By Rick Reeno
It seems that when it comes to the heavyweights, the bigger you are is the biggest advantage you can have. Guys like Michael Grant, Jameel McCline and many others were pushed towards the road of Boxing based upon their physical gifts. The heavyweights, unlike most other weights in Boxing, can allow a fighter that is big with mediocre skills to last a decent amount of time before getting exposed.
There have been plenty of mediocre heavyweights who just kept getting back in big televised fights, it was not because of their skill but because of their size. The heavyweight division is also the only division where guys in their late 30s and 40 come out of retirement to compete again. You do not see this sort of thing happening too often in the lower weight classes. The reason? Guys don't have to stay in great shape to come back at heavyweight since the division is 200 pounds and above. Most fighters in the lower weight classes add on a voluminous amount of weight when they retire and are rarely unable to get down to their "prime" fighting weight. A fighter leaves at 135 pounds and after a year the fighter is 160 pounds+, more after a few years. That same fighter will not compete in a weight division that he knows will be a risk to his life in order to make a few bucks after being inactive for a long period of time.
Fighters at heavyweight return to the sport in very poor shape. Big bellies, no definition to their arms and no speed whatsoever. They usually last for only a few fights before a heavyweight with any type of decent skills beats them back into retirement.
Lets look at the lower weight classes, Barrera-Morales 3 for example. Here we have a fight where Barrera moves up a division to an "unnatural" weight for his body in order to challenge archrival Morales at his "natural" weight class. Barrera was the weaker man at 122 and 126, because of this Morales decided to add on some more weight between the weigh in and the 3rd fight. Morales came into the fight weighing 143 pounds to the 132 pound Barrera. When most observers heard the news of the Morales weight gain, they immediately saw the weight as a big advantage for Morales. What happened in the fight was the exact opposite. The extra weight made Morales sluggish, slow and unable to put his punches together. Barrera was able to use his speed and just enough power to keep Morales at bay, work him over and win a decision.
De La Hoya, a very skilled boxer, thought "weight" was the way to go at middleweight. He came in at 160 pounds for Felix Sturm, but he was also sluggish, out of shape and unable to put his punches together due to the excessive gain in weight for the fight. De La Hoya did the smarter thing when he came to face Hopkins by weighing under 160 pounds and it was evident that he was a totally different looking fighter from his previous bout. Against Hopkins where he was weighing less, Oscar was fast, elusive and put together good combinations. The moral of the Hopkins fight was that skill can only take you so far before size catches up with you.
In the case of Roy Jones, his speed was able to stop his opponents in their tracks. Regardless of whether he weighed 154, 160, 168, 175 or 200+, Jones had just enough power and more then enough speed to overwhelm his opponents. If it was not for the fast reflexes of Jones, he would just been an ordinary fighter. James Toney on the other hand was never the fastest guy, but his size and defensive skills made him prevail in many big battles.
Floyd Mayweather showed in his fight with Diego Corrales that speed + accurate punching = power. Corrales had the advantage in size and strength but the speed of Mayweather was too much for Corrales. The advantage in speed for Mayweather led to a very one-sided TKO win for Floyd. But as Floyd moves up in weight we can see that size is catching up to Floyd's speed. In his fight with DeMarcus Corley at 140 pounds, we saw Floyd tagged, rocked and even frustrated at times. Floyd was not as fast as he was at 130, but still fast enough at 140. Floyd had good power at 130 and that power has not traveled up with him. Floyd wants to eventually go to 147, most experts say that could be a deadly mistake for him.
Felix Trinidad is a fighter who shows that size is a good thing. Trinidad is one of the few fighters to get stronger as they moved up in weight, he used his used his power, accurate punching and underestimated speed to beat his opponents. Michael Moorer, Evander Holyfield and Tommy Hearns have experienced similar success as they moved up in weight.
Some experts have blasted Bernard Hopkins for never moving up in weight. Hopkins always said, why move up and take a risk when you are at your best weight. Hopkins shows that there in no reason to conquer higher divisions when you don't have to. Some fighters move up due to weight issues, some just for the money and others due to ego. The guys who move up due to ego are usually the fighters who get hurt.
After weighing the issue of whether size or speed is better, I know some people will say that it simply comes down to skill. While that may be true in some cases, in other cases it is not. Take Shane Mosley for example, he appeared unbeatable at lightweight, good at welterweight and mediocre at junior middleweight. As Shane moved up, his skills diminished.
In closing, maybe speed is no better then size and vice versa, if you don't have the skills to make use of what you have. Pernell Whitaker never had a punch, never a big guy, but he was a great fighter in every weight division he entered due to his skill level of utilizing his speed and movement.
The debate will go on in Boxing until the end of time. Is speed what matters or is it size? Time and time again we will see the battle of speed vs. "the bigger man". Sometimes speed chops down size, sometimes size is the kryptonite of speed.
