Average weight of top 10 HW fighters throughout history

The world is fatter than ever with more big macs and less testosterone....average heavyweight is bigger but much of the interest of this forum is about boxers of more normal stature but abnormal abilities

 

Here's an idea.

Chop out the outliers - say the 3 heaviest guys for each of the time periods - and see how they stack up. I think that if you get rid of the Valuev types you will have a more representative sample.

 

Nice. I did stats ... oh, 20years ago and never touched it since.

I f*ckig hate forgetting stuff that I sweated to learn once upon a time.

 

Very interesting discussion

One thing. It is not just boxing, but everything else. Athletes have become gigantic compared to decades ago. I recently happened to watch a tape of an appearance by Wilt Chamberlain on I've Got a Secret back in 1960 or so when he had scored 100 points in an NBA game. The host, Garry Moore, mentioned in passing how big athletes were growing and that if the trend continued, in fifty years the NFL would have 350 lb. linemen. He was right and they did.

There were men in the 220's and 230's playing in the line in the NFL when I was young.

 

I think it would be interesting to compare the change in weight, to the change in height and reach.

While these variables will have increased, we would probably see a more mixed picture i.e. much bigger in the 20s than the 50s perhaps.

 

The 20's versus the 50's intrigued me, so I looked at the weights of fighters who actually fought for the heavyweight championship in those two decades.

the 1920's had 8 championship fights. The champions (Dempsey & Tunney) weighed between 187 & 193 for their defenses.
Here are the weights of the challengers (from boxrec)
Miske--187
Brennan--197
Carpentier--172
Gibbons--175 1/2
Firpo--216 1/2
Tunney--189 1/2
Dempsey--192 1/2
Heeney--203 1/2

So 2 in the 170's, 2 in the 180's, 2 in the 190's, & 2 over 200 lbs. Firpo at 216 1/2 the heaviest.

The 1950's had 22 championship fights. Three champions (Charles, Marciano, Patterson) always weighed in the 180's & defended the title under 185 lbs. Walcott weighed up to 196. Johansson weighed 196 to win the title in 1959.

I am not going to list all the challengers,
1 weighed in the 170's (Nick Barone at 178 1/2)
8 weighed in the 180's
9 weighed in the 190's
4 weighed over 200 (London 206, C-ckell 205, Rademacher 202, Joe Louis 218)

What I notice

No American heavyweight fought for the title in the 1920's weighing as much as 200 lbs. The heaviest was Brennan at 197.
Firpo & Louis were extreme outliers in each decade. They were the only heavyweight challengers able to carry 210 lbs. or more in good shape. Louis probably would have been several pounds lighter if he had gotten into really top shape for Charles, but his weight of 213 against Walcott in 1948 shows he could carry 210+ lbs. in his later years.
Of the six over 200 lb. challengers, four were non-Americans. Interestingly high percentage compared to the few Americans over that weight.

Conclusion--Of the men who actually were fighting for the title, the men in the 1950's were slightly heavier. In the 1920's, the best big fighters, Wills & Godfrey, were frozen out of title shots by the color line. The gigantic Willard was still about in his 40's, but eliminated by Firpo. In the 1950's, the best big men, Valdes & Baker, did not get title shots but by going 0-6 against light-heavies Moore, Johnson, & Satterfield, they fell a tad short as contenders.

 

Interesting
I'd's like to add more data to see the trend better.

Here's a graph https://i.imgur.com/RClFhb3.png
2017 = 244.1
2014 = 238.2
2010 = 240.8
2007 = 247.2
2004 = 234.4
2000 = 234.0
1997 = 230.8
1994 = 235.4
1990 = 231
1987 = 213.9
1984 = 225.1
1980 = 215.7
1977 = 210.7
1974 = 214.6
1970 = 206.5
1967 = 198.2
1964 = 204.0
1960 = 200.7
1957 = 192.1
1954 = 199.4
1950 = 196.0
1947 = 200.3
1944 = 201.8
1940 = 207.8
1937 = 194.2
1934 = 199.0
1930 = 203.6
1927 = 199.3
1924 = 198.7

Edit: In hindsight I should have just recorded all the weights each year and plotted that.

 

You can see the massive “jump” in weight around the time the cruiser division was created. People that wonder why there hasn’t been a sub 200 champ it’s becaise they don’t fight HW anymore. Otherwise they have to gain weight and maybe they aren’t at their best then although many have moved up w success Sphinx RJJ Byrd Holyfield Tooney Hide were sub 200 fighters w some success at HW. I’m curios how they would compete if allowed at their more natural weight.

 

They are allowed to fight at their natural weight as far as I know. A boxing match takes place at the weightclass of the larger opponent. It happens often in lower weightclasses when one guy can’t make weight but I never see 180 pounders opting to compete with heavyweights (without putting on weight).

 

Hide may have competed under 200? Not sure though.