Quote Originally Posted by Taeth View Post
Quote Originally Posted by BIG H View Post
It's always been my opinion that there are very few really golden eras on Heavyweight boxing. I think perhaps only 2 infact - The era of Ali, Foreman, Frazier & Norton and the era of Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis & Tyson (although they were all at deifferent stages of careers and didn't all fight at thi time) There has always been 1 or 2 dominant fighters and then a lot of average to good contenders. I thnk the 'contenders' in the two era I mentioned were probably better than any other era including the current one. E.G Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, Michael Moorer, Razor Ruddock to name a few a far better than today's offering, outside of the Klits!
I would argue that a lot of these guys like Peter in shape, Povetkin, Eddie Chambers in shape, Chagaev, Ibragimov would do really well in any era of boxing. I think they could beat a lot of the guys from the 90's, and maybe even guys like Holyfield, Bowe, and Tyson on the right night.

I think guys like Lewis and the Klitschko brothers are a new breed in boxing that simply have too much size and athleticism for them to lose baring poor preparation or a special punch landing. Wladimir used to be less defensively aware and he used to get caught with stupid punches considering his chin. I don't think its a bad thing he takes his lack of punch durability into account when he fights. Vitali looks awkward as hell, but he is undeniably effective.
I disagree Taeth, the Likes of Chambers, Peter, Chagaev etc would be pulverised by the likes of Mercer, Morrison Ruddock etc IMO. Christ, Chagaev got a very dodgy decision over Ruiz.

As for Lennox, he was a great HW but the 2 best names on his record were both past their best when he fought them. Now I always think Lewis-Tyson would be a tough one to call if you could put them in together prime for prime and I would probably still just swing for lennox but I think the Holyfield who battered Douglas or the man who beat Bowe in the rematch would have just been too good and too relentless for Lewis. IMO Evander should have called it a day after the Lennox fights and by now he would be regarded as the 3rd greatest HW of all time.

I'd love to be able to take a prime Muhammad Ali (whenever that was) and a 25 year old Foreman and put them in todays era. They would absolutely dominate IMO and Ali's speed, skill and accuracy would cause everyone including the Klits and Haye nightmares and Foremans Power would just knock all 3 clean out within 6 rounds each. Ali wasn't that bad a puncher either it's just it's overlooked a lot because it wasn't phenominal like his speed and skill and Foreman and Frazier were around Knocking everyone that moved out at the time too.