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No middle ground: Fighters leaping weight classes in search of bigger paydays By Eric Raskin
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: September 8, 2008
Craig Bennett/Fightwireimages.com
Watching his weight: 6-foot, 147-pound Paul Williams can stand to gain a few pounds.
If you read the gossip rags, you know there's an endless fascination with weight monitoring in our celeb-obsessed culture.
"Who's putting on weight?" "Who's shedding pounds? "Who's showing off her new beach bod?" "Who's starring in a TV show called 'Fat Actress'?"
Well, boxing is no different. We're talking about a sport that makes a public spectacle out of fighters stepping onto scales. A boxer announcing he's moving to a new weight class is headline news.
Jose Luis Castillo knows what it feels like to do battle with the bulge -- and lose.
And if you fail to make weight? Jose Luis Castillo went from potential Hall of Famer to scourge of society for that sin.
Lately, the most noteworthy weight-related topic in the fight game has been the trend of top talents attempting the double-jump. Whereas the typical approach for fighters has long been to advance from one division to the next, an increasing number are now skipping a division in search of quality fights.
Two years ago, middleweight great Bernard Hopkins bypassed super middleweight and went straight to light heavyweight. Now reigning middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is beefing up beyond the super middleweight limit to fight Hopkins. And last week, the news broke that welterweight titlist Paul Williams is hopping directly to middleweight for a fight against Andy Kolle, in preparation for a possible shot at Pavlik sometime in the near future.
Oh, and there's a little fight coming up in December in which lightweight Manny Pacquiao is fighting junior middleweight Oscar De La Hoya at the welterweight limit.
If you ask me, this is a perfectly welcome trend. After all, in the days before "junior" weight classes popped up to fill every three-pound gap, these were just standard one-division moves.
But we must remember that boxing is a dangerous sport. And this trend of spontaneous weight shifting begs exploration into whether the already considerable risk involved in boxing is being increased.
There are two entirely separate questions to consider here: How dangerous is it to struggle to make a low weight (as De La Hoya might to hit 147 or as Williams probably would if he didn't move up soon)? And how dangerous is it for a smaller fighter to get into the ring with someone naturally stronger and harder hitting (as Pacquiao will against Oscar and as Hopkins did against Tarver)?
Mackie Shilstone, the executive director of The Fitness Principle at East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, La., is widely recognized as the master of helping boxers (and other athletes) add or subtract weight. He guided Michael Spinks' move from light heavyweight kingpin to heavyweight champion, did the same for Roy Jones Jr. when he fought John Ruiz and worked with Hopkins for the Tarver fight.
Will Manny Pacquiao be biting off more than he can chew when he moves up to welterweight to meet Oscar De La Hoya in December?
Shilstone doesn't see moving up in weight to face a stronger man as much of an added risk, as long as you pack on pounds the right way and don't end up sacrificing speed and mobility.
"The risk is this: You can turn yourself into a sitting duck with a skilled opponent, if you let him cut you off and you can't move," Shilstone said. "I worked with Rid**** Bowe, and that's what happened to Evander Holyfield when we took the title from him. Rid**** Bowe, at 235 pounds, out-punched Holyfield [who weighed 205] because Holyfield built up his lat muscles so big and he got this fatigue. He couldn't hold his hands up.
"It has to be a performance mentality, not a bodybuilding mentality."
Veteran ringside physician Dr. Margaret Goodman agrees with Shilstone about the importance of maintaining your speed as you add weight.
"It can take at least a good six months to accomplish this goal," Goodman said. She also noted that fighting style is important.
Oscar [De La Hoya] was successful for some time going up in weight, as was [Roy] Jones, because they are boxers. They did not lose their agility and endurance. That's why [Manny] Pacquiao will be interesting [to watch]. He his agility, speed and power. Will that be lost when he goes up that much in weight? Possibly.
-- Dr. Margaret Goodman, on the possibility that Manny Pacquiao will lose speed and power when he moves up in weight to fight Oscar De La Hoya in December
"Oscar was successful for some time going up in weight, as was Jones, because they are boxers. They did not lose their agility and endurance," Goodman said. "That's why Pacquiao will be interesting. He has agility, speed and power. Will that be lost when he goes up that much in weight? Possibly."
Shilstone and Goodman both feel, however, that the danger more frequently comes when fighters struggle to make an unnaturally low weight.
Although Williams has boiled down to 147 pounds successfully in his last six fights, with his 6-foot-1 frame and pterodactyl-like wingspan, he gives off the appearance of someone who is pushing his body to its limits to make weight.
Certainly, in the old days of weigh-ins occurring on the day of the fight, instead of twentyfour to thirty hours beforehand, Williams (and countless other fighters) wouldn't even be thinking about competing at such a low weight.
It seems that moving up is a wise move for "The Punisher," and the two-division jump isn't as extreme as it appears.
"Williams is young, healthy and tall," Goodman said, "and like Tommy Hearns he might easily handle moving up."
Last week, there was a 30-day prefight weigh-in for a 122-pound title bout between Juan Manuel Lopez and Cesar Figueroa. Lopez scaled 134.3 pounds, a very reasonable number with a month to go. Figueroa weighed 147.8.
Even if Figueroa ends up making weight, losing nearly 26 pounds in under 30 days probably isn't the best way to set himself up for success.
"Two to two-and-a-half percent loss of weight, which is usually fluid, within 24 hours of the weigh-in, no big deal," Shilstone said. "As it goes up from there, the higher the loss in weight, the greater the muscle glycogen loss, and that's like taking a car that looks great in the showroom and taking out the hydraulic fluid. It's not going to go anywhere.
"Essential fat in a male is three to six percent; you get any lower than that and you run the risk of compromising the immune system. If you're losing muscle, what happens to these athletes is they train on down, they don't get enough calories, they burn muscle glycogen and it's like the brain says go but the muscles say no when it's time to fight."
Obviously, with the words of these experts in mind, I'd rather see fighters moving up, feeling healthy and conceding a few pounds to their opponents than the alternative.
In the case of Williams, he's abandoning the deepest, most compelling division in boxing, a division in which he holds a recent victory over the fighter recognized as the top dog, Antonio Margarito. When it comes to meaningful matchups and meaningful money, it's all right there at welterweight for Williams.
And none of that is reason enough to stick around if his body would be more comfortable elsewhere.
So go ahead and jump up a division, Paul. Or two. Or three.
Maybe The Punisher risks taking punishment from a larger man.
But it's probably less risky than the alternative.
Eric Raskin is a contributing editor for, and former managing editor of, The Ring magazine.
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: September 8, 2008
Craig Bennett/Fightwireimages.com
Watching his weight: 6-foot, 147-pound Paul Williams can stand to gain a few pounds.
If you read the gossip rags, you know there's an endless fascination with weight monitoring in our celeb-obsessed culture.
"Who's putting on weight?" "Who's shedding pounds? "Who's showing off her new beach bod?" "Who's starring in a TV show called 'Fat Actress'?"
Well, boxing is no different. We're talking about a sport that makes a public spectacle out of fighters stepping onto scales. A boxer announcing he's moving to a new weight class is headline news.
Jose Luis Castillo knows what it feels like to do battle with the bulge -- and lose.
And if you fail to make weight? Jose Luis Castillo went from potential Hall of Famer to scourge of society for that sin.
Lately, the most noteworthy weight-related topic in the fight game has been the trend of top talents attempting the double-jump. Whereas the typical approach for fighters has long been to advance from one division to the next, an increasing number are now skipping a division in search of quality fights.
Two years ago, middleweight great Bernard Hopkins bypassed super middleweight and went straight to light heavyweight. Now reigning middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik is beefing up beyond the super middleweight limit to fight Hopkins. And last week, the news broke that welterweight titlist Paul Williams is hopping directly to middleweight for a fight against Andy Kolle, in preparation for a possible shot at Pavlik sometime in the near future.
Oh, and there's a little fight coming up in December in which lightweight Manny Pacquiao is fighting junior middleweight Oscar De La Hoya at the welterweight limit.
If you ask me, this is a perfectly welcome trend. After all, in the days before "junior" weight classes popped up to fill every three-pound gap, these were just standard one-division moves.
But we must remember that boxing is a dangerous sport. And this trend of spontaneous weight shifting begs exploration into whether the already considerable risk involved in boxing is being increased.
There are two entirely separate questions to consider here: How dangerous is it to struggle to make a low weight (as De La Hoya might to hit 147 or as Williams probably would if he didn't move up soon)? And how dangerous is it for a smaller fighter to get into the ring with someone naturally stronger and harder hitting (as Pacquiao will against Oscar and as Hopkins did against Tarver)?
Mackie Shilstone, the executive director of The Fitness Principle at East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, La., is widely recognized as the master of helping boxers (and other athletes) add or subtract weight. He guided Michael Spinks' move from light heavyweight kingpin to heavyweight champion, did the same for Roy Jones Jr. when he fought John Ruiz and worked with Hopkins for the Tarver fight.
Will Manny Pacquiao be biting off more than he can chew when he moves up to welterweight to meet Oscar De La Hoya in December?
Shilstone doesn't see moving up in weight to face a stronger man as much of an added risk, as long as you pack on pounds the right way and don't end up sacrificing speed and mobility.
"The risk is this: You can turn yourself into a sitting duck with a skilled opponent, if you let him cut you off and you can't move," Shilstone said. "I worked with Rid**** Bowe, and that's what happened to Evander Holyfield when we took the title from him. Rid**** Bowe, at 235 pounds, out-punched Holyfield [who weighed 205] because Holyfield built up his lat muscles so big and he got this fatigue. He couldn't hold his hands up.
"It has to be a performance mentality, not a bodybuilding mentality."
Veteran ringside physician Dr. Margaret Goodman agrees with Shilstone about the importance of maintaining your speed as you add weight.
"It can take at least a good six months to accomplish this goal," Goodman said. She also noted that fighting style is important.
Oscar [De La Hoya] was successful for some time going up in weight, as was [Roy] Jones, because they are boxers. They did not lose their agility and endurance. That's why [Manny] Pacquiao will be interesting [to watch]. He his agility, speed and power. Will that be lost when he goes up that much in weight? Possibly.
-- Dr. Margaret Goodman, on the possibility that Manny Pacquiao will lose speed and power when he moves up in weight to fight Oscar De La Hoya in December
"Oscar was successful for some time going up in weight, as was Jones, because they are boxers. They did not lose their agility and endurance," Goodman said. "That's why Pacquiao will be interesting. He has agility, speed and power. Will that be lost when he goes up that much in weight? Possibly."
Shilstone and Goodman both feel, however, that the danger more frequently comes when fighters struggle to make an unnaturally low weight.
Although Williams has boiled down to 147 pounds successfully in his last six fights, with his 6-foot-1 frame and pterodactyl-like wingspan, he gives off the appearance of someone who is pushing his body to its limits to make weight.
Certainly, in the old days of weigh-ins occurring on the day of the fight, instead of twentyfour to thirty hours beforehand, Williams (and countless other fighters) wouldn't even be thinking about competing at such a low weight.
It seems that moving up is a wise move for "The Punisher," and the two-division jump isn't as extreme as it appears.
"Williams is young, healthy and tall," Goodman said, "and like Tommy Hearns he might easily handle moving up."
Last week, there was a 30-day prefight weigh-in for a 122-pound title bout between Juan Manuel Lopez and Cesar Figueroa. Lopez scaled 134.3 pounds, a very reasonable number with a month to go. Figueroa weighed 147.8.
Even if Figueroa ends up making weight, losing nearly 26 pounds in under 30 days probably isn't the best way to set himself up for success.
"Two to two-and-a-half percent loss of weight, which is usually fluid, within 24 hours of the weigh-in, no big deal," Shilstone said. "As it goes up from there, the higher the loss in weight, the greater the muscle glycogen loss, and that's like taking a car that looks great in the showroom and taking out the hydraulic fluid. It's not going to go anywhere.
"Essential fat in a male is three to six percent; you get any lower than that and you run the risk of compromising the immune system. If you're losing muscle, what happens to these athletes is they train on down, they don't get enough calories, they burn muscle glycogen and it's like the brain says go but the muscles say no when it's time to fight."
Obviously, with the words of these experts in mind, I'd rather see fighters moving up, feeling healthy and conceding a few pounds to their opponents than the alternative.
In the case of Williams, he's abandoning the deepest, most compelling division in boxing, a division in which he holds a recent victory over the fighter recognized as the top dog, Antonio Margarito. When it comes to meaningful matchups and meaningful money, it's all right there at welterweight for Williams.
And none of that is reason enough to stick around if his body would be more comfortable elsewhere.
So go ahead and jump up a division, Paul. Or two. Or three.
Maybe The Punisher risks taking punishment from a larger man.
But it's probably less risky than the alternative.
Eric Raskin is a contributing editor for, and former managing editor of, The Ring magazine.
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