how much difference does 1 pound make in boxing?

How longs a piece of string, there are other factors:

1. Did the fighter who didn't make weight, simply not drain himself as much? Or did he drain himself more, who was the more drained?
2. Did he not make 147 because fully hydrated he's 165lbs and his 147lb opponent is only 147lbs fully hydrated? If so he has a big advantage once he rehydrates if he hydrates himself properly
3. How well can he use his physical advantages?

 

It matters a lot for strawweights and makes no difference for heavyweights.

 

When I gain or lose 3lbs, it doesn't really seem like I'm sacrificing so much strength like someone like Erik Morales feels if he loses 3lbs...

I just don't understand why something as pathetic as 3lbs makes a lot of difference...

 

It's not the amount of weight. It's that there's nothing left to lose. The first 10 or 15 pounds can be easier than the last 3.

 

The lower your weight, and the more drawn you already are, the more it matters.

For a light heavyweight, who walks around at 180-185? It represents literally nothing. An hour on in the sauna, or just an extra mile a day for a handful of days. Can even be shaved off by skipping that favorite dessert for a week.

For a 118 pounded who should be fighting several weight classes higher and dies to make that weight? Well, I daresay the trip from 119 to 118 is hellish, and lengthy.

 

up to 6 or 7 lbs isn't much to shift or take on and concede that weight to an opponent, especially given 2,3 or 4 months to make it. but in a short span it can kill you...

but typically a few pounds either way is no big deal!

 

This is the perfect way to describe it.

If you have it to lose, either in body fat or water, a single pound is literally nothing at all.

If you are already dry as a bone, and your ribs are visible, you are going to seriously diminish yourself shaving it. Seriously. I say a junior lightweight spitting into a trash can once before a weigh in desperately trying to get that last bit of moisture out. He was a 17 year old amateur. It was horrifying.

 

in some fights it means everything. Hearns when he fought Leonard in 1981 was 145. Had he been 146, crazy as it sounds it might have given him the energy to make it to 15 rounds. I am not sure of it, but in situations like that it might mean a round or two. Even Hagler being 158 for Leonard in the rematch. A pound might have given him one or two more rounds.

 

Wish I saw that one

 

It would have been great. I think Leonard knows an angry Hagler was not as easy to beat. He was not going to fight Hagler again. Although Hearns wanted Hagler still and they almost made that for April of 1988 after Hearns beat Roldan. But back to Leoanrd, Had they signed that fight and had it been 9 months after the first fight, Hagler would have won by late round stoppage. But the way superfights go and Leonard, it would have been another year, and Hagler was not fighting as well when he had one fight a year.