The average size of the undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion of the world

[Dempsey19]

I decided to do some math and find out what the average size of an undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion was.

The average undisputed and undefeated heavyweight champion of the world stands 6’0.5” inches tall, has a 74.5 inch reach and weighed 204 pounds when he won his title.

That’s the size of Jack Johnson, alternatively that’s also the size of Marvis Frazier. Make of that what you will.

If it weren’t for the reach, it would be Earnie Shavers (hardest hitting heavyweight ever), if it weren’t for the weight it would be Andy Ruiz Jr. (current heavyweight champion) and if it weren’t for the height it would be either Joe Frazier or a slightly out of shape John L Sullivan.

[SN!PER]

But what's the average size for the last 50 years?

[Left Hook Tua]

From the beginning to about floyd Patterson's, heavyweights were around 190-200 lbs.

The first modern heavyweight champions was sonny liston and Ali who were around 220 lbs

First super heavyweight champion was riddick bowe 1990s

That stat is skewed and worthless

Now feck off

[giant_king]

Champion come in all shapes and sizes.its all about heart genetics and will power

[kafkod]

From the beginning to about floyd Patterson's, heavyweights were around 190-200 lbs.

The first modern heavyweight champions was sonny liston and Ali who were around 220 lbs

First super heavyweight champion was riddick bowe 1990s

That stat is skewed and worthless

Now feck off

And around 220lbs is also what many top CWs enter the ring at nowadays, after making 200 for the weigh in. Makes you think, yeah?

[New England]

strange criteria. guys making it to the world title without a loss was extremly rare. you'll be discounting so many fighters who were champions but didn't fit your odd criteria.

[soul_survivor]

I like the idea of working out an average size buuuut why do they have to be undefeated? I like that they have to be undisputed or at least unified champs.

[New England]

From the beginning to about floyd Patterson's, heavyweights were around 190-200 lbs.

The first modern heavyweight champions was sonny liston and Ali who were around 220 lbs

First super heavyweight champion was riddick bowe 1990s

That stat is skewed and worthless

Now feck off

ali was not 220 lbs until he'd had his layoff. he did his best boxing without a doubt from around '62 to '67, and he was 205-211 lbs or so. prior to '62 he rarely, if ever IIRC, weighed above 200 lbs. in the olympics he fought at 178 lbs. likewise, liston did most of his best work at 210 lbs or so, and he supposedly did not train hard for clay, who he was supposed to destroy. unlike modern HW, incluyding both klitsckos who are on record saying they did no roadwork because it was bad for their knees, liston and ali would wake up in the morning and run. marciano ran 7-10 miles each day, totally unheard of for a modern HW. when he retired he put on about 50 lbs.


i always bring this up in the history section when people talk abotu the "size" of modern HW. lamon brewster was almost exactly the same dimsnsions as joe louis. height, reach, bone structure, all of it. bewster, carrying around at least 10 lbs extra that would have dissappeared if he ran every day, knocked wladimir into next week.

louis relied on accuracy, leverage, and using the ring. it's a heck of a lot more difficult than hugging when your opponent gets close.


and finally, 200 lb HW were rare even in jack dempsey's era. most of the HW division was small enough to fight at 175 but went to HW because that's where all of the money was.

[Marchegiano]

That's because contrary to popular belief the HW division protects giants from average sized men not the other way around.

I know y'all love to believe in the surface logic of weight divisions but it just does not hold up to history. The biggest guys have never dominated the division. The closest you get to that is the K2 era. What's more the text on motivations seems to deal much more with money then safety.

Okay, what's the average size for a bare knuckle champion? 175-200, 5'8"-6'2". Because men who stood at 6'6" and weight 240 had to fight smaller men. There was no HW min, only maxes for smaller weights. So a LW could, and did, become HW champion. Most of them were not LWs nor modern HWs, most were the larger side of average sized.

Then rules are made, those guys are told they are not HWs and they have to make weight. Then you have larger guys dominating the division then before BUT not the largest of the pool.

Rules change and again, the smallers have to make weight to fight, making it impossible for anyone at 200 to be HW champion....and ensuring the average size of the champs is larger.

I could get more in depth if y'a''re interested but I think I've made a pretty clear point and even with surface understanding it should be easy to see it isn't the small guys who got protected by weight division.

Lastly, average size is average size because it is strongest. You do not need anything for this but someunderstanding of evolution and history. For most of mankind's history the weak, ******ed, and physically deformed were doomed from birth to a short end. Giants and midgets includes. With dwarves it is easy to see, they exist in more numbers because the surviving human forms set up a system that can take care of them. With giants it is less obvious to people, but still true. There are not many giants from 686 BC because they died. They were dying like flies all the way up until the end of the 19th century. The size of your champs reflects this. Their bodies can not handle what the average body can....that's why it's average. Because for millenia after millenia survival of the fittest reigned unchecked. The k2 era itself is a reflection of man's check not giant abilities. Make an open weight and the same sizes will return. That, or you believe in under a few centuries only the largest of us have evolved, and, they evolved some 50xs faster then man ever had prior.

[Dempsey19]

But what's the average size for the last 50 years?

6’1”, 76”, 213 pounds, hardly much bigger.

And the weight is only really inflated by Bowe and Tyson being abnormally heavy when he won the title (221.5)