Bob Foster at SMW today- GOAT 49-0

Another guess. Boxing's spokesperson, everybody.

 

@cross_trainer

Care to comment?

Is prime Bob Foster a middleweight today?

Is he the second coming of SRR at 154?

Did you find the joke funny?

 

I think I already said a few pages back that I, like you, am conservative when it comes to guessing about this stuff. I'd expect Foster to be a very scary guy at 168, based on the other people who managed to drain from his definitely-not-dehydrated 182 pounds to supermiddle.

Not that I'm an expert on weight cutting, so I'm not sure how much my opinion matters here.

 

I'll add, though, that most of this hinges on whether Foster's walk-around weight was around 175. The sources posted so far for each position aren't really decisive either way, IMO. If Foster is low 170s without draining himself, then that puts him within range of middleweight.

But as of right now? I'm sticking with the safer answer, Alec. Supermiddleweight for $500.

 

Okay, in your non-expert opinion, why would someone who walks around at 170 bulk up for Ernie Knox in his early twenties, and yo-yo around 170 and 180 plus? For Foster to not only get his start at 160 but also peak there, he would have to be a boxing unicorn. Geale and Rubio weren't peak when they went over 180.

Also, why aren't Kovalev and Bivol middleweights?

The answer, of course, is not all too important. But let me ask you this: in analyzing information about boxing do you prefer news articles, documented in-ring weights, and critical thinking or jokes, non-sequiturs, and weird name-calling?

 

Good question. Dunno. There also doesn't seem to be a very good reason why Foster would make up / get wrong his typical walkaround weights. The other guys in the debate are saying that Foster gave statements that he was in the 170s. Both of these issues hinge upon our guessing Foster's intentions. That's why my non-expert opinion was to withhold judgment and give the conservative supermiddleweight answer.

The ability to cut weight seems to vary from person to person, judging from the source I posted (and Grey's comments earlier in the thread.) Just because it clusters at a certain weight doesn't mean everybody can make it. And yes, maybe Foster was one of the guys who couldn't cut much under modern conditions. We can't know for sure; we can maybe guess based on averages, but that's it.

Well, sure.

In analyzing information about boxing, clearly the former. But news articles, documented in-ring weights, and critical thinking might be less suited to the kind of fight that you and Kamikaze are involved in than jokes and weird name-calling are.

Myself, I've tried to avoid getting involved in either of the latter, and have usually "liked" posts from both parties that contain an interesting point buried in the sniping.

 

Thanks for the response. If we take the unsourced quote above, it appears Bob is misremembering his own weights for those fights. They were also all of the fights he lost, but not all of his fights over 180.

On clustering, one would have to assume that a thin man like Foster is an unlikely outlier. In fact, before declaring him an outlier, maybe we should establish a precedent? What 178 pound amateur experienced prime combat ability as a middleweight? Is the law of averages not sound logic? Again, assuming we want the best light heavyweights as representatives. That would mean Kovalev and Bivol had less mass to lose, wouldn't it?

 

If we want to talk amateur averages for the whole field of people in that website (which I think we would want before we can get a good answer to your question about who counts as an outlier), then that would be a much larger project than I have time to do. Seems like an interesting research project for those willing to commit the time, though.

 

I already have the start of one, but have not undertaken the project in full. I also have a compilation from before 2014 of various in-ring weights, which I have compiled myself. Light heavyweights consistently cluster around the 180's. Only Dawson exceeded 190, and only once. He quickly went back down to average. No middleweights on my list reached 180. I didn't have Rubio or Geale because I only logged noteworthy fighters. If you pair this information with the amateur weights, I think the pattern strongly supports what I've been saying all along.

 

Might be worth a separate thread. Sounds like something the forum could use.

 

Not in terms of the 200lbs weight limit though, Ali weighed around 215lbs in his bout v Foster, and even though Frazier was only around 205lbs, he hit a lot harder than any cruiser and often.