Again, painting with a broad brush. How did this effect Marciano? In every bio I have read of him, his family ate like gluttons. His mother was dreadnaught. Such was the way of recent southern Italian immigrants to the US. Their cuisine to a shift to the excessive richness, protein and fat. Marciano was hardly malnourished. However, if you look at the folks in Abruzzi (I have been there many times) they are rather puny, almost all short of stature. I think his genes had far more to do with it than any advances in nutrition. And I just don't buy the "steroids in food" argument as the US is currently witnessing a shrinkage in average height despite an over-reliance on meat products.
That's pretty hypocritical to say don't you think? You say I am painting with a broad brush then you go on to say "Such was the way of recent southern Italian immigrants" referring to them as gluttons. Immigrants during the turn of the century/1920s were not gluttons eating lavishly. Anyone who thinks that is a moron. The steroids in food is a fact. There are plenty of steroids being put into the food my farmers in order to compete with their competitors. It is widely known. If you eat a chicken that was juiced to the gills then you are going to absorb some part of the artificial hormones.
Boxers' heights are certainly exaggerated. Hughie and Tyson Fury aren't as tall as they say they are, for example. They claim 6'6 and 6'9 but are a couple of inches less. David Haye is not 6'3. Maybe a fraction over 6'1.
I don't really understand this thread. The fighters were the size they were. Is this about steroids ?
No idea how height would change. I do know this, to be a HW today they'd need to bulk up. Rocky would be about 205 pounds I think. he'd be a very small HW and it could be that he gets twatted early in his career and decided to bulk up further and become more of a Tua type build. Dempsey would be similar to Holyfield I believe. Liston could add a **** tonne of effective weight as could Foreman.
You know when Ward moved from SMW to LHW? Well he didn't stay at 168 pounds as he entered a bigger division. For most of these men they'd be entering a division that is getting bigger (not as big as some claim when you compare average weight per top ten, but still bigger) so it stands to reason they themselves would also get bigger.
Liston was perfect at 212 pounds. Can't see how being heavier would help him. He'd be horribly slow and immobile at 235. But then I guess everyone else is too.
Ward fighting at 168 or 175 is just a case of where he stops bringing his weight DOWN. Fighters are heavyweight just don't cut as much weight. They can weigh whatever they want. It makes more sense to say Jack Dempsey would fight at light-heavyweight or stay exactly as he is and be a "small" cruiser. Rather than guess what he'd weight at heavyweight. He could be anything. At heavyweight he could stay exactly the same too, weigh in with clothes on and with weights in his shoes, and fool you all. I'm sure some of the smaller men do that anyway. Apparently Orlin Norris did that often, before he got fat.
You can't believe everything the scales say at heavyweight. The "weigh in" is just ceremonial. It doesn't matter if you cheat or lie or manipulate, it's all for show. And some of those old-timers didn't even have a weigh-in, just announced their weight.
We already know he would be a small cruiser weight as he was. Does that mean he would never attempt to take on the HW division though? If he did take it on do you imagine he would not add any bulk whatsoever? Also Ward in the ring now is bigger than he was, so it isn't just cutting down, it's adding effective muscle mass.
Yes, he might fight at 200+ (which he apparently did on occasion in his own time), or he might fight at 211, 215 or 221 or 223 or 230. He might weigh in at 209 and at the weigh-in it says 221 to make us feel better. It's impossible to say. Furthermore, it would be difficult to predict which of those weights would be where he'd be most effective. This is heavyweight boxing, not bodybuilding. If this is a bodybuilding question it makes a bit of sense, we are simply asking how much muscle mass the man can put on with weight training and steroids and still look kind of athletic, judging by the eye test on his body frame. Or how much muscle and fat he can carry and still look athletic.
People often talk about Hagler fighting Spinks. Is it fair to say he'd have weighed 175 for that fight? Or would he be more like 163? We have no idea that's why we speculate.
