Heavyweight champions who were tall or massive for their time

Who can guarantee you that before 1980 there were no steroids in pro boxing?
To me, George Chuvalo (who was physically stronger than every opponent except Foreman) and Ron Lyle (BEGIN his professional career at the age of 30, and fought Ali, Foreman, Shavers, Young...) are very suspicious about steroids.

Imho Jess Willard (6′ 6½″ / 199cm) at 238½lbs (Jack Johnson fight) set the definition of "modern super heavyweight".
Willard is taller than Wlad, Lewis and Bowe.
Imho 235lbs is the weight limit of a "modern superweight".
Exactly 235lbs was Bowe in the Holyfield 1 fight, a fight that proved to be the first "modern super heavyweight" in modern times.

 

Not a champ, but Bill Tate is probably the sport's most forgotten giant.

 

John Tate

 

He and Godfrey, also big, were Colored Heavyweight Champion if that counts.

 

In the 1880s Joe Macauliffe was over 6 ft 3 weighed 210-220.

McAuliffe would have been lineal champ if Cardiff had been given Sullivans belt after their "draw".

Bob Armstrong was 6 ft 4 but he was usually well under the CW limit.

 

Valuev at 7 feet (213cm) and 384 pounds (158kg) was massive at any point in history.

 

Ali was bigger than most of his opponents, outside of Foreman, Lyle, Mathis and Terrell.

 

The thing with John Tate is in the 1910s giants were oddly common. You had Fulton, Willard, Morris, Coffey, Tate, Andre Anderson and Al Palzer. Wells was a skinny 6 ft 3.

It was counterbalanced by Langford, Miske and Jeanette obviously but that was probably the biggest HW era until the 1970s.

 

I’m talking about 1979 Tate, not Bill.

 

Ray Impelletiere .. 6'7

Beaten by 5'11 Bob Pastor in 1936

 

Abe Simon wasn't necessarily exceptionally tall, but he was freakishly large in terms of concentrated girth:

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Al Jones was a massive heavyweight southpaw.

 

I haven't noticed Jim Jeffries mentioned as yet. His height was recorded as 6'1-1/2" and his competitive weight was guesstimated at 250 pounds for at least on of his bouts. His official weight for Corbett I was 218, 219 for Fitz II, and 218 for Ruhlin II. His 25 round stamina in stifling heat was obscene, and the amount of training he did was ridiculous. Conditioning fanatics Corbett and Marciano could not have matched him in that genetically gifted regard. He had no business going into round 15 with a peak Galveston Giant in his aged, rusty and weight drained condition.

At 6'5" Chuck Wepner trained himself down to 225 for Ali, and took on Mathis, Ramos (won), Terrell ("won"), Liston, Bobick, Ali, Foreman and Bugner. About the only big guys of his era he didn't take on were O'Halloran and Tiger Williams. Wepner was the tallest challenger for any title during the 1970's.

Louis trashed two guys with acromegaly in Carnera and Simon, and twice wrecked the non acromegaly 6'6" 250 pound Buddy Baer. Jack Dempsey was well accomplished against big guys like Fred Fulton, Jess Willard and Carl Morris. These are the kind of tall guys Joe Frazier would've preferred to tee off on, but Joe instead had to become accomplished against guys who sometimes were even shorter than him, like Ziggy, Stander and Bonavena.

Post FOTC Frazier wasn't a match for the 6'4" Foreman (although he did swell George's right eye with his loud smacking hook in their rematch), but he certainly looked comfortable with the GOAT, Mathis, Cummings, Ramos and Bugner. (By contrast, the only prominent guy shorter than himself who Marciano ever took on is apparently the 5'9" Freddie Beshore, although Rocky did deal with others shorter than six feet. Interestingly, although the Rock only had a 67" reach, he forced Charles backwards with it early in their rematch, and hooked well off that jab. I think Marciano looked his best the second time with Ezz, before that split nose turned it into an urgent donnybrook.)

 

Steroids have been available since the 1960s to American athletes that was after the Roman Olympics and perhaps shortly prior - your first “steroids” were birthed in about 1935? So anything prior to that is 100% clear and anything before about 1960 is highly, highly likely to be clean.