Why were "small" men able to dominate the HW division?

HAHA. Vitali had less than two weeks to prepare for Lewis, and had to fight with a cut, but still was up 4-2 on all three cards. He made Lewis look bad.

Vitali hurt his shoulder in round three vs Byrd ( Confirmed by video ) yet was way in the lead vs the the best defensive slicker of his time.

Charles would have no shot vs Vital. Neither would Walcott.

It's been 29 years since the last sub 200 pound champion Lora. Face facts, the little man has been phased out of the division. Maybe if a sub 200 pounder has world class power, he as a shot. Outside of that he's mostly dead in the water vs a skilled super heavyweight.

Take Bowe, Lewis, and both Klitchsko's. How many fights between them? A lot and only one razor thin loss via decision ( Bowe ) and the fight was very controversial due to a 17 minute delay which allowed an often gassed Holyfield time to completely re-fuel.

 

Did you too read that in the manner of Phil Ken Sebben?

 

They can calculate all they want, it's not going to have a huge impact on someone who's already eating healthy and properly.
I mean, in terms of performance.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7edeOEuXdMU

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ID1KJQxB8

 

:?

 

I will withhold judgment on that one, but possibly.

Is there perhaps a bit of a dearth of quality in the guys bigger than Kovalev, who cant quite ram themselves into the light heavyweight division?

 

You would be shocked by how uncalculated, the diets on many endurance athletes are.

Beyond a certain point, it is a matter of throwing fuel in the furnace.

 

Lewis vs Klitschko was low quality boxing.****, it was low quality slugging too.It was not a fight that demonstrated greatness in any way other than ability to take big punches for either man.

I'm not arguing for the sub-200 pound heavy here.I believe things like a 20-40 lb weight advantage and significant range advantages matter.I just also think Vitali is no more than a decent fighter...not immune to a struggle against a smaller man.

You seem to have forgot Wlad's pathetic stoppage losses for that last paragraph btw.I understand it makes it look better if you do though.

 

true to a large extent, especially in individual sports, but pro cycling teams,who give out cake and coke during races, don't employ nutritionists and chefs because they don't have anywhere else to spend that money. Boxing is not a true endurance sport either, strength and size are useless for a marathon runner but important in boxing

graham obree was famous for training and racing on marmalade sandwiches and cornflakes, although his big achievments came because of invention over pure legs he was a hell of a cyclist, but failed in a big, big way once he challenged the best with the same equipment (maybe not the best example as he seems to have been a bit too individual for teamwork generally, but an obvious one).

I'm not saying it is a gigantic difference, but, as with most suggestions in this thread, it makes a difference, and combined with the shorter fights and other mentioned things, has got to be part of the reason guys like haye and hollyfield are able to transform into legit hw's when guys in the past just fought at hw with no real pysical preparation for the move up. not knocking that approach but it aint too popular these days.

marciano chewing his steak obviously worked for him, but for a 12 rd fight against rid**** bowe maybe he would be better off swallowing, then taking some supplements.

 

Michael Phelps, is on paper the most successful olympian of all time, and he just scoffs ridiculous calories of all kinds.

When I got into endurance sports myself, I can honestly say that the part that I found the hardest, was eating enough!

I could deal with the 25 mile run, and 20 the day after, but eating a percentage of my body weight in pasta was hard!

 

agreed on that, i was a bike courier for years and the hardest part was carrying all that food home on sunday.

phelps training diet is crazy to look at, but his sport, training methods and goals were very different to a boxer in the process of moving up to hw.

(irrelevant fun) small guy eating his diet; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw8iljkD1So