Do same-day weigh-ins really matter?

It would seem that larger men lose a radical amount of fluids to make weight so yeah for me it's a case of bigger guys now being 'middleweights' or whatever than in the past.

Julio Cesar Chavez jr. fought for the middleweight title at 180 lbs.
That makes him actually a small cruiserweight.
The goal in boxing has always to come in as lean as possible to make weight in a division one down from your actual weight.
It was like that for me in the amateurs and has always been the case.
24-hour weigh-in's and fighters willing to do dangerous things to their bodies have taken it to a whole new level.

 

i think the problem is the difference in weight on fight night we sometimes see.

 

It's funny how it works both ways, if a fans fighter loses to the bigger man then it was unfair to fight a man with such a size advantage. Then we have the excuses of a fighter being weight drained and dehydrated when a bigger fighter is beat by the smaller man....

 

it only matters when it is left out of a discussion that crosses the era's, for instance a modern 160+ lb lw vs an old lw weighing in the 140's naturally, benny leonard might beat the bigger current lightweight division guys, but it's hard to tell as he didn't fight a lot of mw's.

I guess it matters when people generalise too, not all fighters of any era drain the same amount of weight. Lamotta drained more than floyd does ect.

 

Yes, it matters.
But also it depends on the fighters in question. Some cut loads more than others.
And also depends what time of day these men weighed in. If they were weighed in the morning or early afternoon and did not get in the ring until late evening or at night, they could blow up loads.
Obviously having a whole 24-36 hours and a night to replenish is getting a bit ridiculous.
Back in the day some fighters insisted on weighing in at ringside minutes before the fight. That's the real deal.

 

I believe a man like LaMotta was close to 170 a few hours after a 160 weigh in.
On the other hand, Robinson would have been legit inside 160.

 

You have to remember though, in that time there weren't 17 divisions. That's where the whole "small" and "large" middleweight came from for example.

 

It's not hard to figure out, less time means less time to replenish, which means less weight you can cut.

I think it's obvious in that some fighters have relied on big size advantages and it has caught up with them once they couldn't make the weight. And it's no coincidence that the best fighters of this era walked around not too far from their division. Floyd, Pac, JMM, Hopkins. More time for skill training.

 

There have always been fighters who cut ridiculous amounts of weight.

They used to shovel coal in a boiler room wearing oilskins, skip in saunas, and take laxatives.

The only thing that has changed is that such methods have become more attractive propositions.

Another interesting issue is gaining weight!

Before you could add muscle mass so easily, many fighters drank huge amounts of water in order to get above a given weight!

 

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Yes, it does make a difference!