1980’s: A Magical Time in Boxing

By Donny Lalonde

There is a lot to be said about this topic. People refer to the 80’s as a very exciting time in the game. It was the end of a great era that started in the 70’s and created a lot of household names carried forward from the previous decade. One name in particular, Muhammad Ali, became known worldwide due to his unprecedented popularity and his charisma. In fact, anyone he fought became well known, simply by affiliation.

Even the the lower weight classes, with the likes of Bobby Chacon, Danny “Little Red” Lopez, Carols Zarate, Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Carlos Palomino, Carlos Monzon, and Marvin Hagler gained popularity. The entire U.S. Olympic team which featured Ray Leonard, Howard Davis, the Spinks brothers are still known till this day. Boxing was truly at its zenith in both the level of talent and boxer popularity.

The 70’s may have been a better era technically, but the 80’s had the benefit of the rise in boxing popularity again due to the Rocky movie series. Fiction aside, boxers such as
Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Benitez made the 80’s a spectacular era. Add Alexis Arguello, Pipino Cuevas, Edwin Rosario, and Mike Tyson’s meteoric rise and the excitement that his career brought as well as the later years of the careers of the previously named stars from the 70’s. It was a great era.

The present era of boxing has yielded fractured championships with many sanctioning bodies. Weight classes mimic the sanctioning structure, with catch weights further fragmenting the sport. If the weight classes weren’t divisive enough, the prima-donna mindset has also taken its toll on the sport. Present-day boxers have much more control over their career path. This is a positive change. However, the downside to this is fighters want total control on who they fight, when they fight, what weight they fight at, what age, when they weigh in, etc. Popular opinion and what sanctioning bodies fair -basis ratings suggest as a viable contender is irrelevant. This is a far cry from the boxing world of the 80’s. This mindset has even spilled over into the sparring aspect of boxing. I know this first hand. I am advising/managing an aspiring boxer of Polish decent. He lives in Miami. I am dumbfounded on how hard it has been to find sparring for him. When I reflect on my own career years back, I drove all over America looking for the best sparring Louisiana, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Indianapolis, St Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Florida, and New York were some of the places that I found partners. The gyms would have 100-150 boxers in them. Sparring partners were willing and plentiful. Now a days, the picking is slim. One must practically beg and plead for someone to spar with. It’s easy to find boxing fitness participants. But the amount of fighters getting in and doing what boxing is all about, actual boxing, are far and few between. It is unsettling really.

Amateur boxing scene is almost nonexistent. There used to be sooo many amateur boxers tournaments couldn’t handle all the applications. Now they cancel them due to lack of boxers. Without this learning ground, very little sparring, it is evident the sport is struggling on the inner most important levels. This makes the end game of a great professional sport much more challenging.

I think the Al Haymon NBC boxing series and the upcoming Johnny Tapia documentary, as well as the ones I am working on will help bring boxing and its values back to the forefront. I think that these projects and others will inspire a lot more participants and stimulate new interest in the sport. I also feel that governmental interference needs to be reduced so the sport can climb back on its feet.

I love the sport and I will always be enamored by it. There are so many benefits that spring from the sport. It is truly educational. Boxing can be a lesson in geography (I never heard of Zaire before Ali brought it to the World stage), it boosts self-esteem, it encourages work ethic, and it promotes physical fitness. Today’s youth so desperately need focus, guidance, earning opportunities.

Fortunately, there are many good, if not great boxers today. Some flirt with the mention of ATG but the field is much smaller and to accomplish these levels is much easier in that there is less competition whereby it also speaks to it being easier for that same reason.

TV seems to be regaining its interest and time allotted for boxing which is a great thing for the sport. The more exposure the sport gets the better off it is by far. I loved the Roone Arledge features before fights in the 70’s where you got to know much more intimately the lives of the people you were watching. This is the kind of programming I am working on. It is essential that the mainstream get a chance to know boxing and boxers on a much more personal level in order for them to really be enrolled in the career of one over another which is where a vested interest comes in.

I hope the Government gets out of the way and allows this sport to operate under much less regulatory and medical test cost and interference. Yes, boxing is a contact sport and it is necessary that we monitor the health of its participants but our government has many much more important things to clean up than the sport of boxing starting with its own internal corruption. The cost of putting on an amateur event is prohibitive. The cost to operate a gym is cost prohibitive. A lot of them used to be above say a police station in the auditorium, or a school or a basement of a hotel. They were usually donated for the betterment of the community. There are so many areas where the sport could use a lift.

It is easy to blame the sanctioning bodies, the managers, promoters etc, boxing is a sport that is beneficial on a community level and deserves more representation on that level. I go on and on about this but suffice to say boxing is nowhere near the “glory days” it once was. Fortunately, there are some signs that show it is still alive and kicking. Nothing can take the essence of it out. Nothing ever will.

Long live boxing…………………….please contribute in any way you can in your local community to assist those trying to keep it alive. Its very existence is dependent on it.