Will the Golden 80s Ever Happen Again?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 15 Jun 2023
Will Boxing's Golden Era of the 80s happen again this decade with the current impasse at heavyweight, Canelo Alvarez's popularity on a seeming nosedive and the uncertainty at welterweights and the middleweights, traditionally the sport's glamour divisions?
Recall that it was in the 80s that fans' attentions began shifting from the heavyweights, for a very long time boxing's flagship. The emergence of Mike Tyson later in the decade restored the division's pre-eminence but that did not detract from the dominance of the so called Four Kings--- Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas 'The Hitman' Hearns and Roberto 'Hand of Stone' Duran.
And the unprecedented attention showered on many other divisions from flyweights, the featherweights, the lightweights to include their junior and super classes through exploits of guys like Humberto Gonzales, Wilfredo Gomez, Salvador Sanchez, Azumah Nelson, Hector Macho Camacho, Julio Cesar Chavez, Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor.
What was best is that many of these elite marquee champions got to fight each other and on several occasions not just once in super fights viewed live and via satellite by millions around the world.
To think that at that time there was basically just the WBA and the WBC competing for global recognition which of them was the best or better and more credible sanctioning body though the IBF was already on its infancy stage.
Some may argue that having essentially just two major boxing bodies ensure the high quality of competition but that is not necessarily true as the IBF and later the WBO in time also demonstrated and proved that they too can nurture superstar champions and fighters the likes of Joe Calzhage and the
Klitschko brothers.
Hence having four major boxing organizations which keep on churning out quality champions and fighters despite a global pandemic which has prompted according to many experts pro boxing to reset have put the sport in the position to perhaps do a reprise of the situations in the 80s.
There are uncanny similarities in the situations of the 80s and today.
Primarily, the heavyweight division is in a flux with the dominant champions Oleksander Usyk and Tyson Fury seemingly unwilling to fight each other to establish who between them is the best. This has turned off many fans who are forced to look at other divisions for the action they are looking and craving for.
Secondly, there are indications that the claim of Canelo Alvarez as the planet's best fighter has reached a saturation point especially following a pedestrian showing against Dmitry Bivol.
Thirdly, the fans are also about ready to give up on the prospect of a Crawford versus Spence fighting for welterweight domination.
These have effectively created a vacuum in boxing which fans worldwide have been yearning to be filled up by new boxing heroes and superstars in sunder weight classes.
And there's a glut in talented fighters and opportunities for the craved for super fights today as in the 80s.
Take the flyweights for instance. With top flight champions as Julio Cesar Martinez, Sunny Edwards, Artem Dalakian and Jessie Bam Rodriguez, the division could very well vie for and sustain fans attention with fights featuring any combination of these fighters.
The same remains true in the super flyweights with quality and established champions and fighters as Juan Francisco Estrada, Chocolatito Gonzalez, Joshua Franco, Kazuto Ioka and Junto Nakatani.
Bantamweights loss is super bantamweight's gain with Naoya Inoue moving up and challenging Stephen Fulton in his division debut with Fulton's unified WBC and WBO titles at stake. Of course, a Fulton victory will also be big for boxing.
Despite Devin Haney's frustrating though still winning performance against former pound for pound and unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, the lightweights is still on track for high profile fights with the likes of Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson lurking around.
Josh Taylor was not expected to lose his remaining belts at super lightweight to Teofimo Lopez but the 140 lbs class as in times of Arguello and Pryor in the 80s would still be a division to watch with Lopez, Regis Prograis, Subriel Matias and even Taylor and WBA regular titlist Tank Davis figuring in battle of domination or redemption.
It is an exciting time still for boxing if only big name champions and fighters and most importantly, big time promoters and the networks will hark back to the 80s and what made it a golden era in boxing.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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