Having a naturally high body fat % can be a huge advantage if the boxer is also well-conditioned, muscular and has a sufficiently big frame to carry it well: 1. Wrestling/clinching benefits (easier to push them and harder to push you, easier to hold and nullify their offense while punching them, harder to get their arms around your waist, more sweaty and slippery for them, conserve your stamina and sap their physical and mental stamina through leaning and domination in the clinch) 2. Psychological factors (underestimation, less bodily neuroticism, narcissism and pressure, greater fear of humiliation and loss for the opponent, mass as powerful and intimidating in itself) 3. Increased punch resistance (superior shock absorption and harder to knock down) 4. Increased punch power (provided the fat is not grossly excessive) The heavier man can have the confidence to box to his game plan knowing that he can always clinch if need be and have the advantage, which is a big weight off his mind and tactical advantage but the opposite applies to his opponent, who finds himself less relaxed and with fewer options to defend himself as clinching is a less effective tactic for him. Having the advantage in the clinch also enables the heavier fighter to clinch frequently in the earlier rounds, potentially hiding his own fatigue when he clinches later on as this strategy eliminates the tell. So why does fat get a bad rap when it's clearly so useful? One possible reason is that fat fighters are very bad for businesses; both as less marketable individuals and in how they reduce the marketability of the chiselled, low body fat % weightlifters they defeat and humiliate (encouraging yet more fighters to keep the pounds on) so the boxing industry has a strong incentive to discourage the creation and promotion of fat fighters in any way they can. Fat fighters also have a bad reputation because they are overrepresented among undisciplined journeymen and because fat people in society generally tend to be unathletic and unfit.
I agree, I remember Riddick Bowe slimmed down tremendously for his rematch with Golota...on the surface you thought, wow this guy looks in great shape, he must have trained hard for this fight... But things got underway and you soon realised Bowe was not absorbing punches well at all.
the argument is obviously only halfway viable at heavyweight. even then, fat's no great hindrance in the very short term but boxers' endurance needs to be so good. even a single three minute round is a long time, it's roughly the amount of time it'd take a good club runner to cover 1km. guess how many good club 1km runners are carrying round significant amounts of body fat.
"the argument is obviously only halfway viable at heavyweight" pretty much yeah, otherwise it tends to push you up into a higher weight category Part of it will depend at the pace you're fighting at. If you fight at a slower pace your endurance doesn't have to be as good. Otherwise you need greater levels of stamina to carry more weight. Obviously you won't see many fat club runners because packing excess weight is no advantage on a run, whereas it can be a significant advantage in a fight. We also have to consider the gas tank of the opponent: having a heavier man lean on him and dominate him in the clinch is going to deplete his physical and mental stamina more quickly, so even if the fatter man is tired his opponent may well be exhausted. The fat also protects you from being similarly dominated and having your stamina sapped.
I think some boxers have a better frame to carry it, and use it to their advantage. But body types are different, and natural ectomorph guys can't afford to put on so much weight. That's the reason why I like the heavyweight division. The fat and muscle levels have a much wider range than the lower divisions.
It's all well and good for the James Toney's of this world. Less good for the Chris Arreola and David Tua's of this world And yeah, pretty much is a cruiser/heavyweight question, as we all saw what , for example, the result of fighters like Hatton doing fat camps instead of boxing camps to burn weight and how they ended up; shot and drained
Even outside fighting (and it's even better on the ground than standing up: smothering and rolling off your back) fat has huge advantages in a survival situation. Fat people are better insulated from cold, more buoyant when in water and can cope with starvation and disease better. And if they die, there's more to feast on!
it seems to come in handy for sumo wrestlers. but then even 30 seconds would be quite a long sumo bout.
Ali used to carry a little around the mid section on the reasoning it provided more protection to his ribs.
this requires also high level skills, almost in 99% cases clinch / standup wrestling skills are undervalued by boxing fans in internet. This yeah. It is but only in some areas. It depends, if boxer doesn't move enough fast then. Remember physics lessons? mass and speed makes sense.
