Once they moved up, or simply against much larger fighters. A difference of a few pounds can mean all the difference in the world at times. Gabriel Ruelas was a pretty wicked puncher... Against the much larger, notorious weight drainer Arturo Gatti his punches were seemingly ineffectual. He unloaded combinations time and time again, planted himself and hit Gatti with everything he had but he just couldn't put a dent in a man who probably had 20 plus pounds on him come fight night.
Bob Foster is the one that immediately springs to mind. His opponents at light heavy looked stone dead when he hit them, yet it seemed that most good heavies could plow straight through him.
Considering we're talking about Ali, a consenus 1 or 2 all time HW, and Frazier, whom many have in their top 5... I don't fault him much for that. I feel it was more his build, and lack of being able to bulk up well that doomed him against men much larger then him. He certainly couldn't pull off putting on weight like fellow LHW greats Michael Spinks and Archie Moore. He just seemed fragile in there, a matchstick man against Ali, whom outweighed him by over 40 pounds. Thats massive.
Even though he had both Tiger and Benvenuti down in 160 lb title bouts, once he moved up to middleweight Emile Griffith pretty much negated his power, winning virtually all the rest of his bouts by decision.
I'll grant you that losing to Ali and Frazier is no disgrace, and that his thin frame was the problem. But I was under the impression that the thread wasn't too particular as to why power might diminish upon moving up in weight. Whatever the reason, Foster's power just didn't have the same effect at heavy as it did at light heavy. And it wasn't only Ali and Frazier who overcame him at heavy and stood up to his power, as indicated by the losses to Folley, Terrell, Jones et al. Jones was a former 175lber himself and only outweighed Foster by about 8lbs (although it was probably more due to inexperience that Foster lost that one). And take Folley, who was stopped several times through his career. Foster and Jones weighed in at practically the same weight in their respective bouts with him, yet Foster was unable to inflict any damage on an arguably stoppable opponent whereas Jones was.
RC, Griffith was never an especially vicious puncher anyway, but I would have thought that the Paret tragedy would have been a considerable factor in the diminishing of whatever power he did have.
That's very true..Emile was never a particularly big puncher, even as a welter, but he did at least have more pop in that class and the combination of the Paret tragedy and the rise in weight, fighting heavier men both conspired to negate what power Griffith ever had.
Corrales at 147, although he was in against a stylistic nightmare in Clottey who was supposedly 170 on fight night and perhaps shot after Castillo. Gary Shaw was a vindictive **** having Corrales take that fight, clearly trying to get his man beaten up because he was leaving after being robbed blind for years
Erik Morales's power at 130 and 135 was noticeably inferior to how it was when he was at 122. James Toney (understandably) did not have the same pop at heavy that he had at 160 and 168 - though he did manage a tremendous one-punch KO against Jason Robinson at cruiser.
