Does size count even just a little bit?

According to Wiki Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; and I am not sure how it applies here. People have got bigger in the world and in boxing but the increase in boxing explodes after 1985.

Athletically gifted American giants becoming more prevalent after people have got as big as they are getting in America could have more to do with advances after the Spinks experiment. It just could.

Especially if the biggest increase happens right after the Spinks experiment.

 

Choklab consider this, how many LHW men successfully made the jump to HW championship honours?

Was Spinks the first? I think he might be, I'm not on Google though so I could be wrong.

This Spinks experiment you tirelessly repeat has actually gone a way to defeating your point about the division becoming too big. Before Spinks it was too big for LHW fighters to take top prize. Since Spinks we've seen more men make a successful jump from HW.

 

Sadly, he will continually be repeating this " Spinks experiment" for months on end.

 

Spinks may have been the first light heavyweight "champion" to succeed as heavyweight champion but he was by no mans the first Light heavyweight to win a heavyweight crown.

Tunney, Burns, Fitzsimmons, Schmeling, Charles, Braddock, Walcott, Ellis and Patterson all came from the lower weight classes and made it to HW champion. This was before the spinks experiment.

What if the methods that bulked up Spinks in a way that was outlandishly claimed to improve lean muscle ratio whilst gaining weight and incredibly at the same time was also said to increase speed was exactly the thing that had always prevented giants reaching athletic potential as boxers?

We don't know why a sudden potential in American giants was not realised before 1985. Perhaps previously in order To be strong enough a giant might need to be heavier than was adequate for boxing? Perhaps the training to develop endurance hurt the giant more than smaller sized heavyweights? being heavy reduced his speed and being light reduced his strength. We don't know.

We do know historically The traditional methods did not benefit giants taking up boxing so much as it later did. Perhaps Phenomenal giant athletes in other sports where getting punched in the head was less of a factor were making an impression in America before 1970 but I don't know. It was not happening in boxing to any great volume until long after that era.

Higher numbers of giants within the population could explain enough athletic exceptions to the old rule if a pattern of an increase in giants before the 1960s had actually occurred but by 1969 over all the heavyweights had not increased that much since 1900. Why?

I am not a doctor, but what if the methods used up until that point only allowed fighters so big to reach athletic potential as boxers?

We know it's not trainers because the most athletically gifted boxers in history benefited from great coaches so it has to be the athletic department that had been lacking among the biggest guys.

 

Flip the coin to the other side.

Before Spinks no other LHW champion was able to repeat the trick at HW. None.

Sure they could become ranked but they couldn't become champion.

I can gain weight and reduce body fat, that isn't anything special. He certainly doesn't look quicker to me anyways. Rather than thinking about the big men, think about the benefits it had for Spinks moving from LHW to HW.

 

I have already told you a ton of light heavyweights became heavyweight champion. Tunney, Patterson, Charles, Schmeling, Braddock to name but a few.

The benefits certainly helped Spinks and all who came after him who wanted to move up when there was a bigger gap between the weight classes.

The guys who didn't need to move up and were already there must have been just as eager to discover similar benefits for them to become better heavyweights.

Suddenly taller American heavyweights who had always been around and were no more plentiful among the US population after the 1960s began to prosper in larger numbers like never before.

So yes, size began to count for guys where it could count against them in the past. Perhaps Giants could be functional as boxers closer to their optimal weight than could previously be achieved?

 

Name a single LHW champion who became HW champion before the Spinks experiment?

You've convinced me this experiment in sports science has benefited the smaller man and enabled him to move up in weight and compete against those naturally heavier than he.

Look at all the multi weight title holders before Spinks and then after him.

Before this experiment LHW champions used to get slapped about by HW champions, Spinks changed all that.

The giant should never be more scared.

 

Non likely went up against an old and past it world champion.....

 

Holmes was a huge favourite. He was expected to slap the LHW champ down as every previous champion did.

 

I think a relevant point is that 240lb giant boxers had not taken over heavyweight boxing in America before the 1960s. After all the Human growth got no bigger in America after that point.

giant boxers, for many years just were not as functional pound for pound near their own optimal weight as smaller heavyweights used to be in spite of so many giants already within the US human population.

 

Yes I think the Mackie Shilstone example blew the doors off what was
Previously thought to be achievable in all boxers.

 

That still doesn't change the fact that he was old and past it.....

 

Trolling aside, men have got bigger and heavier ever since time began. This is shown in every statistical analysis.

I already showed starting from day one more championships have changed hand to a bigger man than a smaller man.

This became prominent about the 90's and boxing responded by having a 200 pound limit on the CW division.

If someone is too small to fight at HW, tough. Don't go to HW.

 

That still don't change the fact he was a huge favourite expected to slap down the LHW champ like every champ before him.