Captures the Zeitgeist........

Some fighters and their fights, and their persona/image capture the spirit of a time or a place.

New York, very early and mid-late 80's- Camacho and Mike Tyson.



This whole segment just oozes that 80's feeling that I remember from my own childhood, the way it is shot, the soundtrack, the fashion, that fast confident feeling that had replaced the grittier 70's.


I grew up in the 80's...I remember that whole 80's feeling especially as it was portrayed in Ireland- Regan, the Space Race and the Shuttle tragedy, USA USA USA, the Olympics in LA and Seoul that whole Trump-Tyson-Ben Johnson vs Lewis vibe.

When I watch Sesame Street and FAME I get that whole feeling again.

I can remember that feeling like it was just yesterday.

Oscar is very much the 90's, that whole "Sky is the Limit" feeling that was going around as the Cold War had ended. Naz did it over here, that mid-late 90's vibe in England that was really high on self-confidence, Naz, Euro 96, Britpop that "SKY" era {our "version" of HBO} which was emerging, there was a sense of "exclusivity" from 1996 up to the 2000's that had replaced the much more communal grittier feel of Eubank-Benn-Watson of just a few years prior.

Things got very cynical in the 2000's, and fighters like Calzaghe and Hatton kind of portrayed that, as Warren was very protective of his assets.


Benn and Watson had started out in gritty venues like Finsbury Park in North Lodon and suddenly that all changed around 1995/1996 when things got a lot more glitzy and technical, ring walks, and a new form of gangster started to get involved in boxing over here in the UK, it was no longer the old reliables.

Same way that people like Mayweather fulfilled that financial madness feeling {SLAVE WAGES} of the Pre-Crash years and fighters like Ryan Garcia are all about the Instagram thing that we've got going today.

 

The most obvious answer is that Ali (and his mouth) personified the chaos of Vietnam-era '60s and 70s.

It's often been said that the round robin of titleholders at HW and MW in the '30s personified the disheartening nature of the Great Depression. In the same vein, the restoration of order and stability to each division by Joe Louis and Tony Zale (before each one joined the armed forces) symbolized the renewed feelings of patriotism and unity across the US as the country prepared to enter WW2.

 

The only way Ricky Hatton could sum up Manchester even more if he was doing spice instead of cocaine.

 

Sad state of affairs. I always felt that the entire "Madchester" scene was proof of how fucking wrong things were going in the late 90's and 2000's. Eventually you had that Dale Cregan fool shooting those two WPC's and the rest of it. Fucking lunacy that place turned into. I remember a girl I met in 1997 telling me about Moss Side and how loopy things were going.

Best epitomized by this unbelievable crock of shit:-

Swapping the frontline for right hooks

Same guy, Bret Murphy, was slung out of 3 Para with mental issues and was up on charges for spitting blood in a cops face in Wales. Basically a mental job after his time in Helmand.

So this guy "finds him".......and he's doing 4D Chess {at least on his level} he sees the £££ signs of putting on this card with lady boxers, street-beef merchants like the Corkovics and the likes and this poor bastard, formerly of 3 Para.

The guy hadn't a clue how to fight.

I don't know if you recall, but there was a period where all of a sudden "Everybody" became eligible to box- not box in the normal sense- but be dressed up in a special light, a special category, like they'd get street toughies to fight it out with each other, the fight being justified on the grounds that they were both

1. As good/bad as each other

2. They had some special interest story.

The natural outcome of all this was guys like former footballer Curtis Woodhouse who branded himself the "Troll Hunter"- as he'd go around looking to confront people who had mocked him on Social Media. There had been a limited bit of this stuff before when Wayne Alexander used to feud with some geezer online about shit too......Alexander would say things like "I am going up to The Strand now to buy furniture" which was his way of saying "I am so much richer than YAU"


This was really the natural outcome of what had been going.....it all gets really busy around 2009/2010, the perfect evolution of the Lager Loutery, Lads Mags and Social Media "Respek" eras.

Curtis Woodhouse, former failed footballer, crash-diet specialist, running around England, looking for trolls to beat them up, washed up Paras getting cut to ribbons in the ring having been passed off by their promoter as "very dangerous people, they need help" {yeah so why are you abusing them, twat?} and street toughies who had "never been defeated on the street" labouring to 4 round points wins over inept "opposition".

The peak of all this bullshit I suppose was McGregor getting a shot at Floyd, for megabucks, despite having ZERO fucking credentials as a boxer bar pushing around tiny shot Paulie in sparring.

I mean McGregor got paid more than Hatton, ffs. Just let that sink in. In years to come people will look back at this and ask "WTF was going on".

 

Half dressed knobs in the audience, dolly birds, guys who cant really box., "British Champeens", Sky, Watt droning on.

Ah yes take me back to 2010. {OK it was 2014 but you get the point}

 

Louis and Conn both going into the "Services" and not getting shot to shit like what Hitler tried to do to Schmelling sort of summed up one of the many differences at the time.

I don't know if there was a fighter who epitomized the post-Vietnam/Civil Rights trauma but if there is one it might be Ray Leonard and if there's one fight it might be Ray Leonard vs Hearns. A very rich fight that introduced a degree of talent and excitement after the collapse of the Heavyweight scene and the political rancour of that era "Morning in America" was here.

Even the photography seemed to have improved, it was more in colour, just felt that way.

 

Wandering nomad bandito fighter - Chucho Castillo and Gaspar Ortega. Lupe Pintor too. These guys always make me think of how 'wild west' Boxing still was in Mexico and the smaller shows of the USA. The competition was incredible at every level, with the boxers being like stray dogs looking for a meal and a home. Ortega used to literally wander around finding shows and fights with his brother. A mix of the emerging modern and the hard time, old school mentality. This type was in every Boxing culture worldwide, 1970's and before, but these ones immediately stick in my mind. I guess journeymen are the last vestige of it today. There's a certain romanticism and aesthetic to it that I adore.

 

Great thread idea and posts. Greb, Walker, Tunney and Dempsey and The Roaring Twenties.

 

Cheers.

Tunney was no mug. Married an heiress and became a Senator or something. Different era.

Back then a guy like him could be HW Champ.

Today he'd be in the UFC with his arsehole tattooed, sitting on McGregors face or something.

Different universe.

 

How do I unsee this image?

 

Stop watching UFC. Eat your vegetables and vitamins. Respect your parents. Say your prayers.

 

I don't think you'll ever find someone who sums up the roaring twenties quite like Jack Dempsey and Harry Greb did.

I think a nice case of someone really being a product of their environment is Benny Paret. Very harsh to outsiders and things outside of his culture, but also a gentle man who was caring and protective of his own. Tough as fuck, as well. Very much like the gritty farms and farmers in Cuba during the 50s.

 

Alas not tough enough it seems. I do wonder what the Wokesters today would make of all those boxers like Arguello, Gavilan, Paret ec who had very "mixed" views about the Commies.

Also this probably might trigger a few folks

 

Boxing was considered a noble profession back then.

 

It never was noble but it was never the worst either. Horsse Racing remains a brutal sport, as does Gridiron.

 

Glad they made a statue of Miguel Lora.

 

I'd like to imagine that that's how Lora got his nickname.

 

Just googled him... Similarity is uncanny

 

Lots of great mentions thus far. Harada for post-war Japan when the gyms were booming, the economy growing and the country emerging from international isolation and pariah status. The Japanese accepting Rudkin like one of the Beatles showed how outside culture was being accepted and embraced if looked at through a boxing prism, and Harada was a hero to many. It came as Japanese cinema was being lauded too at home and abroad with Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Shindo, Kobayashi etc.

 

A British TV sports presenter called Andy Kerr modelled Lonsdale gear for their catalogue and was posed in the exact above form, most people didn't even realize at the time who he was doing an impression of {Rudkin} I'm looking for the photo if I find it I will post it.

It was a total copy, and I am sure it was deliberate.

 

Photo just screams 1980's






First known photo of Steve_Dave, far right.

 

This is what happens to every decade. It loses it's own mojo, it runs out of steam, it surrenders to the next decade and just when it had figured out some fashion and class and proper haircuts, it gets flabby and disheveled and loses its self-belief.

 

When I started school in the 1980's, Ireland, which was always a few years behind........everyone had these haircuts and those shirts/ties

 

Camacho looks like he would have fit right in with Menudo.

 

I heard they were big Camacho fans and wrote that song "Subete a Mi Moto" in tribute to his performance vs Edwin Rosario.

 

This is very true. As identified by its fashion tropes, the 80s didn't really start in much of the UK before 1983 or even later.

 

Pretty much, Ireland was still in the late 70's in the late 80's.

Around 1993 people moved up a bit, there was a lot of "Eclipse" jeans and "Ellesse" trainers.

 

This also captures the zeitgeist..........of today.

SMFH.

 

Spinks staying in the background........."Oh shit there's that guy who beat Mike".

 

Wiser reminded me of this fight.

England, mid 1990's. Peak Britpop- that Summer Blur vs Oasis was on all the radio stations. It's the boom after the dip in 1991, the City is flying, the following Summer it was EURO 1996 "it's coming home" etc, Fantasy Football on TV, zero holds barred in terms of what you could say or show on telly.......The Word, Dani Behr, Kathy Lloyd, Page 3, Tory Sleaze,Harry Enfield and chums ...good times.

this fight took place in the Docklands in what was known as the old "East End"- and you look at the attendees- Naz, Bruno.......and a fuckload of suited and booted Yuppies from just up the water in Canary Wharf. All the yuppies would have been coked and boozed out their gourds. If you wanted a cross-section of London as it then was, you'd have found it there that night.

FACKING AVVVIT

The US commentators said there was a "Nationalistic" feeling in the air. Understatement or what.

Frank Bruno banging the apron.

Bedlam