Let's pull on that thread a little more by naming the rare few middleweights who exceeded the 180-pound mark. In a compilation spanning 4 years, we have three examples: Geale, who weighed in at 182 in street clothes; Rubio, who weighed in at 181, having missed 160 by nearly two pounds the day before; and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Kamikaze mentioned that Foster was showing up at times below the 175 mark for his title defenses. Would that indicate that he was at that weight naturally, or just that he took a more drastic water-weight cut than he needed to? If he was in the low 170s naturally, he might be closer to the middleweights in that collection of unofficial weights.
I wasn't commenting on Foster's ability to make 168. Maybe he could, maybe, not. But I agree it would probably weaken him somewhat. I was responding to this post by the thread starter:
It’s like- if he really was draining himself so much like they want to believe why would he go so far below the LHW limit at times? It’s because he wasn’t doing it on purpose he had issues holding onto weight. Like Hagler he weighed what he weighed IMO the evidence seems to suggest so.