Were Rahman, Peter, and Stiverne superheavyweights?

i'd say 240lb is a good point to start differentiating super sized heavies from your regular 200-220lb guys. It's a point where you can start to say that the sheer extra weight makes them harder to deal with for the smaller guys. They hit harder and take a shot better. These guys were your 'square' variety of SHW and certainly they pose a different challenge than a proportioned SHW like Wlad etc. I think the 'square type' that excel in slugging it out would be a special challenge for old style heavies around 185-200lb that liked to slug. Guys like Peter and Rahman could really hit hard and when you are exchanging haymakers it is unarguable that 50lb extra would help a lot. A smaller heavyweight that is a defensive cutie might actually be ok against SHW square heavies, because he's not be looking to KO them in the first place and could maximise his evasiveness.

 

Also kudos to cross_trainer for the best threads in a while. So much better than the 50th iteration of Ali vs Marciano

 

They make look super heavy, but were they actually super.. Heavy????

 

I suppose the term “ super heavyweight “ is a grey area since it really has no set standards. For me I guess I consider a super heavyweight as starting with a height of about 6’5” and weight of perhaps 235

 

Not really as much as we'd think, Rahman in most of his big name fights weighed anywhere between 234-238, he weighed 245 against Corrie Sanders.

 

Rahman barely ever weighed over 238, most of his big fights he weighed 234-238 like in his fights with Lewis, Maskaev, Toney, Tua etc he did way 245 against Corrie Sanders. He looks a lot heavier than he is.

 

It's quite interesting to see what boxing fans consider a "Super heavyweight" And how people's bodies look at similar weights. For example here is former UFC World Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic who in these pictures weighed 246 pounds and in the second picture 242 pounds at 6'3-6'4. Realistically no one would think he was heavier on average than Rahman but he was. I believe Wladimir Klitschko was never over 250 pounds either and Wladimir is 6'5-6'6.

Stipe Miocic at 246 pounds in the first fight against Francis Ngannou

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Stipe Miocic at 242 pounds in the first fight against Daniel Cormier

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Wladimir at 240 pounds against Anthony Joshua:

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Wladimir is clearly carrying the weight better though. Wlad is at 10% bodyfat, Stipe at 15%. approx

 

True, it's just an interesting look at height/weight, for example Francis Ngannou would have at least 15 pounds on a prime Wladimir Klitschko and at times 20 at 6'4. Wladimir Klitschko's physique is very underrated to be honest, he's still in amazing shape now.

Oh yeah what might make the difference too is that Wladimir does actually have skinny legs for his size.

 

Depends on the fighters. A guy like Lennox Lewis, his size plus his skill make him very difficult for a fighter under 200 pounds to beat. Mike Tyson is another fighter that would be hell on any fighter under 200 pounds. And before you mention Holyfield, Holyfield was 218 pounds of muscle the night he beat Tyson.

And you have instances where size will just trump skill. Floyd Mayweather is a pound for pound better fighter than Trevor Berbick. But in the ring would have little chance of beating Berbick and Berbick landing punches on a lightweight turned welterweight would probably make Berbick look like a monster puncher.

On the other hand you have fighters like Floyd Patterson who I would pick to beat Berbick, even though Berbick is the bigger man. Patterson would have enough size coupled with skill to get the job done.

 

Ali vs Marciano is a traditional staple of this forum.