Perhaps heavies get bigger every 100 years.

Thanks for the read. True in boxing and the NFL.

 

whats the average height nowadays?

 

Remember this quote , "the fastest big man I ever saw".

How about this one? "the only big man I ever saw".
Ruhlin 220lbs? No way, the heaviest recorded weight for him is 210lbs in his next to last fight when he was 34.

 

It is by no means a linear trend.

There have been big heavyweights in every era, so obviously we need to focus on the best of the respective eras.

It is true that the best heavyweights between 1830 to 1880, were for the most part the size of middleweights or a little more, the champions of the so called “golden era” from 1800 to 130 were more in the cruiserweight class. Perhaps that is partly why it was seen as a strong era?

Now James J Jeffries was seen by many at the time, as heralding the start of a new era of giants, but in hindsight he was a standout and the smaller guys were soon firmly back in control. The champions who ruled the division up to the era of Sonny Liston, were not in a different size class to James J Corbett, John L Sullivan, or even the bare-knuckle champions of the golden era, with the odd exception here and there.

You could argue that not that much changed between 1800 and 1960, in terms of the physical dimensions of the best heavyweights.

 

Exactament!

 

Besides a few champions like Willard, Carnera or perhaps Jeffries they were all pretty much 180-200 lbs and around 6-6'3". Even into the 70's the heavyweight division still had fighters below 200 lbs in the top 10 rankings. But we were starting to see the 210-220 lb fighter as more normal.

Jump into the 80's we had alot of over weight fighters. The <200 lb contender had pretty much disappeared. The contenders now are 225-260, many are 6'7". They all seem pretty muscular compared to the contenders in the past. More weight work, and I imagine more 'medical' help.

 

I will list a few bare-knuckle guys who I think would have fitted well into the 20th century size bracket. I will exclude guys prior to 1808, where it is hard to say how good their conditioning was, and guys who never really had an argument for being the best guy out there:

Tom Cribb, 5&#8217; 10&#8217;&#8217; and superbly conditioned at 189lbs.
Tom Spring, 5&#8217; 11.5 &#8217;&#8217; and 186lbs.
Tom Molineux, 5&#8217; 9&#8217;&#8217; and 185lbs.
Ben Caunt, 6&#8217; 2.5&#8217;&#8217; and about 205lbs.
William Perry, 6&#8217; ½&#8217;&#8217; about 190lbs.
Sam Hurst, 6&#8217; 2.5&#8217;&#8217; and reported as being 230lbs.
John C Heenan, 6&#8217; 2&#8217;&#8217; and 195lbs.
Tom King, 6&#8217; 2&#8217;&#8217; and 182lbs.

Interestingly, quite a few of the guys who weighed in around 160-170lbs, were six feet tall. Make of this what you will.

 

Lionel Butler 5'11" 1994 . David Tua 5'10" 2003 .
James Toney 5'10" 2006.
A better question might be what chance would a 185lbs under 6 foot heavyweight have with today's super heavyweights?

 

Not really, because they can’t test the idea, like back in the day.

If you can’t make 193lbs today, then you are not getting in the ring, with a fat unconditioned heavyweight, for your own safety.

 

They are far from all fat and unconditioned .
Wlad,Thompson,Helenius,Price,Furey, off the top of my head.

To test the idea, all one would have to do is erase the Cruiserweight division.
We are speaking hyopothetically here.

 

They outlawed catchweight fights? When?

Or, is it as Roy Jones,Sr said when it was suggested his son fight Lennox Lewis. No way in hell. I don't want him killed.

 

I think that the biggest leap in size occurred when steroids became common.