If Wlad, Vitali, Lewis, Joshua, and Wilder trained *their entire careers* like fighters in the 1960s did, would you expect any of them to weigh significantly more than Ernie Terrell did against Ali?
Bowe seemed to be a natural. You could see it in the legs. One caveat: you should probably say weight training, PEDS, HGH, other supplements, etc. We ought to just be realistic.
I agree on both points. And yes, the question includes steroids. That's one of the things I meant when I said "like a 1960s heavyweight".
Yes, they'd just be more fat than they already were, since none of them apparently knew what diet was. Without PEDs? They'd be fat AND small. Now, if they trained calisthenics, boxing and resistance work PROPERLY (a dead art), as well as got their PEDs and fixed their diets to not balloon, they wouldnt be quite as big, but they'd perform just as well. Proper training and diet without PEDs? Bam, suddenly they look like Ali, Louis and Baer.
Crazy thing is Bowe fought at light-heavyweight until he was 18 or so, disappeared for several months and then came back as a superheavy, from what I recall.
Lewis is perhaps a transitional figure here, coming in at 220 early in his career, and 245 once he was sure that the fifteen round distance was gone for good.
Why do people always bring up Wilder when discussing super heavy weights? He weighed 215 in his last bout, and regularly fights around the 220 mark in most of his fights. He's just a lanky normal sized heavy.
You're not going to get that big without lifting weights. I think there are a lot of nonsense stories out there about fighters not lifting. Look at Mike Tyson - 5'10 220lbs with abs. That is what bodybuilders his height used to weigh in the 80s.
Wilder's success actually led me to reconsider older HWs chances that I'd previously dismissed as too light. It's quite refreshing to see a lighter guy have success in the HW division, and hopefully leads to a bit of a resurgence in smaller heavies dominating the scene, as I'm sick to death of juiced up fatasses like Miller winning fights on bulk alone.
1) I agree. 10-15 pounds more, although Wilder is also very low body fat. In any case, without his weights -- which we know he uses because we see him on YouTube with them -- Wilder might be lighter than Terrell. But he is abnormally tall and reasonably heavy at a low body fat %, so I included him. 2) I haven't seen much good evidence of steroid use or weight training in heavyweight boxing before the 1980s.
Tyson Fury has said that he believes Klitschko (Wlad) was a natural 200lb fighter. That he would train with him in the gym, and at times he could see “the real meek, skinny 200lber” through the extra weight. Probably **** talk, with perhaps a sprinkle of truth to it.