During the 1970s, boxing was characterized by dominating champions and history making rivalries. The decade had many super-stars, but these super-stars also had fierce rivals. Alexis Arguello, for example, who won the world Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titles during this decade, had to overcome Alfredo Escalera twice before the decade was over.
At least six divisions had world champions who could be considered dominant: The Bantamweights had Ruben Olivares, the Super Bantamweights, (a division created in 1976) had Wilfredo Gómez winning the title in 1977 and keeping it until 1983, when he left it vacant. The Lightweights had Roberto Duran, considered by many the greatest Lightweight of all time, and who won the title in 1972 and vacated it in 1979 to seek championships at other weights, the Jr. Welterweights had Antonio Cervantes, who reigned twice in the division, the Middleweights had Carlos Monzon, sometimes refered to as King Carlos because of his seven year reign as world champion, the Light-Heavyweights had Bob Foster, who generally proffesed dislike of anyone who thought of him of as less than a champion. The Heavyweights, of course, had Muhammad Ali, who ruled twice between 1974 and 1979.
Another aspect of boxing in the 1970s is that the decade of the '70s is considered by many to be the best ever for the Heavyweight division: Ali returned in 1970 from his forced retirement, and Joe Frazier was world champion when Ali returned. Former world champions Jimmy Ellis and Floyd Patterson as well as George Foreman, Oscar Bonavena, Jerry Quarry, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Ron Stander, Chuck Wepner, Jose King Roman, Light Heavyweight champ Foster, John Tate, Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle, Joe Bugner, Scott LeDoux and many others added intrigue to the division. Don King surged as a leading boxing promoter, and champions Duran, Monzon and Ali had historic rivalries with Esteban De Jesus, Rodrigo Valdez and Frazier, respectively.
Table of contents |
2 1970 3 1971 4 1972 5 1973 6 1974 7 1975 8 1976 9 1977 10 1978 11 1979 |
A list of fights by year
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
Also see: Boxing in the 1960s, Boxing in the 1980s.