Weight class- young fighter

[Rockin']

I'm curious--in your opinion, why does boxing--as a sport and as a culture--remain so skeptical of the benefits of weight training--literally decades after every other major sport has discovered that the "old wives' tales" regarding weight training were a steaming pile of horse***t?

I never agreed with the 'old wives tales' about weight training. I did very well in the ring for the 2 years that I lifted. I was 16/17 when this was happening....Rockin'

[Rockin']

I never agreed with the 'old wives tales' about weight training. I did very well in the ring for the 2 years that I lifted. I was 16/17 when this was happening....Rockin'

I do agree with not getting 'bulked' though. No need to...Rockin'

[Rockin']

I never agreed with the 'old wives tales' about weight training. I did very well in the ring for the 2 years that I lifted. I was 16/17 when this was happening....Rockin'

and when have you ever seen old wives talking boxing? ………..Rockin'

[Mr.MojoRisin']

Sugar Ray Robinson--who competed from 1940 to 1965, and whose "prime" was in the 1940s and 1950s---competed in an era before boxers--or athletes generally--lifted weights.

You can't name a single modern day welterweight who would beat Robinson. Spence, Thurman, Porter, Garcia, and Crawford would all lose. Badly.

Or...used anabolic steroids, (or EPO, or HGH), or had a "modern" understanding of nutrition and how to properly gain or lose weight, or ran in running shoes, or understood the importance of drinking water or other fluids during exercise (Robinson lost a bout vs Joey Maxim in 1952 via TKO caused by dehydration), and on and on and on.

I don't know if you're doing this on purpose or just don't really know much about Sugar Ray. He lost because of dehydration but not because him and his handlers didn't understand the importance of drinking water. Robinson and Maxim were fighting in 103 degree heat. You can literally see Robinson drinking water between rounds to stay hydrated.

Learn your boxing history noob.

[Mr.MojoRisin']

Countless others have already done that for me.

One of the first notable ones:

https://www.si.com/vault/1985/10/07/...-strange-ideas

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-09-...michael-spinks

https://youtu.be/XokRWtl_Rqw

Michael Spinks fought only one legit heavyweight opponent outside of aging Holmes (who some thought he lost too). That was Mike Tyson, a fighter who didn't lift weights, and he was clobbered in 1 minute and 30 seconds.

There, it's settled. A fighter who didn't lift weights vs a fighter who did. Tyson blew Spinks completely out of the water. Theory disproved. Lifting weights doesn't automatically make you better than non weight lifters in boxing.

[Mr.MojoRisin']

I'm curious--in your opinion, why does boxing--as a sport and as a culture--remain so skeptical of the benefits of weight training--literally decades after every other major sport has discovered that the "old wives' tales" regarding weight training were a steaming pile of horse***t?

There isn't a single other major non-fighting sport in the world that demands the same physical requirements as boxing. Boxing is a heavily endurance based sport. Lifting heavy weights for 5 reps is bogus. It will ruin endurance.

A hybrid approach is the best option.

[GelfSara]

I do agree with not getting 'bulked' though. No need to...Rockin'

I honestly have no idea what that term is supposed to mean. If one overloads a muscle via weight training, the stress of the training session will stimulate an adaptive response: the muscle in question will--given sufficient nutrients and time--grow a little bit larger and stronger so that it is better able to deal with the same stress should it again encounter it.

If "getting bulked" means adding fat, on the other hand--obviously, that is generally to be avoided.

[GelfSara]

Michael Spinks fought only one legit heavyweight opponent outside of aging Holmes (who some thought he lost too). That was Mike Tyson, a fighter who didn't lift weights, and he was clobbered in 1 minute and 30 seconds.

There, it's settled. A fighter who didn't lift weights vs a fighter who did. Tyson blew Spinks completely out of the water. Theory disproved. Lifting weights doesn't automatically make you better than non weight lifters in boxing.

I assume you are not this stupid.

The question is not how a Michael Spinks who lifted weights fared via heavyweights who did not (Holmes, Holmes, Tangstad, Cooney and Tyson) but whether Spinks's use of weight training in the context of preparation which included sufficient boxing-specific training 1) improved him as a boxer, 2) hindered him as a boxer, or 3) had no net effect.

In other words, the issue* is how the performance of the historical Michael Spinks, who officially went 4-1 against those heavyweights, would compare with the performance of a hypothetical Michael Spinks who prepared for and fought those five fights without the use of weight training.

As an aside: It certainly seems to me that Tyson had a very large advantage over Spinks in strength.

*Spinks, of course, is but one fighter or one data point.

[GelfSara]

There isn't a single other major non-fighting sport in the world that demands the same physical requirements as boxing. Boxing is a heavily endurance based sport. Lifting heavy weights for 5 reps is bogus. It will ruin endurance.

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

The same low-repetition strength training programs you claim will "ruin endurance" have been show to do exactly the opposite in distance runners. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18460997 for example. Distance running, as you may not know, is "a heavily endurance based sport".

[GelfSara]

You can't name a single modern day welterweight who would beat Robinson. Spence, Thurman, Porter, Garcia, and Crawford would all lose. Badly.



I don't know if you're doing this on purpose or just don't really know much about Sugar Ray. He lost because of dehydration but not because him and his handlers didn't understand the importance of drinking water. Robinson and Maxim were fighting in 103 degree heat. You can literally see Robinson drinking water between rounds to stay hydrated.

Learn your boxing history noob.

1) Yes, no doubt the fighters of today do not compare to the fighters who beat Robinson. Because, you see, older is better. "Old School" boxing training (no weight training, among other things) is better than the training of today; "Old School" cars are better than the cars of today; "Old School" dentistry is better than the dentistry of today--and so on.

2) "Afterwards Robinson claimed that his seconds had let him down, failing to replenish his water bottle..."
--Graeme Kent--

"They later weighed Robinson and discovered he had been drained of 16 pounds during the fight..."
--Michael Carbert--