How much advantage does weight bring to the table?

[Chief Vash]

How possible is it for someone that is a lightweight to take on a heavier class, like a cruiser, or perhaps even a heavyweight?

Does a lightweight really have no chance to take out a heavyweight, or, through some skill and possible experience levels, do they have a chance?

It's obvious that a person with more mass can hit harder and take more hits, but how likely is it for them to lose to a featherweight, or something similar?

[beez721]

How possible is it for someone that is a lightweight to take on a heavier class, like a cruiser, or perhaps even a heavyweight?

Does a lightweight really have no chance to take out a heavyweight, or, through some skill and possible experience levels, do they have a chance?

It's obvious that a person with more mass can hit harder and take more hits, but how likely is it for them to lose to a featherweight, or something similar?

when the much bigger man is skilled its a lot to overcome. if its all sluggish dead weight its as good as road kill

[English Lion]

more weight = potentially more power, stronger physical resistance to punches

[juggernautburn]

when the much bigger man is skilled its a lot to overcome. if its all sluggish dead weight its as good as road kill

i understand what you are saying, but as a rule as far as fight sports go, the heavier man wins. this holds true to even small weight differences. there is a reason that when castillo came in overweight, corrales didn't want to fight him. there are exceptions.

[juggernautburn]

and for the record, i do not think a lightweight can contend with even a journeyman cruiseweight.

[David06]

You have to realize that when lightweights fight, they cut weight (almost) 100% of the time. This isn't true for heavyweights, and I'd have to imagine it's not as true for cruiserweights. So in addition to the natural weight advantage that a heavyweight has, he also has more energy because he hasn't been skipping meals and living in a sauna for the past few weeks.

[mwcook]

Thats a good point.

[squealpiggy]

The weight makes a huge difference even in relatively unskilled heavyweights. Add to that the reach advantage and you have trouble for the little guy.

1. The little guy cannot hurt the big guy from the outside because the big guy can control the distance with his jab.

2. The little guy up close is easy to smother, and his energy is sapped.

[Left2body]

Weight plays a very big deal at the top level of competition. I wrestled in HS and College and against top competition it is a big difference. If you are a lot better than the other person it doesn't matter as much but when it comes down to the elites and top echelon the power difference is enough to sway the match.

I use to cut 30+ pounds in about 10 weeks in HS and it wasn't fat either. It was a lot of excessive power lifting weight and creatine mass that I did for football. If I competed in wrestling at my football weight I might've squeaked by in the cities but I would've been manhandled at the states.

[David06]

Weight plays a very big deal at the top level of competition. I wrestled in HS and College and against top competition it is a big difference. If you are a lot better than the other person it doesn't matter as much but when it comes down to the elites and top echelon the power difference is enough to sway the match.

I use to cut 30+ pounds in about 10 weeks in HS and it wasn't fat either. It was a lot of excessive power lifting weight and creatine mass that I did for football. If I competed in wrestling at my football weight I might've squeaked by in the cities but I would've been manhandled at the states.

I almost put something in my post about the difference between wrestling and boxing, and the weight difference. I wrestled also, and I gave up about 15-20 LBs for almost half the season(I started the season at 189, our 215 moved down, so I was weighing in at about 193-195 wrestling 215). The difference was HUGE.

But wrestling is very different from boxing in that wrestling can require a lot of strength. Running a half at 189 is MUCH MUCH easier than at 215. So if you wrestle a guy 20 LBs heavier than you, even if it's not 20 LBs of muscle, that's more strength that YOU have to have to lift and/or turn him.