Are modern heavyweights carrying extra weight?

Yeah definitely. Someone like Whyte should never be in the 260 or 270 range.If he fought in the 60s or 70s he'd be around 220 or 230 max. Parker's too heavy as well. Shouldn't be more than about 210 or 215. Even fighters who are well muscled like Takam are way too heavy for their frames. Takam's built similar to Sonny Liston who was around 220 and still thickset. Absolutely no reason for him to be in the 240s with all that useless steroid muscle.

As for the giants, again most of them are far too heavy for even their outsize frames. Fury in shape is around 245. Joshua should be around the low 230s, possibly less (he's not a naturally huge guy, very narrow shoulders for his height). Joyce at around 250 is about right as he's kind of thickset. Wilder's probably the only really tall guy who is consistently the right weight for his frame.

For any HWs around the six foot mark there's no reason they should be significantly heavier than a Cruiserweight on fight night (210). So Povetkin, Ruiz, Briedis, Hunter, Gassiev, Usyk should all be around this mark. Shavers was one of the hardest punchers of the 70s and routinely weighed in around 210 so there's no excuse that they aren't big enough at that weight.

 

I think if you're a guy who just relies on being a huge punchbag absorbing whatever your opponent throws at you in order to land your own shots then it benefits you to be as heavy and thickset as possible. Miller at 240 or whatever he weighed back in his K-1 days doesn't walk through guys he was he does at 300+. That's about the only scenario I can think of where being bigger has an advantage.

 

Yes, they are, but I read in the Ali vs Vit Klit thread that the HW division in the 70's & 80's was filled with nothing but overrated midget bums that'd get obliterated today.
How is that when today's heavyweights can barely go 10 rounds, have very low & sluggish output, and are extremely inactive. Wilder seems to be one of the few slim trim HW's around his natural weight, most of the others are pudgy.

 

...and endurance.

 

If you're around 6'6, 240-260 is a good weight for most heavyweights. Some guys have bigger frames than others, but that's the range they should be in outside of Wilder.

AJ is usually 240-250 and he's in good shape. Jalolov is around 250-255 and he's in good shape. The Klitschkos are around 240-250 and they're in good shape.

Joyce and Makhmudov have a slightly bigger frame than the guys above, and they both look in shape at 260-265. Zhang is almost 40. His weight is fine.

The only guys that needs to lose weight are Ruiz and Fury.

 

Half the heavyweight division could do with losing some weight.

 

Yes many are overblown or overmuscled.

 

That's a poor excuse for carrying excess fat, or a gut, like many of them carry.

 

one of the reasons i'm down on the heavies is that many don't seem to care and come in looking like me with a nice gut and little muscle tone

 

Anything above 110 kg is not functional.

 

Heavyweights are too heavy, there's no way these 250- 60 pounders could go a fast paced 12-15 rounds.

 

260lbs at 6’6” isn’t that big. Being super shredded and muscular like a bodybuilder isn’t really good for athletics. Look at any of the Olympic athletes in ESPN body issue, almost all of them are carrying a little extra body fat.

 

Both in the UFC and boxing quite a few HWs look like a mockery of elite athletes. The pinnacle was when Fury and his fan boys bandied about the "body bilder" moniker for Joshua, because he's not fat like Fury. Being in good shape was apparently something silly...

 

This.

I appreciate the notion that Joshua is unusually chiseled for a boxer, but trying to mock an elite athlete for looking like an elite athlete is... f***ing weird to say the very least.