What examples are there of one fighter dropping down in weight for a fight or two to take on a smaller opponent? Partly inspired by the upcoming Pacquiao/ODLH match. Fabrice Tiozzo was a cruiserweight for years. Towards the end of his career he dropped down to LH for two fights, one of them against Darius Michalczewski. In my opinion Darius is clearly the better fighter between the two. One of the best LH's in the 90's. But Tiozzo was just to big, and Darius couldn't make a serious dent in him. Yours?
Roy Jones against Felix Trinidad. Ray Leonard went down to 154 for the lowest weight he'd been in seven years to fight Terry Norris, but got his ass kicked.
the first person that comes to mind is john mugabi, after his hard fight with hagler, he dropped down a won a world title at light middle. i think the great carlos ortiz dropped in weight too with a string of rivalries with fellow hall of famers.
The reason Dariusz couldn't do anything against Tiozzo was rather that he was shot at this time. I do not think it has anything to do with being big.
Darius was well past his best but he was landing a ton of what he threw. I just don't think he hit hard enough to stop someone so much bigger then he was. He was a solid puncher but not a great one.
Murray Sutherland was a good Light Heavyweight and got title fights with Saad Muhammed and Spinks. He moved down to Middleweight, then jumped to Super Middleweight and became IBF Champion.
In his prime he would have given Tiozzo a bad beating with a late stoppage but that version of DM was as much past it as Jones is now.
Hopkins comes to my mind. Fought his first fight at lhw, dropped down to mw, rest is history. He certainly benefitted from going down.
During the Hopkins-Johnson fight the commentator mentioned that Johnson started at 190 pounds, that would be another one.
