I'll begin with the one that irks me the most, walking around weight. I just don't understand the basis for bringing it up in a conversation about boxing. It's completely irrelevant, I'd say that most fighters are bloated in between fights, so the fact that a welterweight is 180 pounds, while inactive means zero. Compubox is another aspect used to judge the sport that I don't particularly care about. The numbers themselves aren't really an issue. The thing that bothers me is how people will view them in a vacuum,as if they can tell the entire story about a fight. Fighter A could have two rounds of high activity that skews the numbers overall or fighter B landed less in volume, but caused more damage with his punches. Then there is always human error,corruption, or incompetence to worry about.
You can't really make that judgement unless you have insight on how the guy's made weight in prior fights. We've seen Canelo,Chavez jr., and Peterson all be able to pack on weight without any apparent drawbacks. Hatton also made the cut from 185 to 140 throughout his fighting career.
Personally, I've yet to see anything that would suggest that Alvarez becomes a fat **** in between fights.
Chavez Jr can't seem to get below 170lbs for his cut, and Hatton was basically physically done as a fighter by 30/early 30s
Fight night weights can be taken with a pinch of salt also.
Guys can refuse to get on the scales, others, if they can bothered, can get on in clothing ect.
Walking around/fight night weights, like Compubox, will be hated on sometimes yet used at other times by the same posters. They're usually agenda filler tools on here.
Yea...it's not something I am usually thrilled to do, but it's more of like, "hey, get in there and work a few rounds", and I look up, and it's one of the trainers who used to fight pro at HW, and I'm like, "ok". You can't show fear in the gym, at least I can't, inside I might be like "fuaaaark..." but on the outside I can't erase that poker face. Don't want to come off as a coward lol, but my trainer and a few trainers out there will expose you to that kind of sparring.
Usually they tell the bigger guy to not throw will full steam but when you are sparring, for one, the trainers idea of 75% might differ from the guy throwing the punches....and even when the bigger or more skilled guy is handicapped, sometimes it doesn't matter - one time I was sparring a dude who was the same size but he was much more experienced than me and they told him to only throw jabs whereas me I was supposed to let my hands go and pressure him and give him activity, well it was all good for a round and a half but I started landing some hard straight rights he would try and slip and I kept catching him, so the next round he came out and landed two HARD counters when I would pull my straight right, and I said to myself "wtf dude, what happened to only jabs..." but I also knew that it was a good thing, because he wouldn't be throwing those hard shots if I hadn't "hurt" him in the last round, so it gave me confidence, even though I got tuned up that day, lol.
Good post bro.
I know we disagree 50% of the times but I will never question your love for the sport of boxing.
Thanks bro...we definitely disagree more or often than not but you know your shyte
That's what makes it worthwhile
I agree with everything that you said except for that last part. I don't think that a fighter should ever spar anyone over two divisions larger than them. You can sustain life altering injuries in sparring just as in fights.
Yea...it's not something I am usually thrilled to do, but it's more of like, "hey, get in there and work a few rounds", and I look up, and it's one of the trainers who used to fight pro at HW, and I'm like, "ok". You can't show fear in the gym, at least I can't, inside I might be like "fuaaaark..." but on the outside I can't erase that poker face. Don't want to come off as a coward lol, but my trainer and a few trainers out there will expose you to that kind of sparring.
Usually they tell the bigger guy to not throw will full steam but when you are sparring, for one, the trainers idea of 75% might differ from the guy throwing the punches....and even when the bigger or more skilled guy is handicapped, sometimes it doesn't matter - one time I was sparring a dude who was the same size but he was much more experienced than me and they told him to only throw jabs whereas me I was supposed to let my hands go and pressure him and give him activity, well it was all good for a round and a half but I started landing some hard straight rights he would try and slip and I kept catching him, so the next round he came out and landed two HARD counters when I would pull my straight right, and I said to myself "wtf dude, what happened to only jabs..." but I also knew that it was a good thing, because he wouldn't be throwing those hard shots if I hadn't "hurt" him in the last round, so it gave me confidence, even though I got tuned up that day, lol.
you make a lot of good points....I can definitely tell the difference taking shots from someone walking around at my weight than someone who cut 15-20 pounds to get there
I made the decision to fight at 132 as opposed to 141....I never get sparring from guys my size anyway but its a lot different consistently fighting bigger men, it will use a fighter up
im 5'6.5" that's about average for a lightweight whereas at 141 most guys walk around at 160+ and are 5'8" and taller
Good post bro.
I know we disagree 50% of the times but I will never question your love for the sport of boxing.
I agree...
A perfect compubox example of this was Mayweather vs Castillo I. When I watched it and scored it personally, I had Mayweather winning 116-112
some people don't score fights and are lazy AF.....ALL IT TAKES IS 2-3 DOMINANT ROUNDS to sway the stats...fights are scored round by round, not by punch stats...try to tell NSB newbies this though...
People will always find loopholes in the system, it's human nature to look for advantages.
Regardless, not everyone is like that so you are making a big assumption yourself.
Me as a fighter, I do all I can to make 147. I would rather be big in my division than small in the middleweight area. I''m 5'8 160 walk around weight and I look at some pretty big tall dudes barely making 155-160 and I know I have a reach and height disadvantage, of course I am going to lean towards 147. I'm not ashamed to say it. I box for the love of the sport, the passion, but at the end of the day, I still want to walk away with my faculties and with wins, and if that win comes over a dude my size or smaller over a dude larger, then I will sleep the same at night.
That's competition mind you, at the gym, when it comes to training and sparring, I have sparred many dudes up to heavyweight, so I know what it's like to have to make those adjustments and absorb those heavier shots.
you make a lot of good points....I can definitely tell the difference taking shots from someone walking around at my weight than someone who cut 15-20 pounds to get there
I made the decision to fight at 132 as opposed to 141....I never get sparring from guys my size anyway but its a lot different consistently fighting bigger men, it will use a fighter up
im 5'6.5" that's about average for a lightweight whereas at 141 most guys walk around at 160+ and are 5'8" and taller
People will always find loopholes in the system, it's human nature to look for advantages.
Regardless, not everyone is like that so you are making a big assumption yourself.
Me as a fighter, I do all I can to make 147. I would rather be big in my division than small in the middleweight area. I''m 5'8 160 walk around weight and I look at some pretty big tall dudes barely making 155-160 and I know I have a reach and height disadvantage, of course I am going to lean towards 147. I'm not ashamed to say it. I box for the love of the sport, the passion, but at the end of the day, I still want to walk away with my faculties and with wins, and if that win comes over a dude my size or smaller over a dude larger, then I will sleep the same at night.
That's competition mind you, at the gym, when it comes to training and sparring, I have sparred many dudes up to heavyweight, so I know what it's like to have to make those adjustments and absorb those heavier shots. I agree with everything that you said except for that last part. I don't think that a fighter should ever spar anyone over two divisions larger than them. You can sustain life altering injuries in sparring just as in fights.
compubox...gives a false narrative that if you land more you win the fight, with no consideration for effective power shots and people tend to look at fight totals instead of watch full fights and score them....lazy asses...compubox is only a piece of the puzzle. fights are scored round by round for a reason
walk around weight matters and also indicates which division would better suit a fighter, considering his build and body fat
for example.....before I started training in August I walked around 155.
Im 5'6.5"
I assumed I'd probably fight at 141
Im not doing crazy road work or draining, now my walk around weight is 140-144
it wouldn't be smart for me to fight at 141 when I know I can make 132 without straining. Wont be at natural size disadvantage....most the guys I know at 141 are 160-170 before training and are 5'8"-5'11"
Also you can feel the difference taking shots from a guy who cut to get to 145 as oppose to someone who walks around at the weight like myself
I think your view is too simplistic. In the past it would have made perfect sense,but without the same day weighins most guys tend to stay in a division as long as they can and use what ever perceived physical advantage that "cheating the scales" inhibits them. I think at least half the guys are doing it in each division,so even if you are large for a division once you move up you're still likely to be undersized.
People will always find loopholes in the system, it's human nature to look for advantages.
Regardless, not everyone is like that so you are making a big assumption yourself.
Me as a fighter, I do all I can to make 147. I would rather be big in my division than small in the middleweight area. I''m 5'8 160 walk around weight and I look at some pretty big tall dudes barely making 155-160 and I know I have a reach and height disadvantage, of course I am going to lean towards 147. I'm not ashamed to say it. I box for the love of the sport, the passion, but at the end of the day, I still want to walk away with my faculties and with wins, and if that win comes over a dude my size or smaller over a dude larger, then I will sleep the same at night.
That's competition mind you, at the gym, when it comes to training and sparring, I have sparred many dudes up to heavyweight, so I know what it's like to have to make those adjustments and absorb those heavier shots.
Recent fights in which the perceived underdog ruined the favorite
Im not talking about fights where the slight dog escaped defeat by the gnash of his teeth. I'm talking about fights where the clear favorite not only loss,but received lasting damage, be it psychologically or physically that was detrimental to his career.
Even fight night weight is not a good indicator of natural size.
Brook weighed more than GGG and Chocolatito weighed the same as Cuadras but it was clear as day that the former was naturally the bigger man in both fights.
Its why you can have a guy like Floyd who weighs not much more that 150lbs for a WW fight, but cant boil down to 140, and guys at 140 who rehydrate to 160+.
You can wipe your arse with Compubox stats as well though tbf.
I am interested in computer stats but humans are counting the punches and humans can and always do make mistakes. The stats don't tell you if a punch landed flush or was a glancing blow. Walking around weight is useless. Some boxers walk around very fat between fights. Others like Mayweather, Pacquiao and GGG walk around only a few pounds over their fighting weight. Other boxers split the difference between these two extremes. When they started training for their fight Brook outweighed GGG by many pounds.
Walk around weight is relevant when it comes to considering if a fighter should move up or not naturally. If you walk around at another weight class and above and you move and feel well training at that weight then cutting to meet a lower weight class may not be necessary or ideal. I think your view is too simplistic. In the past it would have made perfect sense,but without the same day weighins most guys tend to stay in a division as long as they can and use what ever perceived physical advantage that "cheating the scales" inhibits them. I think at least half the guys are doing it in each division,so even if you are large for a division once you move up you're still likely to be undersized.
Walkaround weight, imo, simply helps give an observer a gauge for what they could expect; finding out that Edwin Rodriguez, when he was due to fight Andre Ward, was coming down in weight from over 200lbs, gave folks a good gauge (after the fact) of what he was facing.
And, generally speaking, a decent rule of thumb seems to be that the human body can boil off ~15lbs from a fit frame, without having much impact on physical performance.
Even if a welterweight walks around at 180lbs, if they can get into the low 160s before starting the boil down, things wouldn't be impossible. Any higher than that, and the logical math no longer makes sense (even if they were able to make 147, a fighter coming down from 190 sitting on the couch, would be unlikely to perform on fight night).
If the bloat gets beyond where a fighter can work their way down to, before getting into the boil, the fighter can't perform.
You can't really make that judgement unless you have insight on how the guy's made weight in prior fights. We've seen Canelo,Chavez jr., and Peterson all be able to pack on weight without any apparent drawbacks. Hatton also made the cut from 185 to 140 throughout his fighting career.
compubox is more irrelevant. some of the numbers that get put up is just pure fantasy
walking around weight is HIGHLY RELEVANT - bHop talks about how he will size fighters up when they are out of training, so he can tell if they are keeping in shape or not. when a fighter gets into training camp for a fight, it's not supposed to be a fatcamp
Compubox is a tool to help them further their own agenda. They pull numbers out of the air to back up the bogus hyping/scoring. I've been thinking this for awhile. Some fights you can see guys mises punches all night,but end up with a 50% power connect.