1985-95 heavyweights

What if this era of heavyweights had maintained the culture of commitment and dedication that motivated the 70's generation. How would it have compared?

Mike Tyson - a 3 year prime, then petered out, losing his dedication to training and with it his skills, before ending up in jail.

Tony Tubbs - A guy with superb hand speed and natural skill, never reaching his potential due to being a big fat piece of shit.

Buster Douglas - The guy who fought Mike had ATG talent, there's no doubt about it. Great balance and poise, quick feet, superb accuracy and variety, incredible INTENSITY & solid defense. Only brought that talent into the ring a couple of times, went through the rest of his career in an apathetic daze.

Riddick Bowe - again, how many times did this guy bring his a game? 3 times? Another undertrained, lazy, fat bastard underachiever.

Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Razor Ruddock, Ray Mercer another 4 potentially strong supporting characters who were hella inconsistent for various reasons and go down as potential talent squandered due to a lack of focus in my book. Of course you have the two that made the most of their talent - Lennox & Holyfield, along with the other talented guys like Morrison, McCall, Old Foreman, Moorer, Cooper etc who added depth.

Vs

Old Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Norton, Lyle, Young, Ellis, Shavers, Chuvalo etc.

Just wondering whether people thought there was a such huge disparity in talent & depth between the two eras or just a huge disparity in motivation and focus? It seems to me you could easily IMAGINE the later generation producing an era that was at least as good.:dunno: Thoughts?

 

I don't think it's fair to say Mercer was a waste of talent. I think he fulfilled his potential.

 

Mike Tyson was a casualty of Don King....thats how I look at it...physically he remained in his prime but mentally he quit

 

Those heavyweights would have pissed on the current heavyweights of today


that Chris Arreola guy is HORRIBLE...its almost like watching a club fighter...Boogie Man Ferguson would have destroyed him

 

well...Mercer's chin carried him thats for sure

 

yeah but I think the same could be said for guys like Chuvalo. what would he have amounted to without his chin? plus, Mercer "was" a good boxer. he was an Olympic champion afterall. and whether Lewis deliberately allowed his fight with him to be a war or not, besides the Vitali fight he was probably involved in Lewis' most exciting fight.

 

Out of todays heavyweights Vitali would have held his own in that era imo

 

I think he would have done more than hold his own.

 

As an aside to the topic, I would have loved to see Bowe and Witherspoon throw down at some point.

All those overhand rights...would've been fun.

 

LOL...im not really putting him down...Mercer when in shape was a formidable fighter...he had an underrated jab..i wouldnt call him a good boxer...Tommy Gun and even Francesco Damiani were outfighting him before Mercer's chin made them get tired...much like the way chuvalo did

 

Vitali would have been the only one

 

::

 

His chin also break his nose?

 

Agreed.

TFK