that you can watch is mismatches between "prospects" and tomato cans. HBO and Showtime occasionally have good fights but most people don't subscribe to these pay channels. In addition they are both frequently having mediocre fighters on Pay Per View.

I hope that Ezzard and big train express are right about great things to come. I just don't see it at all.

I haven't read this thread but the 1990s welters weren't bad. ODLH, Tito, Quartey etc etc

You need great fighters and they have to have great match ups. I totally agree that there are too many lop-sided fights that do nobody any favours. When 2 top fighters are in the same division I like to see rivalries built with rematches etc...

I believe that there were many more good fighters who
were active during the 1920s than at the present time.
While doing a lot of research, I found that vast majority
of good fighters of the 1920s fought often and usually
faced competitive opposition.

- Chuck Johnston