Why is it...weight differences only matter below 200lb...?

[Banderivets]

I was thinking...here I am reading a thread about Mayweather moving up a weight division and the responses that followed which to me make perfect sense...If he moves to 160 or even north of that the size and strength difference will be too much for him to overcome with his superior unparallelled skill. I personally disagree to an extent as I believe that he could probably hang in with some, but that is beyond the point...

Anyway so why is it that people do not fail to see how the size difference can become a major obstacle for a boxer in the lower weight divisions, yet the moment we start talking about the heavyweights it doesn't seem to matter...

This is going to back to Joe Louis and Earnie Shavers destroying the likes of Klitschkos, Lewis' and co because they are just so much better.

If you are going to make that statement be logical and make it a universal one across all divisions. In a sport where fights are made and broke over 2lb you would think that 40lb of pure unadulterated athlete would be a major obstacle...

Or is 200lb some special phenomena in the world of physics that we are not aware of.

Just a thought.


P.S. Can't wait to see what kind of explanations our nostalgia loathing HW fans come up with.

[Randomum]

Weight classes are in place to deal with weight advantages and to level the field when it comes to bone/muscle structure, and height. I think due to the origins of the sport's rules (to make fights fair due to the appearance of size) the weight classes and the implications of these classes coincidentally also match up with the science of power and how it affects knockouts.

There are always some outliers with super heavy/light bones (which results in more or less muscle mass), super tall/short bones (more or less reach) etc. In general people who are taller and weight more will have more power. This is due to the equation for Power (Power= Mass (overall mass) x Acceleration).

The reason why there are no weight classes beyond 200lbs is that few people in the past due to nutritional and chemical factors were not able to compete athletically in boxing. Once certain populations increased their living standards (China is a great example) their populations begin to increase in height. During the times of Napoleon Bonaparte the average European was around 5"4-5"6.

At the same time there is a level at which even a minimum amount of mass in the weight class results in knockout power. So in theory a light puncher at lightweight with a low ko percentage, when moved proportionally up to a certain weight (I don't believe it is exactly at 200lbs but I imagine it is close to that weight) should have an increased KO ratio as the skulls of both the lightweight and the heavyweight counterpart are made of similar mineral compositions (bone), have similar integrity (construction) and are put together in similar fashion (in this case since it is the same fighter they are identical so the bones and muscles form the skull in the same way).

I don't believe this is the actual reasoning for the weight classes but it is the reason that certain fighters can move up in weight and others can't. It is also the reason why people don't make such a big deal about weight discrepancies at heavyweight and they do at welter for example.

[firstborn]

The weight classes need to be updated, when one pro fighter out weighs another by 20lbs it makes a difference, I don't care what anyone says.

[bklynboy]

Weight classes are in place to deal with weight advantages and to level the field when it comes to bone/muscle structure, and height. I think due to the origins of the sport's rules (to make fights fair due to the appearance of size) the weight classes and the implications of these classes coincidentally also match up with the science of power and how it affects knockouts.

There are always some outliers with super heavy/light bones (which results in more or less muscle mass), super tall/short bones (more or less reach) etc. In general people who are taller and weight more will have more power. This is due to the equation for Power (Power= Mass (overall mass) x Acceleration).

The reason why there are no weight classes beyond 200lbs is that few people in the past due to nutritional and chemical factors were not able to compete athletically in boxing. Once certain populations increased their living standards (China is a great example) their populations begin to increase in height. During the times of Napoleon Bonaparte the average European was around 5"4-5"6.

At the same time there is a level at which even a minimum amount of mass in the weight class results in knockout power. So in theory a light puncher at lightweight with a low ko percentage, when moved proportionally up to a certain weight (I don't believe it is exactly at 200lbs but I imagine it is close to that weight) should have an increased KO ratio as the skulls of both the lightweight and the heavyweight counterpart are made of similar mineral compositions (bone), have similar integrity (construction) and are put together in similar fashion (in this case since it is the same fighter they are identical so the bones and muscles form the skull in the same way).

I don't believe this is the actual reasoning for the weight classes but it is the reason that certain fighters can move up in weight and others can't. It is also the reason why people don't make such a big deal about weight discrepancies at heavyweight and they do at welter for example.

A KO is a concussion. A concussion happens when your brain hits your skull. Your brain floats in liquid like a balloon on a string. When your skull hits your brain hard enough you're knock-out.

After a certain point it doesn't matter how big you are. Yes, being bigger allows you to absorb more body blows but aside from some people having extra dense skulls, which would slow the acceleration of the skull, being bigger does not help you. The previous statement about denser skull is my speculation. There is no proof that I know of.

Yes a longer reach is useful but look at Dempsey v Willard. Dempsey f**ked him up. Say what you will about early fighters but a "small" heavyweight damn near killed a "big" heavyweight.

[UTEP]

They should bring back the Super Heavyweight division.

[James_Toney]

they matter above 200lbs too....


that's why the heavyweight division sucks....

who's the two best heavyweights?

two huge brothers.... 6'6+ that weigh 240lbs+


they have a huge disparity in size....

if they cut off heavyweights at 235lbs it would be fairer. the klits would have to consciously make an effort to make weight

[Counter Troll]

Langford, Greb, Louis, Armstrong, SRR etc. used to regularly beat the shit out of fighters that outweighed them by a substantial amount. Boxing culture & politics of today discourages top fighters from taking the same type of risks. There are boxers over the past 30 years that can (and in some cases HAVE) replicated similar feats of the aforementioned gentlemen in the 1st sentence above. Roy Jones is a guy for instance that has not just a victory, but a DOMINANT victory over a top rated boxer who weighed about 80 pounds outside of his original weight class. Chris Byrd is another that started out at Middleweight and was able to defeat and be highly competitive with several super heavyweights that were nearly 100 pounds naturally bigger than he was. There isn't a SuperHeavyweight in the division that 210 lb. David Haye probably shouldn't be favored over, outside of Wlad & Wilder, and along with Holyfield's shot 215 lb corpse, Haye recorded a victory over a 310 lb man. From Pacquiao's dominant rise from Flyweight to Welterweight... from Guillermo Jones going from Welterweight to Cruiserweight and destroying a consensus top 3 Cruiserweight... I can go on and on with these examples... But the main culprit in the overrating of the "weight advantage" in modern day boxing are The alphabet soup organizations, which have created all these added, unneccessary weight classes, not for the boxer's benefit. But to fill up their coffers.

[New England]

if you think a 10 lb advantage in weight at HW is the same as a 10 lb weight advantage at WW you're an idiot.


you're not an idiot, are you?

[kardsufur]

The real reason is because there's a certain cut off at which point height/weight becomes inversely proportional to skill. So that the larger you are, the less skilled you are due to the sheer inability of the human body at such weights to be able to be efficient and move with speed. So a 400lbs does not have a "advantage" over someone 200lbs because that 400lbs person will be slow as molasses and easy to KO

[Doctor_Tenma]

AT HW it can matter but in most cases if one is significantly bigger...it's usually because he's out of shape.