Boxers getting really fat during /layoffs/retirement

Fighting shape, and the ability to have loads of fights compared to fighters today, is what I'm talking about. Seems like there's a big difference these days, with accusations of inadequate time to prepare for fights thrown out there all over the place, and it's often used as an excuse for a loss.

HW fighters are fatter today, because they can get away with it. The pace and intensity of HW fights has slowed to a crawl, they would never survive even 30 yrs ago.

 

Considerably heavier though. As soon as he retired his face looked like a chipmunk. Even in between bouts before he was lean.

 

You're just jealous. Compare his face to the state of George Groves'. That's a chipmunk!

 

It's human nature. Most people who are overly strict get bananas when they can break out. Almost no one is hyper-disciplined throughout life. It's like Holyfield avoiding women during his early championship years, because his grandma and his lord said so or something of that sort. Then, out of nowhere, seemingly in the same week, he became the father of 114 children and he was like "Well, held off as long as I could, then I covered the Earth in a cloud of Holyfield semen that impregnated everyone. Sorry, ya'll. I'll do better." Then he did do better. By better, I mean he impregnated seventy-three-hundred women when he exploded the following week after a chaste rest period of days and that was in fact better, in a sense of efficiency. It was impressive. To this day, geneticists debate who has had a larger influence on the human gene pool, Genghis Khan or Evander Holyfield. The two greatest, dirtiest, spermiest warriors in all of human history of Earth's crust.

 

A crust, made primarily of their combined dried semen, incidentally.

 

Greatest, dirtiest, spermiest but most exciting also, I should say. I meant to say that.

 

At some point you go from the weight cut being an advantage to a fighter just draining themselves and no one wants to admit it. A lot of great performances left on the table that way.

Back then you could just wait for one of their monthly fights to go badly and jump on them then. Trying to get an advantage is nothing new and there will always be an advantage for the champion who sets the schedule to some extent.

Holyfield vs Qawi was for Mother Nature's collective virginity.

 

It's mind boggling mixed with sadness seeing these massive guys shrink themselves into way lower divisions so they can have the upper hand time & time again until their bodies wont allow them,

seeing them the next night looking many weight classes up now that's crazy.

 

Jealous? I literally stated a fact without hostility.

 

I don't think it's that hard to fathom - especially when you look at a few factors, i'd guess that most of the fighters that balloon post retirement are a combination of:-
+ Well past high-metabolism age, where putting on more weight is a natural progression
+ They may not have enjoyed training / had a healthy lifestyle independent of 'boxing as a job' - see Hatton who used to balloon up in bteween fights in any case
+ When you have had to train hard and make insane weight cuts for a long chunk of your life, post-retirement will probably seem like paradise for some folks - eat what they want, all the treats that they couldn't before, not having to kill themselves with crazy training regimens
+ Some of the most prominent examples of folks that have really piled on the pounds were likely not the most disciplined that 'lived the life' and more relied on youth, natural talents and athleticism (Naz, Saunders)
+ I suspect some boxers who do not want to 'un-retire' probably avoid training etc because they would miss it too much and have that temptation for 'one more fight' - I'm sure Calzaghe mentioned this in an interview a while back.

I'd guess that fighters who stay in shape well into their 50's are likely ones where that training/diet is either institutionalised where they just can't stop it, or even if they weren't boxers they would probably still have been religiously at the gym etc, because it's an integral part of their life / routine.

Most folks struggle to avoid the weight gain once metabolism slows (I was a beanpole 9/10 stone till I hit 30, and now at 48 I struggle to stay below 13 even swimming every day lol), and unless they really put in the extra effort and discipline to have balanced diet and a decent training regimen then they will pile on the pounds.

Some folks are blessed with a very high metabolism into later life which helps a lot, whereas others - not so much; that could also be a factor for some folks - where NAz might be the perfect storm of all those factors (and the fact he probably doesn't give a flying feck either!)

 

Billy Joe has always been a fatboy

It's genetics x gluttony x no education in his case. His bank account is fat, too

 

I always feel with Hamed its just easy to be fat. Being a little guy like that, not working out and rich.
But it must suck though if he barely can tue his laces.

 

One of my best mates in the navy got into the Australian commandos at 20 (Commandos being Australian SF), he was in there for 6 years, got out, now he's a fat dog who plays wow everyday and lives off DVA payouts because of back pain after falling down a slope during training lol, saw him in Feb and he was probably 30kg heavier than i'd seen him last. Guy was insane back in the day, the PT's used to give up on him because you couldn't punish him any further with exercise during basic lol, now his diet is mainly fireballs and ubereats. Some people are pretty all or nothing ppl.