Quote Originally Posted by Fenster View Post
For gawds sake shut the funk up about "the good old days." The heavyweights are rubbish today was the spiel in the 80s, then the 90s, then the Wlad era, now today. Always someone waffling about when boxing was better.

7-0-1 Leon Spinks (WBC)
19-5 Bonecruser Smith (WBA)
21-9 Mike Weaver (WBA)
10-1 Michael Bentt (WBO)
Berbick, Thomas, Douglas, Tubbs, Morrison, Hide, Seldon, Akinwande, Rahman, Norris, etc, etc, etc. The fighters back then were no better than today. What made them so good apart from you saw your heroes twat them?

You'd think it was April Fools if most were wheeled out for AJ today. Fury, Ortiz, Povetkin, Wilder, Fury, Miller, Whyte, Takam, Pulev, Del Boy, Breazeale etc? Do you honestly think they couldn't compete with the men Tyson, Holmes, Holyfield, Lennox beat? Laughable.
Depending what era you are talking about. The first list you had are people from the 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s. And they aren’t the best ones from the eras either. You just picked some random people. The HW division has admittedly been notoriously weak throughout history with some random good times.

I think the 90’s and early 2000’s were definitely better than today. I don’t think it’s that debatable. 90”s was pretty strong while early 2000’s were decent. Just looking at the top fighters in the 90’s with Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson, and Bowe, they are head and shoulders above what we have now. Bowe was just a bit insane but talent wise still much better. Even an old Foreman I don’t at all see losing to AJ or Wilder. Too good of a chin and hit too hard. I think that AJ and Wilder would be relevant in that era but relevant like Tommy Morrison was relevant.

But to answer the OP, AJ didn’t win the title too early. If you are good enough to win it, it isn’t too early. That’s boxing. You take what you get. If I walked in the ring tomorrow and beat a champion then I was ready.