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Let's make a list of all the biggest heavyweights, or at least the best ones (even in the modern era) and determine who ended up beating them.
Joshua - Lost to Usyk. Ruiz isn't a big heavyweight either but he's fat and heavy so we'll leave him out.
Lennox Lewis - lost to McCall and Rahman, both average sized heavies.
Cooney - beat by Spinks
Foreman - beat by Jimmy Young and Holyfield
Bowe - beat by Holyfield
Wladmir K - Brewster Koed him
Vitali - Byrd beat him (Byrd is a very small heavyweight).
Now, let's list some fights in the past where smaller men beat larger men:
Louis vs Buddy Baer (6 ft 7 250, Abe Simon (6 ft 4 260)
Baer vs Carnera (6 ft 5 270)
Haye vs Valuev
M Moore vs Mike White (6 ft 10, 275)
Tyson vs Tony Tucker and Bonecrusher smith
Frazier vs Bugner
Toney vs anyone at HW
Jones vs Ruiz
The list could obviously grow and grow, others may add to it.
Now to the main point, anyone with any common sense at all can see the argument that a smaller heavy not being able to contend with a larger heavyweight is simply not true. This is not to say that larger heavyweights haven't beat plenty of smaller ones, but the idea that weight somehow determines who's better is one factor among many, so many that it doesn't even matter.
So, if we have no evidence that being a big heavyweight somehow makes you good - why do certain posters tend to put so much emphasis on weight?
Now let's talk about weight itself. ANYONE can weigh a lot. Its called eating and bulking. However some people should be lighter and some should be heavier, depending on their builds. EVERYONE has a different build. Fury is built like a skinny fat Milk bag, Tyson was built like a pitbull. A pitbull can take down dogs much larger than itself due to its build.
When you travel back in time and look at the lighter weights of many heavyweights - also consider the type of training they did. I personally have a lot of old boxing books on how old fighters trained. I can say they put a huge emphasis on stamina, and skills (knowing how to fight). Old fighters tended to spar more and would train DOWN in weight. Meaning they would look to cut weight and harden up. Because of this fighters back in the day gave off the appearance of having large heads, hands and feet. Although not always the case, but one of the reasons for this is the fact that they were larger framed men who trained down in weight.
Common sense is lost. Boxing is not wrestling. When you are lighter EVERYTHING is easier. You see people today ridiculing a certain fighter for smoking cigs - but fail to notice the fighter never fatigues and might even be known for having good stamina. Well, besides training hard, they were also light. I know this from my own personal experience as well, getting lighter makes everything easier.
They also put a large emphasis on developing a body FOR boxing. You don't want to target every single muscle with isolated movements. A boxer needs a dancers body, not a weight lifters body. A boxer has to change directions fast, throw at different speeds and slip or duck punches. A weight lifter stands in one place and performs linear movements.
Kinesiologists are what brought this ignorance in. While having a great understanding of the human body, they know nothing about what a boxer actually endures and what they might need in order to succeed.
Then to top it off you have a whole list of other attributes:
mentality (how hungry they are)
handspeed
strength
style
reach
technique
power
footspeed
chin
heart / recovery.......the list goes on and on. These are just as important as height or weight.
And Yes boxing does have weight classes for a reason, but also consider that even within those weight classes certain fighters get dominated by men smaller or the same size as them! Boxers also successfully move up in weight. In the past, small men would even fight larger men while not even bulking up. and they would win, due to speed.
What even funnier, while a lot of boxers are bulky and thick today - the 2 best fighters of the last era were both light and small, barely cut weight and had dancers bodies. They beat everyone else and many times those heavier than them. (Mayweather and Pacquiao).
Joshua - Lost to Usyk. Ruiz isn't a big heavyweight either but he's fat and heavy so we'll leave him out.
Lennox Lewis - lost to McCall and Rahman, both average sized heavies.
Cooney - beat by Spinks
Foreman - beat by Jimmy Young and Holyfield
Bowe - beat by Holyfield
Wladmir K - Brewster Koed him
Vitali - Byrd beat him (Byrd is a very small heavyweight).
Now, let's list some fights in the past where smaller men beat larger men:
Louis vs Buddy Baer (6 ft 7 250, Abe Simon (6 ft 4 260)
Baer vs Carnera (6 ft 5 270)
Haye vs Valuev
M Moore vs Mike White (6 ft 10, 275)
Tyson vs Tony Tucker and Bonecrusher smith
Frazier vs Bugner
Toney vs anyone at HW
Jones vs Ruiz
The list could obviously grow and grow, others may add to it.
Now to the main point, anyone with any common sense at all can see the argument that a smaller heavy not being able to contend with a larger heavyweight is simply not true. This is not to say that larger heavyweights haven't beat plenty of smaller ones, but the idea that weight somehow determines who's better is one factor among many, so many that it doesn't even matter.
So, if we have no evidence that being a big heavyweight somehow makes you good - why do certain posters tend to put so much emphasis on weight?
Now let's talk about weight itself. ANYONE can weigh a lot. Its called eating and bulking. However some people should be lighter and some should be heavier, depending on their builds. EVERYONE has a different build. Fury is built like a skinny fat Milk bag, Tyson was built like a pitbull. A pitbull can take down dogs much larger than itself due to its build.
When you travel back in time and look at the lighter weights of many heavyweights - also consider the type of training they did. I personally have a lot of old boxing books on how old fighters trained. I can say they put a huge emphasis on stamina, and skills (knowing how to fight). Old fighters tended to spar more and would train DOWN in weight. Meaning they would look to cut weight and harden up. Because of this fighters back in the day gave off the appearance of having large heads, hands and feet. Although not always the case, but one of the reasons for this is the fact that they were larger framed men who trained down in weight.
Common sense is lost. Boxing is not wrestling. When you are lighter EVERYTHING is easier. You see people today ridiculing a certain fighter for smoking cigs - but fail to notice the fighter never fatigues and might even be known for having good stamina. Well, besides training hard, they were also light. I know this from my own personal experience as well, getting lighter makes everything easier.
They also put a large emphasis on developing a body FOR boxing. You don't want to target every single muscle with isolated movements. A boxer needs a dancers body, not a weight lifters body. A boxer has to change directions fast, throw at different speeds and slip or duck punches. A weight lifter stands in one place and performs linear movements.
Kinesiologists are what brought this ignorance in. While having a great understanding of the human body, they know nothing about what a boxer actually endures and what they might need in order to succeed.
Then to top it off you have a whole list of other attributes:
mentality (how hungry they are)
handspeed
strength
style
reach
technique
power
footspeed
chin
heart / recovery.......the list goes on and on. These are just as important as height or weight.
And Yes boxing does have weight classes for a reason, but also consider that even within those weight classes certain fighters get dominated by men smaller or the same size as them! Boxers also successfully move up in weight. In the past, small men would even fight larger men while not even bulking up. and they would win, due to speed.
What even funnier, while a lot of boxers are bulky and thick today - the 2 best fighters of the last era were both light and small, barely cut weight and had dancers bodies. They beat everyone else and many times those heavier than them. (Mayweather and Pacquiao).
The D3vil
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