When I saw Marquez and Bradley in the ring, I thought to myself...

[Salardo]

...."Holy moly, those guys look small. Tommy Hearns would blast both of them out of the ring with a jab alone."
And I am not a big Hearns fan at all, and I think both Bradley and Marquez are pretty awesome fighters. I was just thinking about how small they looked for welterweights.

[Sweet Pea 50]

Hearns was a freak at WW.

Hell, he was stopping guys at Cruiser at the end of his career.

[MisterHardtop]

...."Holy moly, those guys look small. Tommy Hearns would blast both of them out of the ring with a jab alone."
And I am not a big Hearns fan at all, and I think both Bradley and Marquez are pretty awesome fighters. I was just thinking about how small they looked for welterweights.

I totally agree, modern day welterweights, over the last half decade or so have normally been 5'6'' - 5'8'' in height, a large number of whom have moved up from lightweight or light welterweight.

In bygone eras, welterweights were much taller and in my opinion harder hitting too, discounting Margarito and Pacquiao of course.

I believe someone like Hearns would probably knock out any welterweight in the post Oscar/Tito/Mosley era.

[01samuelc]

I totally agree, modern day welterweights, over the last half decade or so have normally been 5'6'' - 5'8'' in height, a large number of whom have moved up from lightweight or light welterweight.

In bygone eras, welterweights were much taller and in my opinion harder hitting too, discounting Margarito and Pacquiao of course.

I believe someone like Hearns would probably knock out any welterweight in the post Oscar/Tito/Mosley era.

I think floyd and his father encompass the size difference in ww today. Joshua clottey is categorised as a huge WW today, when in hearns era he would have been average in terms of size

[SkillspayBills]

Keep in mind there was same day weigh ins in that day and age. Amazing he made the weight.

[Phantomas]

Difference is Márquez fought at welter weight for retirement money, Hearns for size advantage.

[hectari]

I think floyd and his father encompass the size difference in ww today. Joshua clottey is categorised as a huge WW today, when in hearns era he would have been average in terms of size

The welters today are pretty small compared to the ones back in the day for sure. I think Keith Thurman even said that today there are no more natural welterweights they are all little guys who moved up a few divisions. He said he was the only real natural welterweight right now.

Actually Clottey would be a huge welterweight back in those days. He wouldn't even be at welterweight probably 160, they did same day weigh ins that dude wouldnt even be fighting at 147 he cuts over 30 pounds, he would be fighting closer to his natural weight at 160.

Hagler and Leonard never put on more than 5 pounds when they came in the ring. Hagler walked around at 160-170 he wasn't a huge middleweight, today fighters are actually much bigger, and cutting more weight than those golden era guys.

The key difference is fighters fought more often, fought 15 rounds, and stayed in shape due to same day weigh ins, they would not balloon up, they were much more serious.

Now everyone wants to cut 20-30 pounds a few months before a fight just to get a size advantage.

If this were the early 80s, guys like Brandon Rios and Victor Ortiz would be fighting at 160 pounds.

Ortiz walks around 170 and Rios at 180, they would have to to same day weigh ins and wouldn't be given the privileged of sleeping and rehydrating over 24 hours.