Have heavyweights really gotten that much bigger?

Ibeabuchi, Bowe, Golota - close to 240 - good/great conditioned in their prime.

 

There have always been huge dudes. However, not only are there more now but the ones over the last 20 years are more coordinated and athletic. Also with the lowering of the championship distance a formula for their success has emerged, a conservative, power broker formula that is fairly boring. Bowe, for one, eschewed this, played the role of action fighter and didn't last long. Someone make it fiften rounds, please.

 

The average weight has increased a lot more than the average height and reach.

A lot of this is due to changes in training style.

 

Bowe's training habbits were bad though.

 

There used to be this lumbering farm hand called Jess Willard, who was as big as Bowe, and could fight for 20 rounds at a brisk pace.

Beating him was inconcequential!

 

http://www.cbssports.com/u/ce/feature/0,1518,3123594_8,00.html

From Liston on there is not a lot of size difference between Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Bowe, Lewis

 

Foreman grew 1" in height and his wrist measurement grew 5" between his first career and his comeback!?:huh

But yeah, I don't think people have gotten much taller, overall, in the last 40+ years. People have gotten heavier, but not much taller. Nowadays, a lot of athletes are heavily into weight-training and muscle building, which were not as popular years ago. The older fighters seemed to emphasize speed, agility, and quickness more so than strength and muscle. Showing up at the leanest weight possible seemed to be the norm; nowadays being big and bulky seems more popular.

But the height measurements of a lot of fighters are just not accurate. Most people that have met Tyson swear that he's nowhere near 5'11 1/2". And the same goes for Rocky Marciano and Floyd Patterson's height measurements. Rocky might have been 5'10 1/4" with shoes on, but his true height was probably more like 5'9". And did Foreman really grow 1" between his first career and comeback? Fighter's stats are funny sometimes. I think fighters tend to round up when it comes to height.

 

I think we saw the best blown up cruiser weights recently in Adamek and Haye doing next to nothing vs the Klitschko's.

The days of a sub 200 pound champion are gone, and you won't see any in shape 200-210 pound men beating the best super heavyweight with skills in the future.


The game changed in the 1990's. Bowe, Lewis, Klitschko, and Klitschko, combined between the 4 have only lost one razor thin decision, and owned the top ten by a staggering margin. Do you math, and you'll see.

 

I never stated beating Willard was inconsequential, merely perhaps overrated in a purely boxing sense from the earth-shattering, messianic arrival it has grown into in modern lore.

And a comparison, skill-wise, resume-wise and experience-wise between Willard and Bowe is high-level comedy. If Willard were to last 20 rounds with Bowe, he would have to do it over 10 fights, consistently getting KO'd in the 2nd.

 

Ahh... The great classicist technique of grabbing a modern fighter's worst performance to glorify some farmhand hack from yesteryear. Firstly, yes I do believe the Bowe from Golota I would beat Willard. Secondly, I believe the Bowe from Holyfield I puts Golota OUT in a way Dempsey could not.

 

Fatter maybe...huffing and puffing after a few rounds of so-called"action"...