The 1970's: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing

American Thinker ^ | 10/24/2018 | Steve Feinstein

[SeekAndFind]

The decade of 1970s is widely regarded as the Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing. More world-class, highly skilled heavyweights were active during this time than at any other decade in boxing history. Names like Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers, Bugner, Ellis, Young, Holmes, Spinks, Patterson and Bonavena were known throughout the sporting world.

The decade started off with Joe Frazier winning universal recognition as heavyweight champion when he stopped Jimmy Ellis after four spirited rounds in their long-awaited showdown at Madison Square Garden on February 16th, 1970. Muhammad Ali had been stripped of his title and shorn of his boxing license following his refusal to be inducted into the Army in April 1967 (“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”). This precipitated a series of elimination bouts between the top contenders, culminating in the Frazier-Ellis fight, which was recognized by all the major sanctioning bodies around the world as the fight that would determine Ali’s official successor. Remember, up until the advent of Ultimate Fighting around the turn of the 21st century, boxing was a longstanding major sport and the heavyweight champion was one of the pre-eminent athletes in the world. So the Frazier-Ellis fight was a big deal.

Ali was eventually granted permission to fight again and came out of his forced retirement at age 28, in his athletic prime. He and Frazier -- both undefeated and both at their physical peaks at 29 and 27 -- fought in 1971 in what was just one of the many memorable fights in the 1970-1979 span.

Let’s take a quick look at just a few of these amazing fights. We certainly don’t have room to discuss them all, but these will give a flavor of the time. Apologies in advance if your favorite has been left off:

[romanesq]

Jimmy Young may have outpointed Ali but you can’t beat the champ by outpointing him on a few.

Ernie Shavers was pounding Ali and left an indelible memory of the hurt long after their fight. At the time, I thought Shavers won the fight. You can still watch it on YouTube.

It certainly was a fine group of great heavyweights.

[Magnatron]

I was just thinking about this the other night when I was watching (re-watching) an episode of Boardwalk Empire. In it, they have a revolving story line about the Dempsey–Carpentier fight.

It’s pretty amazing how the sport has pretty much disappeared. I think a unified belt would help bring it back, but then again, who knows if the snowflakes would watch either way.

[stylin19a]

Thanx.
Ali hit Frazier more, Frazier hit Ali harder. Different Ali ( bigger, slower ) than I remember in the 60’s.

I also saw one of their 2 followup fights (don’t remember which) on PPV.