Welcome
Welcome to The Boxing Ring
Before the advent of easy access MMA,
boxing was definitely on the top of my watch list...of course, I'm from
the generation of the greats ( Ali, Frasier, Foreman, Sugar Ray,
Hagler, Hearns, etc...)...it lost some of it's luster around the time
of Leon Spinks and Holmes...for me anyways...but then came Iron Mike,
Bowe, Lewis, and the return of Foreman, etc...
Boxing is a sport that goes through periods of growth and decay...at
one point in history there are several outstanding boxers and at other
times there's really no one special...it can go an entire decade
without anyone you can point to as a potential ' worthy ' Hall of
Famer.
But, as always, boxing will
survive...it always does...it weathers the storms and waits for the
next Ali to rear his head and drive the sport back into
popularity...like the boxers themselves, the sport seems to thrive on
an edge...at one point almost lifeless, then, all of a sudden it
comes at you with a flurry...it is a survivor...it does find a way to
survive...one way or another.
The
Heavyweights
World
Heavyweight Champions: The
Undisputed Years
07/09/1892 James
J Corbett
17/03/1897 Bob
Fitzsimmons
09/06/1899 James
J Jeffries
03/07/1905 Marvin
Hart
23/02/1906 Tommy
Burns
26/12/1908 Jack
Johnson
05/04/1915 Jess
Willard
04/07/1919 Jack
Dempsey
23/09/1926 Gene
Tunney
12/06/1930 Max
Schmeling
21/06/1932 Jack
Sharkey
29/06/1933 Primo
Carnera
14/06/1934 Max
Baer
13/06/1935 James
J Braddock
22/06/1937 Joe
Louis: retired champion
22/06/1949 Ezzard
Charles
18/07/1951 Jersey
Joe Walcott
23/09/1952 Rocky
Marciano: retired champion
30/11/1956 Floyd
Patterson
26/06/1959 Ingemar
Johansson
20/06/1960 Floyd
Patterson
25/09/1962 Sonny
Liston
25/02/1964 Muhammad
Ali
World
Heavyweight Champions: The
Disputed Years
The very next year ( 1965 ), after Clay beat Liston,
the new kid on the block ( the WBA ) created the ' disputed title
'...now there was two Boxing Crowns ( the WBC and the WBA )...but Ali
unified it in 1967 by defeating the WBA Champion Ernie Terrell...1968
and 1969 would again see the title disputed...until Joe Frazier put his
stamp on both titles in 1970.
And the title would remain undisputed for the next 9 years ( Joe
Frazier: 1970- 1972; George Foreman: 1973-1974; and Muhammad Ali;
1974-his loss to Spinks in 1978 ).
In 1984 the IBF came around to cause a three way split in titles...and
to make things even more confusing ( and ridiculous ) the WBO came
along in 1989.
Unsurprisingly...the title hasn't been ' unified ' since 1992 ( with
the exception of Lennox Lewis holding the unified title twice in 1999 ).
That's 15 years ( 1992-2007 ) without a unified title ( exception above
noted )...I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see another unified
title last longer than a few months...ever again.
Disclaimer
To the best
of our knowledge these are all from either the public domain or free to
use, and a link either has been or will soon be placed on our link page
whenever possible to credit the sources of the photos and tips.
If for some
reason we have inadvertantly placed a photo or image or article that is
not freely
available we will be glad to remove it upon request.
We hope you enjoy these photos and tips.