David Tua vs Rocky Marciano

2 inches of height does not equate to an extra 50lb of weight surly? it does not seem to be evolution.

Are we seeing this evolution in all other sports. 50lb heavier cyclists and jockeys?

 

You just keep hitting dead ends and resorting to silly comparisons.

When you have something useful to add let me know.

 

I think searching for a natural explanation for a 2 inch 50lb evolution in professional sports is the deadest of dead ends in light of the many positive tests in recent times. Especially in combat sports and heavyweight boxing.

 

You just keep hitting dead ends and resorting to silly comparisons.

When you have something useful to add let me know.

 

So far I have used PEDs for an explanation as to why we have more giant elite athletes and this has been backed up with all the failed drugs tests of Luis Ortiz, Tony Thompson, Tyson Fury and many others. It's also backed up by an MMA champion saying everyone is on steroids in order to compete at that level.

I also used data that says the nation that dominated heavyweight boxing last century also produced the worlds tallest people..even though the world itself did not produce a dominating giant World champion until AFTER that century and After the height of tall people levelled off 30 years before the end of it.

We agree that the population has grown 2 inches in height in one hundred years which would make a 6'7" elite athlete 6'5" one hundred years ago...but 100 years ago we only had one isolated incident (jes Willard) to show for it who proceeded a 6 foot and 5'7" champion.

The population has grown enormously so we do have more of everything. This is true, But I imagine the 2" in one hundred years puts it all into perspective.

 

Couple of things...

1. As mentioned, Evolution being responsible for the height and weight of athletes increasing over the course of one century is not plausible.

2. Diet and healthcare has overall improved with the Baby Boomer generation, and that effects bone growth, producing taller and heavier mature adults.

3. Heavyweight boxing is like the music industry, someone pioneers a successful blueprint and others emulate that formula. Since Steward's work with Lewis and Wlad saw a near 16 year combined reign of terror, we are going to see more trainers taking on tall fighters and copying their blueprint.

 

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/humans-are-still-evolving-and-we-can-watch-it-happen

 

It wasn't isolated. I showed the average height of the full top ten has increased by only 3 inches.

The average weight by about 50 pounds.

That's over the last hundred years.

What I don't understand is why you are fixating on this and looking for reasons, what's the actual end product you hope to have?

Heavyweight men are bigger and heavier. Those before the 70's would have existed largely in the CW division, those after it in the HW division.

People have got bigger and people have got better at training bigger people and using their size. It isn't a big mystery

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...ttenborough-Humans-have-stopped-evolving.html

http://www.popsci.com/jaya-jiwatram/article/2008-10/human-evolution-coming-standstill

We can trade articles...all day on the subject. There is nothing proven because you can't measure evolution on so short a time frame. We can say at the end of this century, health has improved and people have slightly increased as a result. I won't argue semantics on that.

 

I actually agree. The evolution argument is pretty weak when the increases in health care, pre and post natal care and advances in nutrition were so monumental in the 20th c. But I thought it was interesting that many adaptations do not take as long as we thought. And by the by, we have lost ground (at least in the US) on all the above.

 

If it was still 15 round fights a lot of heavyweights would come in lighter. I dont know how much lighter but another 9 min of boxing you have to train different. 36 minutes instead of 45 minutes.

 

Evolution might be the wrong word, I'm happy admitting I'm not expert in biology.

Stats show man has increased in height, whatever the name of the increase is I don't know.

 

EXCELLENT COMMENTS!!!

 

I believe Tua was knocked down by Rahman during one of their fights. It wasn`t officially called a Knockdown if I remember correctly. It looked like a clean knockdown to me. He was definitely hurt.

 

There's nothing wrong with Rocky's competition.

It just isn't a modern HW division.