Classic Forum Chat: Size isn't the only factor.

That’s it… it’s not complicated if your guy fights and has his game based around physical advantages when he hasn’t got them he suffers, if he was a “big guy” in an era and fought as such and he isn’t today he’d likely lose.

 

Great Post.

I tend to think that any 200-pound-plus man who has a bit about them and knows what they're doing can achieve success at Heavyweight.

Re diminishing returns, I think Fury has exemplified this case somewhat while Joshua and Dubois have highlighted the problem with a poor size-to-skill ratio.

I'm hoping Usyk's success can encourage other competitors his size to focus on developing the skills and abilities required to compete with the lumps of the division.

 

My God, this aged like milk.

 

I guess this too was based on size and relative wear and tear, maybe? (Not sure)

I think the Fury/Wilder trilogy did both fighters in.

Wilder fell off a cliff.

Fury fell down a steep hill.

There's no accounting for the wearing effect of those kinds of wars (II and III in particular).

 

Or that power is the last thing to go.

I think it was a combo of the trilogy, as well as age. Wilder relied on fast twitch fibers for that right hand. Now, that those have diminished with age, so has his power alongside it.

 

Good shouts.

 

Likewise. Cheers mate.

 

King post

 

Hands off my man cross_trainer!

It isn't CT's fault Wilder doesn't have a clue and Usyk is like the evil genius of boxing

 

Verry well summed up,.and I think this is where almost all of us are at.

 

I don't think any of us thinks it's very likely that we get a HW top 10 of fighters in the range of 190-210 lbs (even if CW moved back to 190) which was pretty standard pre the mid 70's. Not even the 210-230 lbs of the 80's. But the most talented in the 205-225 lbs range can clearly still make a splash or even, as in Usyk's case, become the standout.

Therefore it doesn't seem very logical to just rule out that the most talented of that size from previous eras could compete today.

That seems to be the page most of us are on.

 

A lot of the bigger guys have unacceptable body composition too, Fury's actual in shape weight is probably like 240

 

Martin Bakole was 230lbs in his first fight... yet has consistently been his best at 300lbs. ****ing ridiculous.

Most heavyweights today are just tall and chubby cruiserweights or very tall and fat heavyweights, which kinda obscures and undermines the "size matters" part, but important nonetheless.

Also, people don't understand how statistics work. Using a sample size of 1 to say that a trend isn't true isn't how proofs work lol, Usyk's existence doesn't really stop this from being true, especially as the "small" guy in this era would be the largest of the old era.

Finally, for fighters like (prime) Ali, Holmes, Usyk, Young, Byrd etc size doesn't matter THAT much because of they're all very adaptable pure boxers who rely on a superior speed and mobility advantage over their competition anyway, so the size disparity is mitigated.

People like Foreman however who's fighting style was based on being the bigger man, or face first swarmers like Rocky and Frazier would struggle with the large heavy hitters alah Wlad or Lewis. It's the difference between a James Toney moving up to fight Samuel Peters and a Carlos Monzon moving up to fight Samuel Peters irregardless of talent their styles just aren't made for it.

 

Hey now @cross_trainer is onto something here if Wilder fights another 20-30 “cans” I’m sure he can outlast Usyk’s kamikaze into the ranks… Deontay seems like he’s in either a rebuild or testing the waters again with his latest bout against some guy named Herndon… when I watched that it looked like he was working on the basics finally “To this day!” It was something he never considered lol.