When has dropping down two weight divisions ever worked out well for a world level caliber boxer? In the history of boxing? A la Conor Benn dropping down to 147 from 160.
Donaire after the Frampton defeat dropped down to bantamweight and had reasonable success. Two world titles and defeated multiple world champions/contenders. Albeit, Donaire was never a huge featherweight.
Donaire and Fitzsimmons excellent. Two out of thousands of world caliber boxers in the history of the sport. Do you think that dropping two weight divisions is excellent advice to offer a young, potentially legendary boxer?
The 147 is in dire state. If the weight cut isn't too damning, Benn should beat the likes of Crocker and Barrios.
Bernard Hopkins had his professional debut at 175 and then eventually fought at Middleweight to become one of the greatest Middleweights of all time.
I’m trying to spark thought processes. I like the sport. The notion of neo proverbial clever promoting, new age advancements of fight weight leveraging training in regards to jumping up two weight divisions and dropping down in two weight divisions should work in the favour of a world caliber boxer to win a world championship in the most fleshed out sport that exists, I find to be pushing the envelope and extremely unusual. You’ve only named two fighters out of several thousand world calibre boxers in the history of the sport. Donaire and Fitzsimmons.
Eh, that was his pro debut tho, but it does remind me of Shawn Porter making his debut weighing 165, and his opponent was over 168. Porter had a story about why this happened, but I forgot the details. Porter eventually made his way down to 154 and ended up at 147. Kinda crazy that he spend his first two years campaigning above 147 before the move down. Chris Byrd tried to move down in weight, all the way to light-heavyweight, but that went horribly for him. Speaking of failures: Ray Leonard had 3 catchweight fights at Super-Middleweight before moving back down to 154 against Norris. Did not end well for Leonard. Man, this is a hard one. Its so rare for guys to move back down at all, like Akira Yaegashi from 112 to 108 - and that was at such low weights, with Yaegashi having mixed results with all of the weight jumps.
Jones was fine dropping down 2 divisions in the first fight against Tarver. Oh but when he gets knocked out in the rematch suddenly 'Bu Bu Bu Bu But he moved down two weights doe!!!!
Tarver vs Jones 1 ended up being too close for comfort. He was past it and couldn't replicate his title run after 35
Tarver just had Jones' number. It happens. When a fighter isn't necessarily better than them. They are just stylistically all wrong for them. We've seen it with Serhii Bohachuk losing twice to Brandon Adams.
But Roy couldn't replicate any serious title run post Tarver. He was past it. Regardless of what you think post heavyweight Roy wasn't peak
