Is the heavy-weight division dead?

[K-Nan]

What do you know about the 80's or 90's that you didnt READ.. I was there man.. DO YOU GET IT.. I saw it all LIVE.... I have had that ADULT power of Cognitive Though Longer than you have been alive..

I am going to take the word of MY experince over your intelligence and what you READ any day of the week...
It's not even a contest...

This is a decent HW era... It's just Not an American dominated one..

Umm...

I think we're talking about me and your ciews on the modern Heavweight era. Not the fights of yesteryear. And I'm saying to you that the division is shallow.

[Welter_Skelter]

Umm...

I think we're talking about me and your ciews on the modern Heavweight era. Not the fights of yesteryear. And I'm saying to you that the division is shallow.

OK It's shallow... But then so was every other HW ERA...

The 70's had 3 Superstars.. and 20000 bums.. The 80's 2 stars and 20000 bums..The 90's 3 greats.. 20000 Bums.. Today there is One Great and 20000 bums...

Tell me it's Shallow again..

[TheGreatA]

That's a quite disrespectful and ignorant statement.

[kayjay]

The heavyweight division is strong.

You guys need to look at HWs from the 70's. Apart from the three champs, none of those chumps could even fight in this division. Look at most of Ali's opponents. Do you rate Chuck Wepner above Ray Austin? Look at Louis's opponents; any of them who he didn't lose to. The division has rarely been deep.

What's missing today are the big fights, because Don King and others have prevented them.

[K-Nan]

OK It's shallow... But then so was every other HW ERA...

The 70's had 3 Superstars.. and 20000 bums.. The 80's 2 stars and 20000 bums..The 90's 3 greats.. 20000 Bums.. Today there is One Great and 20000 bums...

Tell me it's Shallow again..

Horrible generalization. Maybe I 'wasn't there', but I also know that there were good contenders in those better times.

[kayjay]

Horrible generalization. Maybe I 'wasn't there', but I also know that there were good contenders in those better times.

You're missing the fact and seeing the myth, Kaynan.

There were no "better times."

[TheGreatA]

The 60's and 70's HW division apart from Ali, Foreman and Frazier had fighters like Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Henry Cooper, George Chuvalo, Jimmy Ellis, Earnie Shavers, Bob Foster, Jimmy Young, Joe Bugner, Ron Lyle, Oscar Bonavena, Zora Folley, Cleveland Williams, Doug Jones and Eddie Machen.

All were good. I'm sure people could list even more.

[kayjay]

The 60's and 70's HW division apart from Ali, Foreman and Frazier had fighters like Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Henry Cooper, George Chuvalo, Jimmy Ellis, Earnie Shavers, Bob Foster, Jimmy Young, Joe Bugner, Ron Lyle, Oscar Bonavena, Zora Folley, Cleveland Williams, Doug Jones and Eddie Machen.

All were good.

Some of those were good fighters, but most couldn't fight at HW today.

Ellis, Foster, Young were too small.

Cooper was crude and no better than today's Limeys, who are ****. The Ali KD is a nice legend but Clay was kidding around with his very inferior opposition.

Bugner and Lyle are classes below

Norton and Quarry are your only two legit quality heavies there.

[TheGreatA]

Some of those were good fighters, but most couldn't fight at HW today.

Ellis, Foster, Young were too small.

Cooper was crude and no better than today's Limeys, who are ****. The Ali KD is a nice legend but Clay was kidding around with his very inferior opposition.

Bugner and Lyle are classes below

Norton and Quarry are your only two legit quality heavies there.

Not saying they are all great heavyweights or anything like that but all were accomplished and capable boxers, certainly not bums.

And if Liston and Patterson aren't legit quality heavyweights in your opinion I don't know who are.

And the reason I listed a boxer like Foster is because he is ranked as one of the best Light Heavyweights of all time.
He tried to move up in that era just like Roy Jones and Michael Spinks did later, but did so unsuccessfully because he faced better, more skilled opposition.

What is lacking in today's HW era is skill, the boxers are bigger than they used to be in those days but boxers like RJJ and Toney can move up and fight bigger heavyweights because the heavyweights lack the kind of technique, skill or athleticism that they have (Wlad would kill both of them though).

In that era, if you wanted to move up, not only would you have to deal with superior size, you would also have to deal with superior skill.

[kayjay]

Liston and Patterson were not quality in the 70's. You have them on the same list as Holmes? Their careers didn't even overlap. The point here is that at no one point in time were there many quality HWs, and by HWs I mean legit HWs by today's standards.