80's Heavyweights where they that bad?

[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?

anyway those guys where not the top heavyweight of the 80's the ledoux fight was well one sided its was funny when the fight was stopped and all the fans started throwing bottles and stuff into the ring cos they were ledoux fans.

[duffgun]

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.

yeah those where the average guys of the division not the best.

[tills9191]

well at least they fought with some technique,and were loose.
Unlike today's fighters..
look at golata, vitali,valuev,oleg maskaev..
have u seen the way these fighters throw a punch??
they have absolutely no technique whatsoever..
what about the way vitali throws an uppercut, its an insult.
wana see a good uppercut? have a look at buster douglas.
wana see a good jab,take a look at douglas or holmes.
today's hw's have no technique.
wlad looks a bit robotic to me too.
He is a bit stiff.

[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 of them.

so you saw one berbick fight, in 20 years time you could watch wlad against sanders and say he was awful because of that one performance.

[Banderivets]

well at least they fought with some technique,and were loose.
Unlike today's fighters..
look at golata, vitali,valuev,oleg maskaev..
have u seen the way these fighters throw a punch??
they have absolutely no technique whatsoever..
what about the way vitali throws an uppercut, its an insult.
wana see a good uppercut? have a look at buster douglas.
wana see a good jab,take a look at douglas or holmes.
today's hw's have no technique.
wlad looks a bit robotic to me too.
He is a bit stiff.

Are you 12? Thats the ****iest analysis Ive seen so far.

[Brother Blues]

Most of those 80s guys would fit right in today...some like Michael Dokes and Tim Witherspoon would be 'fringe' champions,just like they were in their heyday.

In fact,Dokes knocks out Wlad,and probably Witherspoon cuts him up also...before you laugh,both were better fighters than the golfer,Sanders.

[Thread Stealer]

A lof of them were underachievers who squandered too much talent due to laziness and drugs (Tubbs, Dokes, Thomas, Tucker). Ruddock (late 80s, early 90s) was another physically gifted guy who had the work ethic, but was a ****** fighter.

Spoon was pretty good though, terrible performance in the Smith rematch aside. I actually thought he narrowly beat Holmes in their fight. He had pretty solid skills, a big right hand, and a crafty defense, hiding behind his glove and parrying shots well.

Unfortunately he was more or less blackballed after getting into Don King's ****house.

[duffgun]

Most of those 80s guys would fit right in today...some like Michael Dokes and Tim Witherspoon would be 'fringe' champions,just like they were in their heyday.

In fact,Dokes knocks out Wlad,and probably Witherspoon cuts him up also...before you laugh,both were better fighters than the golfer,Sanders.

Dokes had very quick hands and was very skilled but was a coke addict, witherspoon was also good and had that very close fight with holmes but was never the same after all the money problems he had with king after the bruno fight.

[Dynamite76]

They were a talented group, but drugs, lack of realization of potential(especially in Page's case), and Don King ruined what should have been a great time for the heavyweight division.