Tall and lanky lightweights over time

Alexis Arguello

He also had a wicked uppercut to the body, which he in combination to set up shots upstairs.

 

Sandy saddler was 5’9” with a 70” reach and fought all the way down at feather weight.

 

Monzon controlled distance and pace in this manner like no other. A master.

Edit: Whoops, title says lightweight I realize.

 

Danny Lopez was tall and lanky. Had great power, but fought mostly wars of attrition, sort of like a featherweight Saad Muhammad.

 

Raul Perez was a 5'11" bantam. Genaro Hernandez was a 5'11" feather and junior lightweight.
I am training a 6'3" guy that fights at 141 as an amateur. In a year he will turn pro at 35.

 

On the DAZN show from Nottingham last Saturday, there was an Irish lightweight, Gary Cully, on the undercard - a 6'2" southpaw, who upped his record to 16-0 with 10 knockouts. Too early to say, but if he turns out to have a chin, he could be difficult to handle for most "normal" lightweights!

 

Corrales, Blake, Espana, Cervantes.
just a few.

 

The forgotten Lightweight champion Jimmy Paul.

 

I've seen Panama Al Brown, who I rate as the 6th greatest Bantamweight of all time, listed as anything between 5ft 10 ins and 6ft. He was rangy too. I've read that he could land uppercuts without breaching his opponents jabbing range.

He doesn't utilise his height by fighting at long range, but the 6ft 5.5ins tall LMW Sebastian Fundora, is perhaps the tallest boxer relative to his weight that I can think of.

 

Ali Funeka was 6'1. He was world class at 135, but He fought at 130 for a while also.
In general there's a lot of really tall fighters in lower weight classes these days, people took weight-making science to another level.

Now, regarding there being a lightweight Lennox Lewis, one thing that's different when it comes being tall in lower weight-classes, is You have to make certain weight. Tall guys for their weight-class usually lack physicality and are more wiry - it comes with advantages as well as disadvantages. Guys like Easter Jr., Funeka were effective but not dominant and I expect Gary Cully to fall into that category at best.
A lot of modern tall heavyweights, which don't have to make weight so don't have any limits on how much muscle They can put on - are also heavier, bigger and stronger than their opponents, so can dominate the outside due to their reach advantage and use their physicality to prevent shorter men from working on the inside.

 

Funeka was robbed vs Guzman one of the worst robberies I've ever seen.

 

For sure. In all 3 of his title fights He wasn't treated fairly. Campbell didn't make weight, then He got robbed vs Guzman in first fight and in second fight, Guzman came in as a welterweight for a lightweight contests. Funeka is probably among the best lightweights that didn't win a belt in 4 belt era.

 

Harry Arroyo was tall and lanky at Lightweight. He had
a 72'' reach , longer than Marciano and Tyson at heavyweight.
Hearns fought as low as 132 lbs in the amatuers. He was 6'1'
with a 78" reach. Longer than Joe Louis , and Frazier, same
as Ali and Holyfield.

 

I was actually big fan of Guzman, I thought he had alot of talent and may even have a chance against Pacquiao. But he threw his talent away by not bothering to make weight and missing out on big fights.