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Cruiser/heavyweight advantages: smaller target, speed, agility, reflexes, co-ordination, balance, stamina (in a non-physical fight)
Super-heavyweight advantages: height, reach, mass, strength, clinching/wrestling, ring generalship, punch power, punch resistance, confidence, intimidation, stamina (in a physical fight)
All of the advantages that cruiserweights/heavyweights have over the athletic and skilled super-heavyweights that originated in the 90’s and have dominated the division ever since are the same advantages that lower weight classes have over higher weight classes but the advantages of the higher weight classes are much more significant, especially as power increases disproportionately to the strength of the chin at the higher weights. Smaller men are much easier for bigger men to hurt and knock down and a KD in boxing can be worth a maximum of three guaranteed points (1-3) if the fighter who gets the KD was otherwise going to lose the round. The ring is smaller in proportion to the size of a super-heavyweight, enabling them to turn a boxing match into a brawl (or vice versa) more easily. For small heavyweights there is often only one plausible path to victory: winning individual rounds and lasting 36 minutes, which requires very high levels of skill, ring IQ, focus, stamina, confidence, heart and durability, whereas big heavyweights can win individual rounds but also get KD’s and KO’s significantly more easily. Smaller heavyweights usually age more quickly than bigger heavyweights because they are more dependent on speed than power and they tend to take more punishment (partly because their KO’s are scarcer and later, extending their fights and this also reveals more of their strengths and weaknesses) especially to the head, which they are also less well constituted to take. Smaller heavyweights are usually less versatile and often have to be more aggressive in order to close the distance and fight on the inside, which makes them more predictable, has them chasing their larger opponent and walking onto punches, leaves them open to a wider variety of attacks and counters and leads to them taking even more punishment if they can’t get an early KO. On the other hand, a small heavyweight who is an outboxer has to be much more negative in his approach, which prolongs his fights and (other things being equal) disadvantages him with the judges, though the David vs Goliath factor may counterbalance this. Especially when fighting ex-cruisers, super-heavyweights feel that they are defending not just their own honour but the honour of the heavyweight division, which gives them even greater determination to win.
Concrete examples:
Lewis > Holyfield, Tyson
Wlad > Haye, Povetkin
Super-heavyweight advantages: height, reach, mass, strength, clinching/wrestling, ring generalship, punch power, punch resistance, confidence, intimidation, stamina (in a physical fight)
All of the advantages that cruiserweights/heavyweights have over the athletic and skilled super-heavyweights that originated in the 90’s and have dominated the division ever since are the same advantages that lower weight classes have over higher weight classes but the advantages of the higher weight classes are much more significant, especially as power increases disproportionately to the strength of the chin at the higher weights. Smaller men are much easier for bigger men to hurt and knock down and a KD in boxing can be worth a maximum of three guaranteed points (1-3) if the fighter who gets the KD was otherwise going to lose the round. The ring is smaller in proportion to the size of a super-heavyweight, enabling them to turn a boxing match into a brawl (or vice versa) more easily. For small heavyweights there is often only one plausible path to victory: winning individual rounds and lasting 36 minutes, which requires very high levels of skill, ring IQ, focus, stamina, confidence, heart and durability, whereas big heavyweights can win individual rounds but also get KD’s and KO’s significantly more easily. Smaller heavyweights usually age more quickly than bigger heavyweights because they are more dependent on speed than power and they tend to take more punishment (partly because their KO’s are scarcer and later, extending their fights and this also reveals more of their strengths and weaknesses) especially to the head, which they are also less well constituted to take. Smaller heavyweights are usually less versatile and often have to be more aggressive in order to close the distance and fight on the inside, which makes them more predictable, has them chasing their larger opponent and walking onto punches, leaves them open to a wider variety of attacks and counters and leads to them taking even more punishment if they can’t get an early KO. On the other hand, a small heavyweight who is an outboxer has to be much more negative in his approach, which prolongs his fights and (other things being equal) disadvantages him with the judges, though the David vs Goliath factor may counterbalance this. Especially when fighting ex-cruisers, super-heavyweights feel that they are defending not just their own honour but the honour of the heavyweight division, which gives them even greater determination to win.
Concrete examples:
Lewis > Holyfield, Tyson
Wlad > Haye, Povetkin