The changing landscape: Top 10 Heavyweights by Decade | Boxing News 24 Forum (boxingforum24.com) I hope this helps answer the question
I agree, I’m a fan of the 6’3”-6’5” HW that is athletic with smooth feet and good hand speed that can take angles, use foot feints, punch in combinations and know how to use their footwork on both defense and offense. So many of these huge 6’7”, 6’8” dudes are so clumsy and slow all they can do is shell up defensively or grab anytime they get close and walk straight forward throwing 1’s and 2’s. They’re not fun to watch. They’re not athletic and they’re not good for boxing. But man, humans just keep getting bigger and bigger. I’m 6’3” 250 and at the athlete performance center where I do S&C training for some of the fighters from our gym, I’m not even a big dude. There are behemoths walking around everywhere...6’7 290, 6’6 330, and the basketball players are ridiculous. Teenagers rollin around at 6’ 10, 6’11.
I like Usyk’s style a lot. He’s a little slight for today’s HW though and probably doesn’t pack enough thump. I think 6’3-6’5 and 230-250 is ideal size for speed, strength, athleticism etc. I love Jared Anderson’s skill set and size. 6’4” 250, very athletic, great feet, fast hands, power. Perfect HW size and style for me. I grew up a huge Larry Holmes fan too, I think if Larry fought today with nutrition and S&C work, he would be around a solid 230 instead of the softish 215 he was in his prime and Larry had an 81 inch reach.. Lennox had ideal size and physique. Big, and strong but still athletic and limber.
You ask many pertinent, good questions, which I will only generally answer. I think a certain combo of height & weight define a SHW. Yes, they were always around, but much more scarce. So the ones you saw were often on the clumsy side but in contention just b/c of their size. In current/recent times the world pop is much larger, AND the Eastern (Soviet) block opened up. Do I have to mention their names? So now we have a much larger pool of potential SHWs - and some will be very skilled. Some fans have many biases against 2000 era HWs. I don't think 1950s to mid 80s HWs were all that skilled over today's big HWs. To answer the OP - it's NOT a phase, they're here to STAY.
Yeah. Lennox was with good reach, very athletic with low fat and 245 lbs, sometimes a bit more. I think his size / weight is more suitable for modern HW era than Usyk's size/ weight. Lennox= taller and with better reach than Usyk and also heavier and still very muscular with low fat. Enough mobile for his size and skilled.
Valuev looks that was too large. Dudes like Lewis, Vitali and Wlad were not too large and still enough large.
yes, we are getting bigger as a species. but fighting with gloves and under boxing rules is a very specialized skill. there are more important things than size for this particular skill. like a running back not being the size of a lineman. or a gamebred 65 lb pitbull killing any dog you put in front of it, regardless of size. a 35 lb pit couldnt beat them all, a 90 lb pit couldnt either, but a 65 lb pit could.
No people are evolving and getting bigger, bigger figters have an advantage at heavyweight, there aren`t enough skilled 230 pounders to take on the bigger heavyweights now, unless the skill level drops after Fury and AJ retire, an unskilled 6`6+ plus fighter will be easy to beat.
AJ has said he will retire in 5-6 years and the only fighters at 230 or lower that can beat him are Wildder and Usyk, however Usyk will have a far better chance than Wilder and even if Wilder can beat AJ he`s still a super heavyweight at 6`7, I don`t think any 230pound fighter right now can beat Wilder except Usyk but that could change in the coming years.
Completely agree, I just meant unfortunately because there are always more and more of these lumbering giants around, that we will have to see more and more of them clogging up boxing rings, usually after they fail at other sports. Lots of dumb people in boxing that are still impressed and intrigued by size and stature.
I think Usyk is far too unproven at HW to know if he is at all likely to beat AJ. Also SHW is not only defined by height: it is in the name itself, the main thing is "weight". And of course not just that number, but what weight you are in shape at. The exception is you can be overweight or fat IF you would be SHW size if you were fairly lean/without much body fat. Normally SHW starts around 235 lbs. Wilder at his heaviest barely cracks 230, usually lighter. He was as light as 212 & 1/2 for a certain famous fairly recent fight... This is in part because Wilder has no legs. He is listed as 18" & 14" for their measurements: an 18" thigh is especially tiny for ANY HW, even in the age when they were often much lighter/there was no CW division. I have not even found a HW who weighed in the 180's (which with rehydration would be a modern day LHW, sometimes SMW) who is listed as having such super-model like proportions, lol! Anywho...Wilder is not a SHW. Which brings us to another question... Let us say you had a fighter who was well over 7', let us even say 7' 6", & weighed 235. Technically that would be a SHW. But being so skinny would violate the spirit of what it means to be a SHW-even if they technically qualified. Thus spake Rainman!
He looks is over the hill after fights vs prime Briedis and prime Gassiev, this is what this is. If promoter is telling you that boxer older than 33 is in his prime, you should think before you ink. He isn't prime version anymore.
Why dumb? Sorry, if opponent is skilled and not too slow, size does matters a lot. I for example had more problems to spar with not highly ranked HW boxer than with better ranked CW boxers. What he did? Normally just launched long range punches until I had closed distance. Btw most advantage he had over me was reach advantage. It isn't fun, he launch punches when you are closing distance and these aren't jabs. Dude smaller than Valuev but larger than Lewis. It is not fun and guy this day was approx 300 lbs with low fat. Low level boxer for forum posters.
