Fighters who dropped to a lower division successfully?

B-Hop is one I can think of. He only started to fight at MW a couple of bouts before the first RJJ fight.

 

mundine sort of..

 

Miguel Vazquez was a light middle or welter before he dropped to lightweight. Now he's got the IBF lightweight strap. Hopkins, like someone mentioned was a light heavyweight, lost a fight and then dropped down to middle. It isn't done a lot. Usually, the guys with good athleticism and technique have good trainers and management which advise them to start their careers artificially low and grow into the division they belong in a few years after they start fighting. Most of the young guys can keep cutting weight well into their twenties and beat up much smaller guys. It's pretty rare that you see a guy who can cut weight not doing so.

 

Bob Fitzsimmons won the HW title before dropping down and winning the LHW title.

Long time ago. Few cases of success in the long time since.

 

While technically true, other than the first few fights he was only ever a few lbs above the middleweight limit. As no titles were on the line he wasn't constricted to staying below 160lbs, it's easier on the fighter to make weight yet still gets ranked as a middleweight. Plenty of fighters do this, like Chris Eubank Jr is regarded as a middleweight yet only in his last fight did he fight at 160lbs or below, every other fight he was just above the middleweight limit. So I would not categorise this as a fighter moving down as his natural weight was always 160lbs.

 

Enzo Mac

He hasnt set LHW on fire but still a successful drop

 

Mundine and Enzo Mac are really stretching it. Dropping down and winning fights against a much lower standard of opposition that you were fighting before isn't a success in my book

 

It's pretty obvious due to lack of examples that it's harder to do that move up in weight, where there are countless successful examples.

 

Enzo has given a good account of himself and was competitive with a belt holder

 

Wasn't really dropping down though, he was weighing about 163 in non-title fights.

Lots of 160lbs fighters do that.

Herbie Hide was actually having a good run at Cruiser before he...I dunno...went crazy?

 

Floyd drops from 154 to 147 many times successfully.

Judah won the IBF belt at JWW, won the undisputed title at WW, and dropped down years later to win another strap at JWW.


Marquez had the 3rd fight with Manny at WW moved down and won a strap at JWW.


Hatton moved up to WW to take Collazo's strap and moved back down comfortably.

 

He came up the divisions first. And of course he was as much a lightweight as JCC jr was a middleweight.
And that's actually the point. The most fighters start out in a division as low as they can possibly make to take as much an advantage possible, while I'm pretty sure Golovkin could get lower if he wanted to, based on the relative ease he makes MW.

 

Georges Carpentier was a successful heavyweight before dropping to light heavy and winning a title. Henry Armstrong held three belts in three weight divisions concurrently. Bob Fitzsimmons won the light heavyweight belt after losing the heavyweight belt. Carlos Ortiz was the junior welterweight champ before he was lightweight champ. Anthony Mundine moved from super middle to middle. Hopkins moved from light heavy to middle back to light heavy. Andre Ward won Olympic gold at light heavy and went pro as a super middle. Paul Butler a bantamweight champ recently vacated to go back to junior bantam. Miguel Vazquez dropped from light middleweight to get a belt at lightweight. Herbie Hide had success at Cruiser after he lost a Heavyweight title. Luis Collazo was fighting at light middle for a while before dropping to welter. Paul Williams started at middle, dropped to welter, then moved back. Sam Soliman was a super middleweight before capturing a title at middle.

You'd see it more often if fighters weren't already weight cutting ten or fifteen pounds and rehydrating. Also, I think Archie Moore and Jimmy Bivins used to yoyo between heavyweight and light heavyweight.