I listed all the bare knuckle champs height and weight in a thread like this a month or two ago and it's since been deleted for some reason. Don't feel like going over to Cox's Corner and looking all that up again right now though. Nice to see you have all that information and have made the point for me. Kudos. I was even thinking about making a graph visualizing everything. Maybe later.
The legs (thighs especially) of heavyweights seem to have gotten larger over the years. I've noticed this when comparing heavies from the last 20-30 years and heavies from the earlier part of the last century.
in 100 years the average heavyweight will be the size of Valuev, while fighters who around the Klitschko's size will be considered cruiserweights.
no only if the rounds get shorter, or there are less rounds per fight, and only then will gassing giants be accommodated, otherwise they will be ineffective in the ring. since, as people get bigger, the corresponding increase in the size of the human heart does not compensate for the additional bulk of the body, it merely adds more strain to the CVS. 8 foot tall fatboys will basically tend to gas out in much less time than todays fatobys.
I don't think so. The Klitschkos, Lewis and Bowe are few and far between. Big, athletic dudes who still can muster the fluidity and balance needed to compete against smaller more nimble guys while maximizing their assets of power, strength and length. Too many super heavies of past and present look like puppets with the strings cut. There are more now that do not follow that mold but they are still rare. But one needn't go to the extremes of those few guys. Fighters of what are now considered more modest dimensions, Stiverne, Pulev and Povetkin are still very large heavies when seen in historical perspective. And don't give some crap about Povetkin being a blown up cruiser. Met the guy in Hamburg Airport a few years ago. He's one of those dudes who is bigger than numbers say. Massive forearms, big dimensions and taller than he appears when standing next to a K-Bro.
I was going to ignore the last guys respose, figuring that someone would see the sarcasm, but now that there are two of you, I'll clarify that I wasn't serious. At any rate its not far fetched to think that the size of the average heavyweight will continue to climb. Men like Glaskov, Adamek and Stiverne are all around 6'3" 220 plus and considered relatively small for this division, when in fact they would have been viewed as a good size 30 years ago.. There are men all over the place these days that are well over 6'5" 240 and while some of them aren't particularly talented, the abilities of larger men have come a long way since Jess Willard's time. Assuming boxing ( and society ) is still standing in 100 years, the heavyweight or super heavyweight division if there is one will be populated with some pretty big dudes.
Sarcasm is hard to detect on the interwebs... but I should have seen through it. I think the super big guys will remain rarities at the very top level, but when they can combine talent, balance and finesse (and a decent chin) with that size, they will be special. Think of the superheavy hypes we have had to endure, guys who are sometimes tagged to"revolutionize the division"... Michael Grant, Briggs, Deontay Wilder (just wait), Dimentrenko... even a Jose Luis Gonzalez... For every Waldo, there will be a dozen of these guys. The human body just doesn't seem to possess the necessary fluidity for the sport at those sizes. Waldo, a guy who moves very well on his feet and can hook off the jab, is a rarity. Lewis settled down in latter years but was a very successful operator and dynamic finisher (rather than a blundering Valuev type)...
Tend to agree with this. There may be an upper size limit where heavies can still maintain natural athleticism and fluidity. Then again, there may well be an exception to that 'rule' one day.
This is a good question though. I cant help but keep coming back to Toney. If a 5 '10 240 lb past prime Toney can be competive with the top 5 ranked heavys, why wouldnt a 185lb prime Toney take them to school? Evander Holyfield, Mike Spinks are others who had to be competitive at the lower weights, though i imagine they are both taller than 6 foot.
Nothing better than seeing a littler guy slay a giant. Dempsey and Holyfield's careers owe much to their fights against bigger foes. In the future though, I reckon the health and safety police will make sure boxing doesn't sanction fights between people with massive physical differences (height,reach,weight...even bodyfat) and skilled men like RJJ or Toney maybe even holyfield sized blokes wont get a shot at what I believe will become a super-heavyweight crown.
According to a scientific study there are 3 people 7 feet or taller for every 1 million people, so there are roughly 20,000 people over 7 feet tall. Many of them are sick or poorly coordinated. Vaulev was a freak in more ways than one. I tend to doubt the average heavyweight in 100 years will be 7 feet tall, unless there is some genetic engineering. However I do think in there is a slow trend of talented heavyweights getting bigger. 20 years from now 6'4" could be the norm. The norm now for the top 10 is about 6'2-6'3" with no man below 6 feet and 210 pounds.
In the top ten today? I would say about 6'3" is average. The article makes a point that around 1890, the best fighters were a bit taller than their predecessors. Fast forward 100 years. We are seeing a vertical trend again. Since the early 1990 to 2014 ( almost 25 years of boxing ) the #1 guys for most of the years has been a skilled super heavyweight ( Bowe, Lewis, Klitschko, and Klitschko ). A better question is when was the last time a heavyweight under 6 feet tall made the top ten? Likely Tyson or Tua. I can't think of anyone in from 1990-2014! What does this mean? If you short, you'd better be able to hit a ton and take a good punch. I'd remove Toney as he was busted for riods. Buttler wasn't in the top ten, but Roy Jones was for a short period of time. Unless a sub 6 foot 185 pounder has great power, he's not beating a modern skilled super heavyweight without a fluke event like an injury or a DQ.