Exaggerated heights of boxers?

Yes, I did notice the stats on screen had Benitez’s chest listed at 34” vs Ray’s 38”. Reaching back to the old timers, Jack Johnson’s chest was listed at sub 40” - quite small relative to his size otherwise.

 

Thats the thing - if everyone is fudging their height - you’re moving from one flawed reference to another -building a leaning tower of Pisa.

And sometimes, two fudged heights might appear to corroborate one another - if both fighters have inflated by the same amount.

If one finds even just one instance of a lower stat than normally listed for a fighter otherwise, they might latch to it figuring a fighter would never understate himself.

To make that clear with an example - Sonny Liston’s reach was displayed as 80” for the Leotis Martin fight. Some people hold to that since there is little motive to shortfall yourself so the lesser figure might seem to be the more legit.

My guess is they somehow erred on that figure for Liston - because in the Chuvalo vs Williams fight they had Big Cat’s reach listed at a whopping 86”- whereas Williams’ reach was commonly listed several inches less previously.

Who knows. Even with reach, if enough fighters pass off, say, a true 78” as 82”, then by relative comparison they will pass the so called eye test.

 

The head tilt is funny. And when Ray breaks from the stare down first - well, doesn’t Wilfred look more than smugly satisfied with himself? Forget there was still the best part of 15 rounds to sort out who was the superior wunderkind.

 

Does anyone have doubts as to Terrell being a full 6’6”? It’s just that on some occasions he didn’t appear to scratch up as quite that tall - but I’m not strongly arguing against 6’6”.

 

I've seen 5'9 3/4" listed a few times, which is oddly specific, and if rounded to 5'10" is probably what my guess would be.

 

I had him at 5-9 15/16ths.

 

Morning or evening? Either way a mosquito bite on the top of the head would’ve got him at least to a statuesque 5’10” if not a smidge more. Depends on the size of the mosquito, the intensity of its bite, potential allergic reactions, you know, all the “normal” stuff that one needs to consider…...

 

Depends which time of the day he was measured.
Earlier in the day he could have been another 17/64ths taller

 

When I had my medical for an amateur medical card in 1977 I measured 5ft 10 1/4 exactly.
I measured my spindly chest and it was 37", the same size as Sugar Ray Robinson's had been.
I weighed in at 10st 3lbs for my first fight but nowhere near the muscularity of Ray Leonard.
Years ago my dad told me that Jack kid Berg could expand his chest about 6 inches which is something similar to Max Baer and remarkable given that he was only a lightweight/light welter.
One other thing Berg had in common with Max Baer, Gorilla Jones and a lot more top boxers was Mae West

 

I've had a flat top haircut for nearly 40 years now, could I legitimately include my hair as an extension to my head ??
If so that's another inch on my height whoooooo hooooooo

 

Yeas there are so many ambiguities to finding what is real.
Including things not fudged, but someone stands a little taller or slouches or is measured at certain times of day or after excercise that compresses the spine...

I wonder why a few people have such a difference in expanded chest measurement.
Most like me have no more tha 2"-which seems significant when you try it out...
But I recall Babe Ruth had a big discrepency.
I wonder if this capacity somehow nestows more elasticity in the deployment of certain forces-like a rubber band effect might increase the potential power of a swing?

Maybe your measuremnt was the same as at least a WW SRR or SRL.
But unless you were very low body fat-not just not at all overweight unlikely...Even SRR who was taller than you, likely had more muscle.
Although sometimes like with WW Tommy Hearns they depended instead upon speed & leverage, & he had no legs.

Oh & you likely know neither hair nor tipping the chin back/front of head being measured counts as your actual height.

 

The last paragraph is very upsetting and has spoiled by Saturday morning.
I was just getting used to referring to myself as a 6 footer and now I'm yoda sized again
I've met scores of people over the years who've claimed to be 5ft-10 as I've towered over them by 1/4" which is actually 3"
one of them was TV presenter.........

 

It’s probably worth taking an inch off the entire heavyweight division after about 1940. Just as a starting point.

Terrell was taller than everyone else who rounded their height up to 6’3”. That’s all anyone can say for certain.

Everyone over 6ft rounds up as 6’3”. The only guy who genuinely was 6’3” was Gerrie Coetzee. But look how much shorter all those “six three” guys were next to Gerrie. Ali, Bruno, Dokes, Thomas. And all those guys were comparable to each other.

The one time “six three” Pinklon Thomas was listed less than 6’3” was for the tale of the tape against Coetzee. They listed pink as six foot and three quarter inch so as not to make a liar out of Thomas. But it’s not just Thomas. It’s all those guys the same height as Thomas like Witherspoon and therefore all the “six three” guys comparable to Witherspoon, Thomas and all the rest of them.

So if all those guys are truly under 6’2” in reality..how short was Holyfield? Thomas towered over him. Holmes towered over him. The only guys shorter than Evander was Tyson and Bert Cooper.

 

Good stuff, thanks for imparting that. Mae West, quite the lass and as a comedienne, way ahead of her time - like my other favourites, The Marx Bros - “I never forget a face but in your case I’ll make an exception”- never gets old.

Yeah, I’m not sure what the degree of chest expansion means in the real world - the most efficient breathing comes from diaphragmatic breathing - allowing the lungs to better expand downward.

Anyway…have you seen the old film of an older Tom Sharkey expanding his chest? He gained some inches on the inhale - he looked like a puffed out pigeon.

 

I wouldn't bet against their being more champions and contenders on Mae West's resume than Maxie Rosenbloom, who himself is probably on their.
It was my dad who had a thing with the chest.
He suffered with bronchitis and a doctor in the 20's had recommended to his dad that he starts him smoking to improve his lungs ????????
Tom Sharkey was a tough looking geezer wasn't he ?

One of my favourite Marx quotes
"either my watch has stopped or you're dead"