Did they exagerrate stats like height etc in boxing?

[AlexKid]

Im 220lbs im heavier than Sonny Liston and Earnie Shavers and they are MUCH more heavily built than me.

They have a lower body fat % im 20 % they must be like 10 - 8% but still that doesn't explain the extreme difference in the amount of muscle they have compared to me.

For earnie shavers to be that buff he must have been 5 foot 8 not 6 foot like me.

Equally Liston was built like a bear.

Did they measure their weight when they were like 19 or something and kept it the same? Never updating it as they got older and heavier?

[Scott9945]

Adults height doesn't change until they are older, so there is really no reason to measure it, other than maybe a yearly physical exam. Height/weight on paper can be very deceiving, because like you said everyone is built differently. I don't have any doubt that Shavers and Liston's height was accurate. On the other hand Mike Tyson's height has been reported as anywhere between 5'8-5'11.

[AlexKid]

Adults height doesn't change until they are older, so there is really no reason to measure it, other than maybe a yearly physical exam. Height/weight on paper can be very deceiving, because like you said everyone is built differently. I don't have any doubt that Shavers and Liston's height was accurate. On the other hand Mike Tyson's height has been reported as anywhere between 5'8-5'11.

Maybe its because Caucasians have bigger torsos, and Africans have broader shoulders generally, you can look alot bigger with broad shoulder bones without any additional weight, and big torsos are heavy, but then again so are the African buttocks

But theres a ton of development on both regardless, Earnies glutes alone must weigh 40 lbs each, his upper body is huge, legs fair, torso wide

[billeau2]

Maybe its because Caucasians have bigger torsos, and Africans have broader shoulders generally, you can look alot bigger with broad shoulder bones without any additional weight, and big torsos are heavy, but then again so are the African buttocks

But theres a ton of development on both regardless, Earnies glutes alone must weigh 40 lbs each, his upper body is huge, legs fair, torso wide

There are many many things that determine size and weight is one of them. Bone density....having done a lot of martial arts over the years I developed a sizable bone mass in my legs...I had no idea, as a kid around your age i went in to get an xray for my leg and the doctors told me the machine could not see properly through the bone because it was so dense. At that time I looked thin at about 190. i didn't look like i weighed much at all.

I also had a car accident and according to an internal medicine doctor I am on record as the only person he ever saw who did not rupture my gall bladder...My ribs were apparently able to crack but not break at a point where this does not happen given the specifics of the accident....lol. And now? I weigh about 265 but if you saw me you would think I was probably less than that.

I use myself as an example because i know me...heres another one: When I was training guys for MMA stuff and would go to the fights, the heavyweights looked very small. These were guys over 200 pounds but they just had no excess weight, they looked like middle weights a lot of them. Then there are fat guys who look huge because they are very fat. There was a judo guy who described a certain look that we don't see anymore, he called it "hard fat." if you look at the heavy in a gangster film from the 1950's, or other tough guys you often see guys like this who are stout, kind of heavy built, but not really muscular...But these guys can be strong as ****...I think the operative term is "stocky."

So, when you say a guy like Liston...First off Elroid is full of **** when he compares a chub like Eddie Chambers to Sonny. Sonny had big bones and was built solid, his neck and shoulders were, in addition to his reach, humungus. Again, chiseled does not make a person in better shape, the strongest people in the world might be power lifters who look like your tough ole grandpa with a big belly and smallish biceps!

Fat james Toney can throw more punches than many fighters, including haseem Rahman (who looked like a greek statue) and Sam Peter. Conditioning and size are much more complex than Elroy understands...another example is the beer gutted Tyson Fury who outworked the in shape Vlad Klitsko... There literally is no correlation between weight, muscle defiition and ability. Fighters looked in shape in the old days because they had to throw punches and move...Many fighters cannot move like that today and cannot throw many punches! compare Sal Cannelo, who gases s a twenty year old, to the vid in the other thread, that guy LaMotta is fightng is around Canelo's age and weight...there is no comparison regarding the fitness level, ability to throw punches.

I never had much definition and used to haul refrigerators up flights of stairs...my weight lifting buddies could not do this.

[Ray Corso]

Most fighters & trainers "fudge" the height and reach but when you weigh in to fight everyone knows your numbers!
Genetics are the main reason one man at 220 looks thin and another is thick.
Liston was always billed as being 6'1" but I believe he's 6' pretty much the same with Ernie who I stood right next to. Mike Tyson is not 5'11" unless he has dress shoes on with some serious lift to them. Mike was billed at 5'11" same as Frazier but both were closer to 5'9" to 5'10" tops!
The lies were promotional fibes everyone does it.
Ray

[soul_survivor]

I dunno why you're comparing yourself (you sound fat) to videos of fighters.

But in terms of exaggeration, it still happens to this day. Fighters are consistently listed as being taller than they really are.

[AlexKid]

I dunno why you're comparing yourself (you sound fat) to videos of fighters.

But in terms of exaggeration, it still happens to this day. Fighters are consistently listed as being taller than they really are.

I have a 4 pack of abs, so semmi fat but still pretty good shape. Nothing compared to those athletes but its not like they were in a bodybuilding competition either but all that running etc I imagine Earnie was about 8% bf.

Since I weigh more than them it kinda shocked me.

I think Ray hit the nail on the head, promoters fudge up the facts to make fighters seem more awesome, so they sell more tickets. Whos gonna know if you are 5:9 or 5:11 unless you stand next to them. Height doesn't have much to do with fighting ability but it sounds cool and scary if a fighter is above the norm.

[soul_survivor]

I have a 4 pack of abs, so semmi fat but still pretty good shape. Nothing compared to those athletes but its not like they were in a bodybuilding competition either but all that running etc I imagine Earnie was about 8% bf.

Since I weigh more than them it kinda shocked me.

I think Ray hit the nail on the head, promoters fudge up the facts to make fighters seem more awesome, so they sell more tickets. Whos gonna know if you are 5:9 or 5:11 unless you stand next to them. Height doesn't have much to do with fighting ability but it sounds cool and scary if a fighter is above the norm.

Yeah I agree, height is easily made up in boxing, much like pro wrestling, the weight is more difficult, considering there's a weigh in although I have often wondered about the pre-fight weigh ins post rehydration. I think a lot of it is just mind games.

[billeau2]

I have a 4 pack of abs, so semmi fat but still pretty good shape. Nothing compared to those athletes but its not like they were in a bodybuilding competition either but all that running etc I imagine Earnie was about 8% bf.

Since I weigh more than them it kinda shocked me.

I think Ray hit the nail on the head, promoters fudge up the facts to make fighters seem more awesome, so they sell more tickets. Whos gonna know if you are 5:9 or 5:11 unless you stand next to them. Height doesn't have much to do with fighting ability but it sounds cool and scary if a fighter is above the norm.

I have a four pack too...wait wait I mean I drank a six pack

Seriously I taught school with a guy who played for the Golden State Warriors professionally...a nice guy indeed, with a great sense of humor. The lady teachers would go ga ga for him...anyhow Him I and another special ed teacher who lifted weights, used to like each others company and hang out and... he told me that he saw Mike Tyson in a club somewhere...he could not believe how small Mike looked! he was teasing me that he was tempted to get some credability with a quick one two to this small guys head!!

On another note I saw Shannon Briggs when I worked at the marriot in New york in Times Square... he looked pretty big to me! but then again I wasn't a six foot eight foward for the Warriors.

[The Old LefHook]

Height especially is a statistic that cannot be counted on. Height gets passed along from exam to exam instead of actually being measured. Some manager's ploy to make his boy seem taller can last a whole career that way.