This writer is of an age where it can be said that he has ‘rose-tinted’ glasses, is or getting old, and, does not fully appreciate the talent, personalities, match-ups and promotions of today.
But, let me defend and indulge myself and try to justify how good the boxing world was forty years ago.
In 1986 we had a standout year. There was a new heavyweight champion ‘in waiting’ who was terrorising the division on his relentless march to the heavyweight crown. Michael Gerard Tyson was that man and he featured on February’s bright yellow cover of The Ring magazine as ‘The Legacy of Cus D’amato’. This was the said trainer’s second chance of guiding the Heavyweight Champion of the World after his first; Floyd Patterson in the 1950s.
Tyson’s march to the world crown was irresistible. He would win thirteen times in 1986, culminating in destroying Trevor Berbick to gain the WBC heavyweight belt on 22 November. Funnily enough, the day this writer graduated in Cambridge, England.
As they said on the Berbick-Tyson HBO commentary at the time “We have a new era in boxing !”. This we did, and most of Tyson’s story since was captivating and is well documented.
In 1987 he would go onto unify the world heavyweight championship by having four more title fights; defeating James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith for his WBA belt, Tony Tucker for the IBF version, with a WBC defence against Pinklon Thomas sandwiched in between. He finished the year off in October with a destruction of 1984 Olympic champion Tyrell Biggs to emphasize his dominance.
The heavyweight division was captivating as the Tyson-machine gained momentum and the drama unfolded. Tyson made the heavyweights fight and, be in shape and busy. In an age of the bloated heavyweight he forced them to get in condition before the inevitable.
After bombing out Larry Holmes (the previous dominant champion) and Tony Tubbs in early 1988, Tyson would destroy Michael Spinks that June for his eventual Ring magazine and universal acceptance.
Compare this activity to how long Olexander Usyk has not defended his title. Admittedly due largely to injury, and, how the heavyweight title has stagnated for the last seven months. Still no title defence on the horizon. Meanwhile the rest of the top ten heavyweights sporadically fight among themselves to gain pole position to challenge Usyk.
Back to 1986… On the March cover of The Ring, they were unable to separate future Hall-of-Famers; Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Donald Curry, announcing them as their 1985 ‘Co-fighters of the Year’. Both were exceptional champions of the time who defeated the best in their weight classes regularly.
Curry unified the welterweight division by destroying Milton McCrory inside two rounds in 1985, and Hagler won arguably the fight (if not first round) of the century to defend his undisputed world middleweight championship. Thomas Hearns, the vanquished, would regroup and go on to be a five-weight ‘world’ champion and future Hall-of-Famer himself.
My point is the mid-80s were an era when ‘the best’ fought the best and, fought regularly. Think of the trilogy of fights among the ‘Four Kings’ – Hagler, Leonard, Duran and Hearns. Then think have we got anything close to this now ? In my view the answer is an emphatic ‘No’.
We may now have the multi-millions that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is ploughing into our sport, and a result is that some of the big fights are finally being made (Canelo-Crawford, Beterbiev v Bivol I and II, Inoue defences etc’) but, do we have anything that resembles the activity and riveting viewing of the ‘Four Kings’ ? Again, an emphatic ‘No’.
Just a further flick through my bound 1986 copies of The Ring shows covers featuring Marvelous Marvin taming ‘The Beast’ John Mugabi in a back and forth struggle that would also serve to inspire ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard to make his 1987 comeback, ultimately taking Hagler’s titles.
WBA world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan was in his pomp and ‘The Ring’ June edition announced he was ‘Back in the USA’. He would come unstuck against late-substitute Steve Cruz in the Las Vegas heat in the magazine’s Fight of the Year, part of a triple-header featuring Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran (poster above).
Prior to Tyson’s coronation and still widely considered the heavyweight king, Hall-of-Famer Larry Holmes would lose a controversial second fight to Michael Spinks and his dominant reign would be over forever.
A cruiserweight called Evander Holyfield would arrive as the ‘Real Deal’ winning then WBA world junior-heavyweight title in a fifteen round war with double champion and elite seasoned campaigner Dwight Muhammad-Qawi (former Braxton).
In September 1986, two big shocks happened when first Britain’s Lloyd Honeyghan ripped the undisputed world welterweight title from then pound-for-pound candidate Donald Curry in Atlantic City, USA and, Puerto Rican lightweight Edwin Rosario ‘scrambled’ Livingstone Bramble for the WBA world lightweight title in Miami Beach. The Ring announced it as ‘The weekend that shook the boxing world’.
Meanwhile, ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, a beacon of the sport for the late 70s and early 80s, was planning and preparing for his spectacular comeback in April 1987. We had Julio Cesar Chavez coming though the divisions and Pernell Whitaker and Meldrick Taylor dazzling the public with their Los Angeles 1984 Olympian skills. The majority would become Hall-of-Famers.
Do we really have anything to compare to this era ? I may have polished my rose-tinted glasses, but still can’t see the depth and superstardom we enjoyed back then. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
The Undisputed 