In this modern era you always hear of fighters purposely coming in heavier and overweight as they say they perform better, feel stronger and are more robust. Would the likes of George Foreman who was known to cut weight in the 70's performed better coming in as a younger version of Hamburger George? I used to think it was just an excuse for laziness but is there any science to it?
Tell that to John Fury, he claims Tyson was weak as **** in the first Wilder fight and would be entering the rematch bigger and stronger.
There’s a difference between being over weight and adding affective muscle. Wilder gained 20 for this fight and he looked a lot worse. As did Ruiz in the last AJ fight. Steroids are a hell of a thing. Ps I don’t knock Fury for doing steroids they’re all doing steroids. And all the past greats would have done steroids too. To ingrained in the sport now. Wish it wasn’t but it is what it is
Depends on the fighter and the opponent. Im guessing the fury wilder rematch gave you the inspiration for this thread? Being signficantly heavier actually helped fury this time because of a change in tactics. He got off first, then immediately tied wilder up before he could retaliate. All the leaning and head locks had wilder drained in just 3 rounds. He fought on the front foot and started throwing heavier and heavier shots as time went on. If his game plan was to stick and move on the outside like the 1st fight, coming in heavier would have backfired and tired him out quicker.
It depends as others have said. It helped Ruiz against AJ until it didn’t when AJ stayed on the outside and outboxed him. Clearly it helped Fury this time as he was able to push Wilder around the ring. I think he would’ve been able to do the same in the first fight had he employed that strategy though.
Yes it did and specifically his father's comments, I've also seen a recent British level fighter Dave Allen state he feels much better coming in heavier than when he tried to slim down just to please the fans.
I don't think that there could be any physiological advantage in a fighter carrying excess body fat. Weight draining and crash weight loss can certainly be harmful.
Weight generally helps in the clinches and helps your punches too. If you try boxing someone who's heavier, even if they aren't strong they can push you backwards. When you shift weight and sit on your punches, the heavier you are the more weight you put into your punches. So when Fury knocked out Wilder you can see him shifting weight as he sits on his punches. That's 295lb (or whatever it was) he's sitting on. That's what Kronk fighters do, they explosively weight shift and sit on punches explosively. Those rematch punches were very different to the counter punches he was throwing in the first fight off the backfoot. Also look at Fury leaning on Wilder. He's doing it to tire him out. He's resting while tiring out his opponent. He's metaphorically having a lay down on his opponent There's ofcourse a balance between being a solid heavy weight and having so much weight it tires you out
Yeah, can be. If you are very fit but have an extra 20lbs, it can be worth it, depending. Fury handled Wilder, a massive, strong, ripped professional athlete, like a child, barrelled him, handled him. The extra weight certainly helped with that and it was a significant factor - both psychological and physical - in their fight.
This. It wasn’t weight that let Wilder down. Fury came in with a very effective strategy and completely neutralized Both Wilder’s right hand mobility. Wilder’s length and power is usually enough to keep guys from crowding him, but Fury kept beating Wilder to the punch and was hitting Wilder from all angles. Wilder came in heavier, but was still trying to move around like he was 215 lbs. I don’t see the point of packing on weight if you aren’t going to use it for anything. Also, i’m sure Fury watched their first fight several times and seen how uncomfortable Wilder was in the clinch and regretted not using it more, but he sure made up for it in the rematch. Wilder was completely clueless on what to do and kept looking at Baylee’s for help. Out of court Even Zack Page, who is half Wilder’s size wasn’t getting beat up in the clinches like Wilder was when he fought Fury. If Wilder knew how to position his body better and use his forearm he would’ve kept Fury a lot more honest in those clinches.
You don't think the likes of J. Miller or A. Ruiz are especially hard to hurt to the body precisely because their excess fat protects them? Or you do but think the excess lard disadvantages their all round game in other ways which out weigh this (and any other) benefit?
I think it's just that bigger people in general have a harder time trimming off fat without also losing muscle. Being cut at 250 lbs like AJ doesn't seem to be very common and it's probably down to good genetics that he is. Fury didn't seem to be really carrying more fat at 273 lbs on Saturday than he did at about 255 lbs in the first fight. Could well be that he felt that he cut mostly muscle below 270 lbs and that it just didn't do him any good. I think Ruiz would lose a lot of strength if he went down to 220-230, if that even would be possible.
