80's Heavyweights where they that bad?

[duffgun]

I have heard a lot of people moan about the heavyweights of the 80's but i don't think they were anywhere near as bad as people make out. Recently i have been downloading a load of 80's fights and in fact there where some great fights much better than the awful fights the current bunch of heavyweights produce. We had the following fighters active in the 80's
Mike Tyson
Larry Holmes
Evander Holyfield
Frank Bruno
Michael Dokes
Donovan Ruddock
Tony Tucker
Michael Spinks
Tony Tubbs
Buster Douglas
Tim Witherspoon
Carl Williams
Greg Page
Mike Weaver
Gerry Cooney
Pinklon Thomas
Bonecrusher Smith
Gerry Coetzee
Tex Cobb
John Tate

Some of these fighters produced great fights a few examples below, i think the problem is some of the people that make these comments haven't actually seen many of there fights.
Bonecrusher Smith vs Donovan Ruddock
Carl Williams vs Bert Cooper
Michael Dokes vs Evander Holyfield
Michael Dokes vs John Louis Gardner
Michael Spinks vs Gerry Cooney
Larry Holmes vs Leon Spinks
Larry Holmes vs Bonecrusher Smith
Tyson vs Pinklon Thomas

[Welter_Skelter]

And that is the whole POINT isn't it??

**** other people and their useless opinions... make your OWN opinions..

[Mike Tyson77]

80's HW's would kill the 20's HW's.

[duffgun]

And that is the whole POINT isn't it??

**** other people and their useless opinions... make your OWN opinions..

i am just pointing out that people moan about the 80's heavyweights but they did produce some very good fights.

[The Hammer]

I just watched some of Tyson's big fights and his opponents looked very bad. Trevor Berbick looked worse than any of the top 10 today, and yet he had a title. Holmes was a great fighter, but was well past his best by that time.

There was only one good heavyweight from 1986 to 1989 - Mike Tyson. The rest were really not very good. Wlad would KO all of them.

[TheGreatA]

Underrated IMO.

Most of them were talented but very lazy and inconsistent, kind of like the heavyweights today.

Tony Tubbs was overweight but very fast, maybe even faster than Tyson (though not nearly as powerful).

Carl Williams was good but his chin let him down often.

Ruddock could KO anyone with his uppercut. He was knocked down many times but he always managed to get up.

Bruno was very powerful but always ran out of stamina.

Bonecrusher Smith had KO power but sometimes he looked very unmotivated.

Mike Weaver could turn a fight around with one punch.

Pinklon Thomas was avoided by many in his prime.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXjVcTpFSEg The end of Weaver vs Tate
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vluzMIpjtB0 Frank Bruno vs Gerrie Coetzee
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P-Coa7n_Q_I Razor Ruddock vs Bonecrusher Smith
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y0YPKC1mXWc Tony Tubbs vs Tyson

[duffgun]

I just watched some of Tyson's big fights and his opponents looked very bad. Trevor Berbick looked worse than any of the top 10 today, and yet he had a title. Holmes was a great fighter, but was well past his best by that time.

There was only one good heavyweight from 1986 to 1989 - Mike Tyson. The rest were really not very good. Wlad would KO all those bums.

have you seen them fight though, Dokes for instance had a great fight against the european champ John Louis Gardner awesome Ko at the end to.

[Jim Jeffries]

Let's look at some of Larry Holmes' title defences in the 80's:

Lorenzo Zanon
Leroy Jones
Scott LeDoux
Leon Spinks
Reynaldo Snipes
Tex Cobb
Lucien Rodriguez
Scott Frank
Marvis Frazier

Do you honestly think any of these guys would be competitive today?

[duffgun]

Let's look at some of Larry Holmes' title defences in the 80's:

Lorenzo Zanon
Leroy Jones
Scott LeDoux
Leon Spinks
Reynaldo Snipes
Tex Cobb
Lucien Rodriguez
Scott Frank
Marvis Frazier

Do you honestly think any of these guys would be competitive today?

I am not saying if they would be competitive i am just saying they actually produced good fights, the leon spinks fight was very good.

[TheGreatA]

Do you honestly think any of these guys would be competitive today?

They would be ranked about the same as they were back in the 80's. Average at best, like Ray Austin, Luan Krasniqi, Peter Okhello, Matt Skelton and such.

Holmes fought lots of average opposition in between his bigger fights.

The question should be, could guys like Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Bonecrusher Smith, Pinklon Thomas, Carl Williams, Razor Ruddock, Tony Tucker and others be contenders in today's era? Most probably.
Not saying the would all be champions but definitely contenders.