The fatness of current heavyweights : have standards slipped too far ?

drugs also played a part in the fall of the 1980's guys. Many could have been greats perhaps.

They never reach there top form imo.

 

Genetically there are some fighters who will never be sculpted. Even fighters at lightweight such as Juan Diaz come into fights soft around the middle. Doesnt mean hes not in shape.
Theres just a big difference between being in shape and being fat or ripped, for that matter. Being off for four months and coming into to camp for six weeks is not staying in shape. Realistically fighters needs to stay active in the gym year round to maintain there fitness. One of the main reasons Bernard Hopkins has had such an extended career, is because he always stayed in the gym. Now that hes been idle he fights at light heavyweight more of a natural weight.
Tubbs like Frans Botha, and Buster Mathis for instance, just had bad genetics. A fighter who puts on weight quickly has to stay in the gym. Don King was a big problem for these fighters staying idle and not busy so they werent in the gym like they should have been. As young fighters pro and amatuer their always in the gym, taking fights on short notice. As they move up the ladder they fight less often. Look what happen to David Tua once he established himself. He was a perfect example of a guy that couldnt take any down time.

 

Looking for modern sized heavyweight fatties and musclemen from earlier eras reveals few exceptions who managed to have success at the world class level. (Forgive my stream-of-consciousness rambling, and feel free to skip this by if it's too much reading to bother with. This is sort of a "throw away" post I might usually choose to delete.)

For me, this is already a tired and well known old mantra, and it will surprise nobody that I chalk the proliferation of current heavyweight fatness at the world class level to the demise of the championship distance. The difference between potentially having to go 12 rounds or 15 is monumental, somewhat akin to the contrast between a mile run and a marathon, as the history of boxing during the 15 round era conclusively demonstrates.

When training and competing to go beyond 12 rounds, excessive fatness or muscularity become far greater liabilities. 15 round champions who transitioned into the 12 round era ballooned in size once it became apparent the championship distance was no more.

The biggest heavyweight champions of the classic 15 round era to win over that distance were Primo Carnera and John Tate. Neither was fat as his peak.

When Tate took on Coetzee for Ali's vacated WBA Title, he weighed in at 240 pounds, and that was the major story between the weigh-in and their match. Many experts did not believe Big John could carry 240 pounds and win, especially over the distance, but he was very well conditioned at his youthful peak. While Tate did not have a sharply defined musculature, his body did appear to be toned, with no evidence of loose flesh around his midsection. Coeztee faded down the stretch against John's superior endurance, and the newly announced champion was fresh enough afterward to dance an energetic knee pumping jig as his hand was raised.

Although Tate's first defense will always be remembered for how it ended with 45 seconds to go, it's also a fact that he completely dominated 13 of the first 14 rounds against a challenger coming off a 12 round shutout win himself. Only some extremely bad advice from his corner to stop smothering his smaller opponent against the ropes and voluntarily retreat for the final three minutes prevented him from posting a dull but extremely overwhelming scorecard shellacking against a newly credible contender.

Considering how well that upstart would perform in championship competition with other top heavyweights in the following few years, Big John's ability to control him almost completely through over 44 minutes of action without cruising away a single round to take a breather demonstrates a level of conditioning that today's heavyweights can only dream about. (Tate only lost round 12, a stanza which wasn't given away but earned the hard way, when he got buckled and forced into a defensive retreat by a prophetic left hook set up with some rare sharp jabs in mid ring. Coetzee had similarly stunned him with a "bionic" right in Pretoria. Since John recovered well from each momentary crisis, that hook was seen as a blip on the radar and a wake up call for him to remain alert, cautious and respectful of his adversary. That episode should have made the eventual outcome less likely, and I figured Tate would prevent a repeat by neutralizing him against the ropes with renewed concentration until the final bell.)

As we know, Primo Carnera's size was due to acromegaly. But like Tate, he had excellent endurance when in top form, and wore down light, smart and nimble 15 round specialist Tommy Loughran. (Coming off decision wins over Jack Sharkey and 6'7-1/2" Ray Impelletiere, Tommy later decisoned Godoy over 12 in Argentina, so he was hardly washed up when he challenged Primo.) Uzcudun was a rugged tank with proved stamina. Carnera deserves full credit for his two successful title defenses. He weighed 270 for Loughran, and none of that was loose flesh. This appears to be as big as any winner over the 15 round distance ever got.

Jess Willard was certainly not fat when he dethroned Johnson, but I don't include him with Carnera and Tate because he went at a pace geared for a fight to the finish, and was largely dominated over the first 15 rounds in that one. Still, his aerobic conditioning for that one vastly exceeds anything possessed in the heavyweight ranks today, as does that of Jeffries.

The best win for Mathis was over 12 against Chuvalo, but Buster weighed 232 for that one, and got as low as 220 for Amos Lincoln. He was clearly better at the lower weights. Leroy Jones however did manage to produce one of his best wins at his fattest, weighing 270 for his 12 round decision over Weaver. Mathis and Jones were both gifted with quick reflexes. Galento weighed 224 for his 14th round stoppage of Nova, In today's climate, he'd probably weigh upwards of 250. (Tony usually weighed under 230, and sometimes even under 220 for most of his wins over longer distances.)

 

Wow that was quite a ramble. Is your point being that looks may be deceiving and that loose flesh around the belly does not an out of shape fighter make?

 

Haye is too narcissistic to come in looking flabby or out of shape. He's a huge critic of them too If you have seen him then you would know he's in great shape.

 

The nature of boxing today is you fight 20 cans, get a title fight, get battered and make enough to retire in the beating, boxing was better when Don King and other promoters kept boxers poor and they had to become ATGs before they saw any loose change

 

Agreed. Look at the records of Chris Arreola and Kevin Johnson, they haven't beaten a single top 10 contender.

I'm a fan of Eddie Chambers, not necessarily because he is that good but because he is fighting top contenders more so than anyone in boxing today aside from the Klitschko brothers. If he gets a title shot, he has deserved it.

 

Yuuup.

Same old ****, same old song and dance routine.

Redundant.