Best Era to Be a Boxing FAN?

Early '80s obviously. You had Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Thomas Hearns, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, and Wilfredo Benitez all at or near the height of their powers. Just a super stacked era with tremendous fighters in nearly every weight class.

I liked the 70's and 80's. On Saturday afternoons there were often great championship fights. Gil Clancy and Tim Ryan worked a bunch of these fights. Howard Cosell called fights back then also.

The fighters were magnificent back then. We are talking about Duran, Leonard, Hagler, Buchanan, DeJesus, Benitez, Ali, Holmes, Norton, Shavers, Saad Muhammad, Quarry, Foster, Bonavena, Frazier and on and on.

Picture a Saturday afternoon and Ali vs Norton is live on network TV. Or Duran vs Barkley.....Hagler vs Minter or Antuofermo

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Early '80s obviously. You had Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Thomas Hearns, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, and Wilfredo Benitez all at or near the height of their powers. Just a super stacked era with tremendous fighters in nearly every weight class.

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This. And don't forget Tyson won his first belt in 86. He debuted in 85 at the age of 18.

From wiki:
Tyson made his professional debut as an 18-year-old on March 6, 1985, in Albany, New York. He defeated Hector Mercedes via first-round TKO.[26] He had 15 bouts in his first year as a professional. Fighting frequently, Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO or TKO; 16 of those came in the first round.[37] The quality of his opponents gradually increased to journeyman fighters and borderline contenders,[37] like James Tillis, David Jaco, Jesse Ferguson, Mitch Green, and Marvis Frazier. His win streak attracted media attention and Tyson was billed as the next great heavyweight champion. D'Amato died in November 1985, relatively early into Tyson's professional career, and some speculate that his death was the catalyst to many of the troubles Tyson was to experience as his life and career progressed.[38]

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Early '80s obviously. You had Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Thomas Hearns, Aaron Pryor, Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Wilfredo Gomez, Alexis Arguello, and Wilfredo Benitez all at or near the height of their powers. Just a super stacked era with tremendous fighters in nearly every weight class.

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This in spades. The OP obviously wasn't alive or too young to appreciate the number of talented fighters that spanned the many weight classes in boxing. The 70's through the 80's saw so many great fights being made and not only that, but they were also available on network TV for the most part

For several years now it's been PPV crap they have for just about any fight of worth------and lots not worth it like some of the Floyd Mayweather fights of the past 3 or so years where he's fighting nobodies.


I've been watching boxing since I was a little kid and Gillette sponsored "Friday Night Fights Live from Madison Square Garden". All brought to the viewer in black and white and watched by me, my day and an uncle who was a Navy Fleet Champion during WWII.


Edited to add this: In the local scene---- N.O.---- we had Tony Licata, a middleweight who was a very good amateur out of St. Mary's Gym in the French Quarter who turned pro at age 17.

He went on to have a very good pro career, fighting from 69 to 80 and amassing an excellent record of 60-7-4 during that time. He fought the Middleweight Champion Carlos Monzon, one of the greatest to lace up the gloves in Madison Square Garden in 1975 but lost by TKO in the 10 round of their scheduled 15 rounder.

I knew Tony and sparred with him before he turned pro at St. Mary's a few times and he was a hell of a nice guy. I just wish he could have pulled it off and won the middleweight title.

He went 51 straight fights without a loss in his career. Damn respectable in my eye.

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Salvador Sanchez

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Salvador Sanchez
Arrived and vanished
Only twenty-three with so much speed
Owning the highway

Mexico City bred so many
But none quite like him
Sweet warrior
Pure magic matador

And you could see Hagler, Holmes, Leonard, etc, on network TV.

Boom Boom Mancini

RIP Duk-Koo Kim

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And you could see Hagler, Holmes, Leonard, etc, on network TV.

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Correct. The vast majority of big money title fights were on broadcast television back in the 70's and 80's.

Jerry Celestine