I think you will find most historians are not all that conviced with giant heavyweights. when carnera came along the rest of the division did not bulk up to match him, the giant heavyweights never took off until regular heavyweights disadvantaged themselves by bulking up. what rated giant heavyweights did hide beat? what good rated crusiers did hide beat?
Seamus there were talented big men during Marcianos era.. Bob Baker was a terrific fighter [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLw7VtqVaw[/ame]
Bob was a terrific fighter but there were a lot of other terrific fighters just as good even though they were smaller.
I think "terrific" is overstating Baker's abilities and talent. Anyone who loses to Hurricane Jackson is excluded from the "terrific" label.
Where did these smaller terrific heavyweight go to in the 90's? I mean, Holy and Byrd were terrific. Jones, Jr. doesn't really count as he handpicked one fight. But it really does seem that Bowe, Lewis, both Klit's along with challengers routinely in the 6-2, 220 range and up have seriously raised the ante as far as the size of successful heavyweights. I know it's an old argument in these parts that doesn't need another entire go around. But the heavyweight athletes that Hide faced, in terms of size and strength, were a different breed from the Cockell's era. To properly compare the two, I think you need to look at the scant time Hide spend at cruiser, and try to adjust those efforts (both before and after his "prime") to what he would have done in a 200lb division rather than move up.
they were there, they just put on 20-30lb of muscle. tommy morison, ray mercer,evander holyfeild, bert coopr, botha were all under 6'3'' with about a 76'' reach and would all have been 200lb maximum in the 1950's like joe louis. hide did not beat any of this different breed of natural giant/ enhanced heavyweights!