Let's put this to rest once and for all

Well written and completely spot on.

 

I feel like you summarized what I've been screaming for a over a year now

 

I think the power comparison is flawed. If we compare two punchers, bigger guy will usually punch harder (can't say always cuz I'm not sure). No point of comparing Bob to Ali. Ali threw a lot of arm punches, he wasn't a puncher. Compare Satterfield to Cleveland Williams or Ron Lyle. Not everyone is a puncher. Some fighters simply lack pop. The same way Paulie Malignaggi and Miguel Cotto weighed the same but one of them was a much more devastating puncher. Paulie could've been 20 lbs bigger and still might not be able to match Cotto's power. Mathis wasn't a puncher either. Compare Frazier to David Tua. Left hook artists. Who hit harder? Compare the right hand of Joe Louis to Lennox Lewis or Wladimir Klitschko. Who hit harder? Compare the left hook of Dempsey to Mike Tyson. Baer's right vs Wilder's etc. Compare punchers with punchers. The size difference will show up.

Think of all the great punchers that weighed 175-185 lbs. And compare them to punchers that weighed 220-230 lbs.

Holyfield beat Valuev. But Holyfield also got stopped by a blown up middleweight. This was 5 years before the Valuev fight.

 

I think size is more of an issue, to a point, within a fighters psyche. I think thats why you saw a lot of catchweights fights in the old days that werent mismatches. Fighters just didnt think in those terms back then like they do now. Today a few pounds is a big deal when at one time that would have been a non issue. Its probably a byproduct of all these stupid weight divisions.

 

I know Satterfield knocked Williams out. Quarry KO'd Shavers in the 1st round. And Quarry wasn't even a big puncher like Satterfield. Quality of chin played a big role in these fights. Satterfield did not hit as hard as Williams IMO. Williams had a suspect chin and he was only 20 at the time. Satterfield was 24 lbs lighter than Williams. But Satterfield was a lot more experienced than Williams. Williams was a last minute replacement.

Louis gave Baer a beating before he knocked him out. Lewis dropped Grant 3 times in the opening round. Grant was 250 lbs and a better fighter than Buddy. Louis' right hand does not compare to Lennox.

 

This seems completely obvious. Yes, depending on the individual fighter, smaller fighters can hypothetically beat larger men. Are you sure this is really your only point?

 

The “size isn’t everything!” crowd wastes so much time fighting strawmen.

 

175 pounds is too small to compete with modern day heavyweights

 

Who disagrees with this?

Do you really think there are people who don’t realize that a very good 190 pounder COULD beat some bigger men??

 

Fighters with physica advantages are tougher to beat. They are generally stronger, tougher to reach and many times hit harder. That's why beating good boxer who's bigger than you is always a big accomplishement.

It doesn't mean that smaller fighter is always lost or that smaller fighter can't have better chin/punching power. The history of boxing shows so many examples of smaller fighter beating great bigger fighter that it's reasonable to assume that it's possible. Size matters but only up to a point.