This picture is a prime example of why the Heavyweight division is a joke

[Mr. Punch-Out!!]

The old days of HW boxing sucked, it was just a local affair. It was like Gatti vs Ward but without a Floyd there to make them look bad.

Umm...no. That's not the way the heavyweight division was like at all.

[Mr.Fantastic]

The thread starter needs to look at boxers from the past as well. Every era had guys like the one shown.

[pacmanis1]

I'd say the division is a joke because one of the guys being hyped up is taking a fight with a guy who's only won like half his fights and is saying it's a dangerous fight.

[Godsfly]

Out of their primes yes, old no. Ali was the same age in as Wladimir is right now.

Why did you remove one of the photos? They don't look very good in the pic you posted either considering how small they were. They should have been shredded at that weight by modern standards.

In the older pictures where they looked leaner they were barely heavyweights. Covered that. Comparing the physique of early 180-199 pound Ali to modern heavyweights makes no sense. They are not in the same division.

The talent pool was extremely tiny and non-global back then. It's no surprise that the "heavyweights" were really just aging LHWs with a few layers of pudge.

they were both old washed up and beyond shot when you posted those pics.............stop kidding yourself.

[W1LL]

[Foreign Soil]

i hope you know that both men were well out of their prime old and washed up when you posted those "fat" pics...............



enjoy

Not a good look. Soft for sure.

[E. O. Wilson]

lmao

[Jloro]

And then you got this species of Heavyweight to save the day (with his TBA until Stiverne "heals"

[SlySlickSmooth]

The myth of these fighters being in amazing shape comes from photos of them below 200 pounds in their early 20s. Ali won a gold medal at 178 and fought as a natual 190 without cutting. Frazier was short by the standards of today's 168/175/200 divisions much less HW.

YOU CAN'T COMPARE GUYS WHO WOULD FIGHT AT LHW/CW TODAY TO MODERN HEAVYWEIGHTS.

A prime Joe Frazier has more gas in his tank than most/all Heavyweights today no matter what his physique was. I doubt any HW being able to show the tenacity Smokin Joe did.

Also when Ali was a HEAVYWEIGHT he was in good shape. Why would it matter what weight fighters should be when its the HW division? Sure size matters but if we took "prime Ali" and bloated him to "modern size weight" HWs he would lose his main attributes of agility and speed.

Ali in 1963


Ali in 1966

[Daddy T]

Out of their primes yes, old no. Ali was the same age in as Wladimir is right now.

Why did you remove one of the photos? They don't look very good in the pic you posted either considering how small they were. They should have been shredded at that weight by modern standards.

In the older pictures where they looked leaner they were barely heavyweights. Covered that. Comparing the physique of early 180-199 pound Ali to modern heavyweights makes no sense. They are not in the same division.

The talent pool was extremely tiny and non-global back then. It's no surprise that the "heavyweights" were really just aging LHWs with a few layers of pudge.

Ah dude shut up. You don't know what you're talking about.
Anyway every era had some fat guys ... but the guys at the top are pretty much always in tip top shape.