Did Crawford’s performance at 168 showed that he weight bullied all his previous appointments?

Discussion in 'World Boxing Forum' started by PistonHondai, Sep 14, 2025 at 7:34 AM.


  1. PistonHondai

    PistonHondai Active Member Full Member

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    Do you think that’s why he beat someone like Spence so bad when he should have been fighting at 168 all along?
     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2025 at 8:19 AM
    Perkin Warbeck likes this.
  2. cslb

    cslb Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Crawford always made weight at the weigh-in. This “weight bully” bs is just nonsense.
     
  3. Dorrian_Grey

    Dorrian_Grey It came to me in a dream Full Member

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    I don't really like the term weight-bully. It just seems a bit strange and kind of a cop-out. Nothing is stopping other fighters from cutting a lot of weight. There are advantages and disadvantages of cutting a lot too, it can make you more lethargic, make your punches lose their snap, and even worsen your engine. But for what it's worth, as far as I can tell, Crawford has been cutting pretty moderate amounts of weight his whole career compared to his contemporaries, certainly not the huge amounts that guys like Jarrett Hurd have done. He competed as a lightweight in the amateurs with same-day weigh-ins so clearly he was always pretty scrawny as a younger man. He's gone through the weights pretty gradually and has clearly been loading more and more muscle onto his frame over a very long time-span. I don't think it's especially fair or even accurate to label Crawford a weight-bully, especially since it's most often done in an attempt to diminish his career.
     
  4. KernowWarrior

    KernowWarrior Bob Fitzsimmons much bigger brother. Full Member

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    Contract states you make weight at a given time and place, as long as that weight is made the boxer has fulfilled contractual responsibility.

    Weight bullies another phrase to add to the other many useless phrases.
     
  5. Perkin Warbeck

    Perkin Warbeck Boxing aficionado Full Member

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    Yes.
     
  6. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    I think that weight-making requires discipline, discipline in between fights, discipline in training camp, and I think discipline is the most underestimated skill or talent by fans generally. I think that modern weight-making does allow a bigger fighter with that elite self-discipline to thrive more than they could have in the 1930s for example, so there's that.

    The playing field is even within reason, by which I mean Crawford doesn't appear to be so weight-drained at 135 or 140 that he was killing himself in the steam room and "unable to make a fist" at the weigh in like some guys - he's not emaciated like some guys we've seen on the scales, he hasn't been seen fainting or sitting right after weigh-ins to my knowledge. Nor was he backed with big money when he was at his smallest so it's not like he had a science lab behind him.

    People struggle badly with these ideas and the notion of the weight-bully (though not quite new) was born in the sense that it has become a way to run fighters one does not approve of down. Like making weight with discipline then carefully restructuring yourself for the ring was bad behaviour or a false advantage. It comes with plenty of sacrifice and requires good organisation and elite discipline.
     
  7. nervousxtian

    nervousxtian Trolljegeren Full Member

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    You make the weight you make weight. This term is just a dog whistle for haters.
     
  8. Dj-Rossi

    Dj-Rossi New Member banned Full Member

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    He must absolutely kill himself to make weight to have that advantage lol.

    He should really have been a middleweight.
     
  9. African Cobra

    African Cobra The Right Honourable Lord President of the Council banned Full Member

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    Are you saying he bullied Canelo?
     
  10. PistonHondai

    PistonHondai Active Member Full Member

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    No but he won decisively, for someone who spent most of his career in welterweight