Thread: Light Heavyweight's Today Haven't Got A Patch On The Past Light Heavyweight's

Been watching alot of the 70s and early 80s Light Heavyweight era. And i was thinking how bad the Light Heavyweight division is today compared to that era.

I mean in that era you had Michael Spinks, John Conteh, Marvin Johnson, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Victor Galindez, Bob Foster, ETC.

So many great fights and so many great fighters, its almost laughable compared to what we got today.

Originally Posted by ICB

Been watching alot of the 70s and early 80s Light Heavyweight era. And i was thinking how bad the Light Heavyweight division is today compared to that era.

I mean in that era you had Michael Spinks, John Conteh, Marvin Johnson, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Victor Galindez, Bob Foster, ETC.

So many great fights and so many great fighters, its almost laughable compared to what we got today.

Agreed. Imagine what some of these guys would have done with a prime Matthew Saad Muhammed. A guy you could swing a bag of bricks into and he'd still keep coming at you. As Tony said in Rocky II to Apollo, "You beat that man like I never seen you beat a man before and he kept coming after you.." Sounds like a 1979-81 version of Saad.

yeah that was the golden age of LHWs. Guys like John Conteh, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Matthew Saad Muhammad would clean out the current division. Spinks would annihilate it.

How do you see a fight between Conteh and Calzaghe going?

Originally Posted by skel1983

How do you see a fight between Conteh and Calzaghe going?

Pretty hard to tell, John Conteh had a fantastic jab. And could often win fights with his jab alone, he pretty much dominated Yaqui Lopez with just his left jab.

Some people say John Conteh was a one handed fighter, i disagree its only when he had bad problems with his right hand. That he become a one handed fighter, he did have a pretty good right hand before his right hand problems.

And he did have underrated movement aswell, i think a prime John Conteh may of won a decision. He had great boxing skills and Joe Calzaghe at times, when he comes forward is off balance especially against Bernard Hopkins. So i think John Conteh would keep on his toes, and exploit that weakness.

It would of been a great fight though John Conteh is underrated IMO, he beat Matthew Saad Muhammad despite being floored multiple times. And despite being past his prime.

I think one of the reasons for that Ice is that with the Super-Middleweight division, we now see many fighters who formerly would have been LHWs boiling down to 168.

Let's say you have a division with Kessler, Dawson, Bute, Abraham, Froch, Andrade, Johnson, Hopkins & Taylor. I'm not saying it's on or even near a level with that of the 70s/early 80s, but its still not that bad. In fact, I think only with the current Welterweight divisions can you look at it favourably alongside divisions of the past

Originally Posted by skel1983

How do you see a fight between Conteh and Calzaghe going?

Conteh- Calzaghe, now that's a glamour match. Hmm, tough one, i gotta think about this ...

conteh.

IMO Glen Johnson, Chad Dawson, some ofthe guys at 168(which wasn't around in the 70's) would stand up well to these guys you've mentioned.
Whoops I should read all the comments before posting, people beat me to it.

Hopkins would be a tought fight for anybody of any era.



Some people seem to antomaticaly thinkthat anything from the past is better than what we have today.

Originally Posted by porkypara

Hopkins would be a tought fight for anybody of any era.



Some people seem to antomaticaly thinkthat anything from the past is better than what we have today.

Well im not one of those people but come on, how many fighters are there that are over 40's, in the Light Heavyweight division today ? there were so many great fights and great fighters in the era i mentioned, aswell as so many tough challengers. Just watch some of the Light Heavyweight fights from that era, and you'll see what i mean totally different ball game.

Originally Posted by Taeth

IMO Glen Johnson, Chad Dawson, some ofthe guys at 168(which wasn't around in the 70's) would stand up well to these guys you've mentioned.
Whoops I should read all the comments before posting, people beat me to it.

Dwight Muhammad Qawi who had a similar style to Glen Johnson, was a better fighter than Glen Johnson. And as for Chad Dawson i agree he would be a tough fight for the fighters of the era.

But again Chad Dawson's chin is shaky, and we don't know how well he would do in a real tough fight. The Glen Johnson one was only tough in the later rounds, and can you imagine had he come up against a prime Dwight Muhammad Qawi, in that situation ?

Lastly i think your missing the point, this isn't so much about hypothetical match ups. Its more to do with comparing how strong the era's were. And when i think how many fighters we have over 40 in the Light Heavyweight division, and hardly any real young guns.

It makes me wish i was born in the classic Light Heavyweight era, so i could of seen fights like Matthew Saad Muhammad vs Marvin Johnson 1 live as it happened.

Originally Posted by jokaleras

yeah that was the golden age of LHWs. Guys like John Conteh, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Matthew Saad Muhammad would clean out the current division. Spinks would annihilate it.

These guys wouldn't make decent stay busy opponents for Spinks.....