What Ever Happened To The Good Old Days of Boxing?
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Remember Hearns and Hagler, Leonard Hearns, Leonard and Duran, and Hagler and Duran? Remember the fan man who came crashing down in the middle of the world heavyweight title bout between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield? How about Aaron ‘The Hawk’ Pryor’s two classic confrontation with Alexis Arguello?
MMA seems bigger than Floyd, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. seems bigger than everybody else lining for a payday. Nevertheless, it wasn’t always that way. Back in the day, CBS television and Tim Ryan semed to take a big bite out of everything that was boxing. The seventies really put boxing back on the map, and Muhammad Ali helped a lot. When Larry Holmes beat Gerry Cooney, boxing had been great hyped out of proportion, though one could suppose Gerry Cooney was as close to the great white hope as we ever did see.
Carlos Monzon was a middleweight untouchable. Joe Frazier versus Muhammad Ali was an unforgettable rivalry. When Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, when poor George Foreman left the ring an ex-champion, nobody wanted anything to do with him anymore, even the cameraman, and the poor man wound up in therapy. Two decades later, Foreman would regain the title form Michael Moorer, as unlikely a comeback as we ever did see, save Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons and Bernard Hopkins.
When Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali in their first fight, ever asked where Leon’s middle teeth were. When Ali beat Spinks in the rematch, everyone thought “Oh no, not again?” When Mike Weaver knocked out John Tate to win the WBA Heavyweight title in the fifteenth round, even the television viewers could not figure out how it could happen. Matthew Saad Muhammad intrigued us with his stories about not knowing who he was or where he came from. Oscar Bonavena fell three times in the fifteenth round against Muhammad Ali in their eliminator bout. Floyd Patterson got knocked out twice in the first round against Sonny Liston, who in turn got knocked out twice by Muhammad Ali.
Everyone listened to the sob story of how Lenny Mancini never got to fight for the title, but his son Ray ‘Boom-Boom’ Mancini would win it for him, and he eventually did. But not against Alexis Arguello, who stopped him in the fourteenth round of their epic battle. Joe Frazier did not come out for round 15 in his third battle with Ali in ‘The Thrilla in Manilla’. Joe Louis fell against Rocky Marciano in the eighth round, Archie Moore fell against Rocky in the ninth round. Rocky Balboa did not beat Apollo Creed in the original Rocky movie. Salvador Sanchez stopped Wilfredo Gomez in a bout for which Gomez evidently thought he did not have to train hard for, and took a bad beating. And so it all was my friends, back in the good old days.
One of my favorite CBS television clips was WBC World Super Bantamweight Champion Jaime Garza, 40-0 with 38 knockouts, versus Juan Kid Meza, 40-6, 31 knockouts, ranked number one and never knocked out. It was like July fourth sparklers on a birthday cake. Sparks flew in the first round. Both men headed to the canvas, and only one emerged on his feet in the Ring Magazine round of the year in 1984, and have a good day folks. Watch it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy64HxDZTEc
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