Did Buster Douglas Kill the Heavyweight Division?

Rocky Marciano! Rocky Marciano! White people always got they Rocky Marciano!

 

Fuck... speak for yourself and those people .

For me, it was incredible to see guys so fearful of another fighter wearing gloves. Never got old for me.

 

Hey, I never believed Biggs was Ali. But that's how their first fight was built up: that these guys would see each other again.

 

You never met no Martin Luther The King.

 

Just watching the fight and Tyson destroyed Biggs. Plus Biggs was much taller than Tyson, but the referee just waved the fight off after the left hook from Tyson.

 

For a lot of fans paying good money for PPV, fights which ended quickly and were so one-sided didn't do much for their interest in the sport.

If it worked for you, good on ya'.

 

The problem with many of the greatest fighters was that their fights went quickly when they faced a lesser opponent. Sure, you would see an undercard of like 4 fights, that went 6-8 rounds, but then the main event would last 2 or 3 rounds and you feel gypted. At least in the lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight classes, there are longer fights to try to keep the sport up.

 

Heavyweight boxing was fine after the Douglas upset. Holyfield was a great champion with a memorable trilogy against Riddick Bowe. George Foreman was a great story and pitchman for the sport for a number of years.

Once Lewis took over things began to die down because for a few years he was so much bigger and more talented than anyone else his fights were horrible size and style mismatches. Unfortunately for him the Klitchsko brothers came around too late because the six-round Lewis-Vitali Klitschko slug fest was compelling stuff.

 

When would you put the DOA for heavyweight boxing? I think even before Lewis and near the middle of Holyfield's turn it took a turn for the worse.

 

Before you consider Tyson any less than a fighter for the ages -- and even before you completely write off today's class, which mostly fails due to lack of character, rather than lack of talent -- remember that boxers are subject to the same "evolution" process as all athletes.

The boxers of the 1940s, 1950s, I won't argue they probably had more heart, may have been tougher. That is, at least in part, negated by the fact that today's boxer is a more efficient machine. Advances in training, chemistry, nutrition ... these guys are androids compared to the boxers of yesteryear.

 

Exactly shot. I serioulsy doubt that if Marciano trained today he would be undefeated, and likewise for Tyson if he fought back in the day of Ali and Fraizer, he would have his ass handed to him. It's all about the era, but unfortunately, the era for heavyweight boxing, and boxing really for that matter is over.

 

Even if one bought this premise, why would Buster Douglas get the blame? Shouldn't the blame be on Tyson's shoulders for getting his ass whipped by a journeyman fighter?