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

Era? Tubbs was in bad shape in world title fights in the 80`s, Witherspoon was flabby in his fight v Bruno in 1986.

 

Eating humble pie over what? Maybe you could point me to a specific example? You guys aren’t making any sense.

 

Yes, in the first case, the problem was even though not in great shape Ruiz could box which was just too much for the apprentice "World" champ.
The end of the day in the Usyk fight we had a boxer versus an athlete at that level.
This was my facebook prediction
I think Usyk will box patiently and gradually poke and prod his way through the early rounds. AJ will step up the pace from round 4 after showing a bit too much respect in those early rounds. Usyk will start getting the last word in those mid round exchanges and break Joshua down in the later rounds. I think Usyk's toughness and all round boxing ability will be too much for Anthony. Usyk rounds 10 to 12. If it goes to points Usyk will really have to be a very clear winner to get the decision

 

From an observation I made years ago..."For a long time I have been arguing - to anybody who will listen - that simply being physically bigger than your opponent does not mean that you would dominate them.
Ali and Holmes are an excellent example of two 6'3" boxers whose movement, punch combinations, stamina and technique would render the larger Wilder/Fury/Joshua's size advantage meaningless.
People are praising Fury for his "movement" and "punch combinations"...but we are in an era where those two attributes have almost disappeared amongst (super) heavyweight boxers. Therefore, when somebody does exhibit something from them, they are praised to the nth degree.
Fury beat Wilder with his movement...and Usky beat Joshua with his...but the 1967 Ali moved significantly faster and what is more important, he didn't just to move to avoid his opponent but to find an opening before launching an attack. He was also able to sustain the attack throughout the fifteen rounds...that alone would exhaust most fighters.

 

Yeah, I can't see how Joshua can be blamed for lacked of effort. He did everything he could, Usyk was just better.

 

You who say that you've been arguing against "size means everything", can you please present examples when someone has actually argued this?

 

what were you implying with this statement?

 

Damn sure wasn't implying that size is the only thing that matters in a mythical head-to-head matchup...

 

I had it before, i will check it again, I will admit it was harder to find than I first thought.

I think it was one of those where I did quite a bit of research and included some technical explanations to negate a modern fighter using stylistic examples… only to get the kind of response about athletes getting so much bigger and better nowadays in every other sport and that it must be the same for boxing.

 

You can't be serious. I made that comment in direct response to your post suggesting that big heavyweights only started to fare well once boxing gloves got bigger. It in no way comes close to implying that "size is the only thing that matters." Unreal.

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...1999-heavyweights.568193/page-6#post-18021460

 

I am not that good at doing searches. I was highlighting sentences of yours to quote that included the word “size” during the search. There are bound to be better examples.

I sincerely apologise if you didn’t think that one example was appropriate though.

 

I think both sides are getting hung up on the rhetorical title of this thread.

Plenty of people here consider size extremely important in Classic's fantasy fights. Others consider it largely negligible after 190 pounds or so.

Best continue on that basis, rather than each side arguing against extremes. A thread where one side debates the question, "Would a comatose bodybuilder defeat Marciano?" and the other sides debates the question, "Could Jimmy Wilde defeat Wladimir Klitschko?" would not be enlightening or even interesting.

EDIT: Though there were two votes for Bjornsson defeating Marciano in that other thread, so who knows.

 

Yes. That’s about the size of it.

 

Could be, but Usyk was a clearly exceptional CW, so I think it might be a generation before we get another one like him.

 

The issue is not a literal "size is everything" but an over emphasis on size as a deciding factor. It's become lazy and tiresome, that every HW fantasy fight eventually boils down to it.

Just recently the Valuev vs Braddock thread was a frustrating example of size being over valued and dominating the argument.

From that thread a poster seems to think only a master smaller boxer like Byrd could overcome the giant Valuev with no margin of error.

"Yes, a slick, mobile, boxer with great evasive skills (a la Chris Byrd, for example) would give Valuev problems"

Last night, you saw the 34 year old Usyk (under 200 lb fighter in his prime) while dominant, still did not fight a flawless fight, and take clean punches from a giant and not be squashed.