1990's HW's vs 2000 HW's - The Matchups

[Mikhnienko]

Now most people say the 70's is the best era and i agree in terms of top 5 but i think the 90's had better overall depth of talent by comparison. So let's take a look at most of the top talent in arguably the deepest era vs what is considered a terrible era by most fans and even "experts"

Ruddock----Brewster
Bowe-------Volodymyr Klychko
Mercer-----Chambers
Holyfield----Ibragimov
Morrison----Haye
Tucker-----Arreola
Tyson------Chagaev
Foreman----Valuev
Lewis-------Vitali Klychko
Moore-----Povetkin
Seldon-----Brock
Bruno------Liakhovich
Witherspoon-Thompson
Tubbs-------Adamek
Mccall-------Peter

Tua, Golota, Byrd, Maskaev,Rahman, Ruiz, Kirk johnson fought overlapping era's

Boytsov, Helenius, Pulev, Glazkov too young at this point to be included.

Anyone who would say that there is a great discrepancy in talent or that alot of these fights would have a huge favourite & wouldn't be competitive are either :

1) Bias
2) Uninformed and haven't seen alot of the fighters (only remembering Ibragimov for his fight vs Klychko)

[Steak]

Ruddock----Brewster
Bowe-------Volodymyr Klychko
Mercer-----Chambers
Holyfield----Ibragimov
Morrison----Haye
Tucker-----Arreola
Tyson------Chagaev
Foreman----Valuev
Lewis-------Vitali Klychko
Moore-----Povetkin
Seldon-----Brock
Bruno------Liakhovich
Witherspoon-Thompson
Tubbs-------Adamek
Mccall-------Peter

bolded are the winners.
my opinion.

[joe strong]

Now most people say the 70's is the best era and i agree in terms of top 5 but i think the 90's had better overall depth of talent by comparison. So let's take a look at most of the top talent in arguably the deepest era vs what is considered a terrible era by most fans and even "experts"

Ruddock----Brewster
Bowe-------Volodymyr Klychko
Mercer-----Chambers
Holyfield----Ibragimov
Morrison----Haye
Tucker-----Arreola
Tyson------Chagaev
Foreman----Valuev
Lewis-------Vitali Klychko
Moore-----Povetkin
Seldon-----Brock
Bruno------Liakhovich
Witherspoon-Thompson
Tubbs-------Adamek
Mccall-------Peter

Tua, Golota, Byrd, Maskaev,Rahman, Ruiz, Kirk johnson fought overlapping era's

Boytsov, Helenius, Pulev, Glazkov too young at this point to be included.

Anyone who would say that there is a great discrepancy in talent or that alot of these fights would have a huge favourite & wouldn't be competitive are either :

1) Bias
2) Uninformed and haven't seen alot of the fighters (only remembering Ibragimov for his fight vs Klychko)

each era has good boxers but i think the 90's were the best because of the depth there was. there was a plethora of dangerous contenders.everyone fought each other. sometimes guys fought twice & even 3 times to get in position to fight holyfield,lewis or tyson.there were so many good fights.i think todays division is the weakest.look at how many over 38 boxers are still fighting...there isnt really too many next generation boxers.there are several good european prospects & fighters but since 40% of the worlds heavyweights are from the states that doesnt say much for the caliber of contenders on the world stage.not many american prospects & title contenders but yet almost half the worlds hw's are american.european fighters are flourishing but i think you need american contenders to give the world scene a boost.the welterweight,smw,featherweight divisions are the deepest right now.

[-EX-]

The Klitschkos may compete with the best of the 90's era but the level of there opposition is weak...

Of today's heavys who's on the level, close to, or better than Bowe, Holyfield, Tyson, Foreman, or Lewis(other than the Klits)?

Eddie Chambers, Sam Peter, Cris Arreola, Nikolai Valuev?

[joe strong]

in the 90's you could throw in toney & some gatekeepers like michael grant,obed sullivan,lou savarese,larry donald,al cole,etc...in 2000's you could add gatekeepers like barrett,mesi,guinn,mccline,lance whitaker,austin, etc...today its the klitschkos being way ahead of the rest of the pack.the contenders today take no risks & dont fight each other unless its a eliminator.todays division could be better if contenders fought each other more but you can thank mccline for this...he was #2 in the ibf when he risked his ranking vs calvin brock.brock beat him & got mcclines title shot vs wlad.

[Mikhnienko]

in the 90's you could throw in toney & some gatekeepers like michael grant,obed sullivan,lou savarese,larry donald,al cole,etc...in 2000's you could add gatekeepers like barrett,mesi,guinn,mccline,lance whitaker,austin, etc...today its the klitschkos being way ahead of the rest of the pack.the contenders today take no risks & dont fight each other unless its a eliminator.todays division could be better if contenders fought each other more but you can thank mccline for this...he was #2 in the ibf when he risked his ranking vs calvin brock.brock beat him & got mcclines title shot vs wlad.

Yeah i did arguably the top 15, cold be here all day if we start throwing everybody in.

Not fighting the top guys could be considered a problem in almost ever division though. Getting 1 maybe 2 top ten wins then sitting on a title shot seems to be the norm now unfortunatly.

[crold1]

Ruddock----Brewster
Bowe-------Volodymyr Klychko
Mercer-----Chambers
Holyfield----Ibragimov
Morrison----Haye
Tucker-----Arreola
Tyson------Chagaev
Foreman----Valuev
Lewis-------Vitali Klychko
Moore-----Povetkin
Seldon-----Brock
Bruno------Liakhovich
Witherspoon-Thompson
Tubbs-------Adamek
Mccall-------Peter

bolded are the winners.
my opinion.

Agree almost entirely and this list doesn't even include the back end of the 90s with Ike Ibeabuchi (not sure how fights with the Klits would have gone but there is NO ONE else since the Lewis retirement who beats the guy who beat Tua and Byrd.