Heavyweight size explosion in the early 1970s?

mass production of food proliferates. People eat more, they grow more.


Growth stunts in children occurring less.

 

Was it the age in which the improved diet and nutrition kicked in? I don't know if the population increased above average as well

That a bit uneccessary isn't it?

 

This is all true.

 

It's not that simple. I've just been through the whole thing. People have got bigger, slightly in some parts of the world and also enormously taller in other parts of the world and there are declines in height for people in other parts of the world.

It is also relevant which nations were tall to start with a hundred years ago to understand why some nations have went in different directions.

Boxers are a small selection of people. In modern times there has always been enough tall people to make everything we see today.

Last century heavyweight boxing was dominated by America. I don't think the answers as to why champions or top contenders all got taller can be explained entirely with what direction of height the population was going in that country.

It is true however that Europeans are the tallest people today.

 

I mentioned in the other thread : there come times in history where there's a "tipping point" among the heavyweights. Enough good ones of a certain (larger) size come along concurrently and consecutively to raise the bar permanently.
It doesn't matter WHY it happens intitially (theories abound), it could just be "by chance". But the reason why it causes a permanent increase is because it becomes acutely more difficult for the lesser-sized heavyweights to compete, and the standard is raised.

It's like Liston came along at 212, 215 pounds, crushed Patterson et al. But then Ali comes along, taller than Liston and similar weight and freakishly fast, and holds on to the title. At that point it only took a few more similar sized heavies to come along to cause a tipping point, so that by the mid-late 1970s, the Jerry Quarry and Leon Spinks sized heavyweights were the small guys.

 

The 190 heavyweights disappeared when the 210 heavyweights got better. The 210 heavyweights disappeared when the 230 heavyweights got better.

There always was 210 heavyweights, there always was 230 heavyweights. It was just that they had to wait for the things in boxing favoured them to happen.

That does not just mean steroids.

It means things like rules and changes to the equipment that favoured bigger men. Training became more tailored to suit an individual. Diets became more tailored to suit an individual. In short as time goes on it was possible to physically get more out of the next size range of boxer. Those guys always were around. It just appears was harder for them to reach their potential until advances and factors came in to help them.

 

yes totally, theres no one pattern in anything.

 

meathead, theres a CW division to accomodate them.

 

In the 70s? Yes, I would say the average heavy was probably still under 6'3"

I don't know, there has never been more tall talented heavies than now it seems. But you still have guys like Povetkin, Stiverne, Ruiz Jr in the mix as well 6'1" Briedis flirting with the heavyweight division.

And even several years back we had Adamek, Chambers, Sultan, Chageav, and Haye all rated in the top 10.

 

Deit improved postwar more food was available and cheaper .people ate more and got bigger .look round a medieval castle and see how low doors are.

 

less emphasis on hard stamina reliant manual work means being smaller size with a stronger cardio function and therefore able to work in labour or agrarian setting wasnt such an advantage for sexual selection.

 

Multiple studies have shown that the average man today isn't as strong as the average man of Marciano's time or in as good of shape. This is attributed to falling testosterone levels. The average man in 1952 when Marciano was champion had more testosterone than the average man of 2017. And much of this is attributed to chemicals put in food while food back then was more natural and nutritious.

 

This is all true of the western world. My hunch is that in parts of the worlds population where there is no mobile phones there probably is as much testosterone as there was in 1952.

 

Fact...Foods pumped with steroids and such to increase weight