Could Young George take the shots and muscle people around like Old George did?

Whether muscle or fat, it's mass that keeps the head from swinging too violently when struck, which is (besides the out-of-nowhere punch) the typical way someone gets knocked out.

 

But is there any other similar instances of a fighter in a lower division moving up and their overall durability improves? What makes you so certain 160 pound Toney would definitely go down if he took the same shots as 230 Toney?

You just said if a glass jawed fighter simply gets fat they're not going to be tougher. Toney's career you have to take with a grain of salt because he had an excellent chin in the lower weights and was almost always defensively responsible.

 

This is true. In fact I believe I read somewhere that doctors have said the reason more injuries and fatalities occur in the lower divisions than at heavyweight (despite the fact heavies hit way harder on average), is because the lower weight guys are often dehydrating themselves. They often avoid excessive strength training/bulking up to stay within a division. They also usually eat fairly small meals (focusing more on nutrition than satisfaction) as the weigh in dates approach. Thus by the time they enter the ring, they're often weaker than if they kept a steady normal diet and drank plenty of water while working out. Most importantly, they have less hydration in the brain which can be dangerous.

Young Foreman's coaches had him drying out and it was common wisdom to avoid lifting heavy weights and to stay at a reasonable weight despite there being no actual limit. Foreman stated that their target weight was often around 220-224 for speed and endurance. Considering how bulky he was and that even in the 70's he was known for having a huge appetite, I would imagine he was cutting bare minimum 8-10 lbs of water weight. Fighting in a hot muggy outdoor arena is also going to drain you of fluids quite quickly, so it's really no wonder he got dropped in the Young and Ali bouts after swinging for the fences round after round. When you take rests between rounds you're only supposed to take a small sip of water, and they didn't have the same rehydration methods they have today, so his body was likely starving for nutrients and water. On top of all that, even though Ali and Young were not murderous punchers, it's much worse for your brain to take dozens of shots round after round than to take one big shot and get knocked out clean. Foreman's chin actually did him a disservice in those cases because he was too tough to be taken out early.

https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_...angers-difficulties-surrounding-weight-limits

 

Can someone explain why someone fighting in an open weight class would need to dehydrate at all? At the lower weight classes where you have to come in under a limit it make sense but Heavyweight is really open weight. I can understand wanting to stay in shape and trim even fighting at HW but dehydrating to my knowledge has no positive impacts on the body, just negative ones.

 

Ok and do we have actual sources he did? Who would tell him to? I doubt he dehydrated or cut weight at anytime.

 

Dick Saddler and Moore had him do it. Moore's weird views on weight management is well documented. Foreman isn't the only boxer who dried out either, Norton and Ali did it and some old school boxers did it as well

 

I've been sitting on that one waiting to see where the thread went.

 

160 pound Toney would quite possibly have been knocked off his feet. "Really can't see" is not quite the same as "so certain" tho i'd be very surprised if Toney could take those shots near as well.

See the thing is Toney's walk around weight at 160 was 186 pounds. Dropping these pounds virtually every time was almost certainly going to compromise his durability somewhat particularly given he was often running behind schedule and having to lose weight very late or struggling to get there.

Toney took heavy shots at all stages lets not kid ourselves. Maybe less than many others but he took his share. He took some bombs against Peter, bombs that pole axed genuine heavyweights. At heavyweight Toney had added 70 pounds of mass and that IMO has got to help.

I wouldn't take his career with a grain of salt as we have a great example of a skinny guy at 160 going all the way up to 230 pounds and taking bombs off a 250 pound power puncher. What other examples have we go of that, ever? He always had a great chin but what he did was absurd. It wasn't just Peter either he had plenty of other fights against big punching big men.

 

no it's already been proven by Ron who didnt hit hard as mutiple people in 90s just ron wasnt a good finisher he would be finished fighting somebody like tom then or Bowe

 

im not doing that with you your no longer buddy I didnt forget you trolling me saying bull last time mutiple times your still a legend though nothing can change that

 

If you compare in-fight action photos of him young vs old, he's got a good bit more muscle mass as an older guy because he took up weight lifting. i don't know that it added any to his punching power, but in terms of pure strength, i'd bet he was a good bit stronger when older.