How could 150 pound middleweight KO heavies in the 1940s but they can't in the 2020s?

Sparring stories can sometimes be dubious. And sparring sessions are completely different than fights where both guys are in there to win and you don’t have one guy taking it easy on the other.

 

Because they don't fight them anymore. Toney fought them when he was fat and old and had his fair share of sucess.

 

A boxer has to actually weigh in at over 200lbs to fight heavyweights now. Whilst Hopkins could’ve beaten a Peters or Rahman he’d have been hog fat.

 

Charley was burly, unlike today’s middleweights.

 

first off, Catchweight contests don't mean the Welter came in at 147, or the Middle came in at 160, who knows what they actually weighed on fight night, unless it was announced or reported.

second, the HW's were more often than not 2cd or 3rd tier HW's... their will be exceptions of course throughout history, i.e Little bigmen like Langford, Qawi and such.

but most of these fights were the smaller fighter was Top Tier and the bigger fighter was not, again not every case, but most.

still a great career enhancing win regardless.

 

Because in those days a 175lb guy was a heavyweight

 

Charley Burley 151 lbs beat Jay D Turner 220 lbs by RTD in round 6 of 10

• Date: 1942-03-13
• Location: Armory, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
  "Charley Burley spotted Jay Turner of Dallas, 68 1/2 pounds of fighting weight, but pounded the Texan into a helpless hulk in six rounds in a scheduled 10 round bout last night. Burley, formerly of Pittsburgh and now of Minneapolis, entered the ring at 151 pounds, Turner weighing 219 1/2." -Associated Press
  

 

Because the likes of Charley Burley, Toy Bulldog Mickey Walker, Sam Langord, or Barbados Demon were an exceptional, exceptional fighters from eras when a legion of hungry, socially and culturally encouraged young men would rip their face off to get a title shot and escape the miserable poverty.

Modern boxing would not know the concept of a Murderer's Row, and though it produces a different kind of greats (throughly educated, prepared through the tapes and knowledge of decades of boxing, well-conditioned, well-trained, extremely well-fed) you will have a hard time finding those Darwinian victors of the war against poverty and obscurity polished by immense activity, intense single-belt competition, and sociocultural symbolism (ranging from eugenics and racial driven importance of the belt, to maddening extravaganza of Dempsey, patriotic symbolism of Louis, and transcending influence of Ali.)

That, and you would have to move the weight disparity expectancy a bit, because the boys are heavier now.

 

And you would be suprised what a truly elite boxer-puncher can do to a big, hittable man when he is just smashing him like a punching bag. We are not immortal brother. There is a delicate thing in our heads that hates being turned into scrambled eggs by blunt force trauma.

 

Necessity tends to be the mother of invention.

 

If Crawford faced HWs of club fighter level, I wouldn't be surprised if he scored the odd KO.

But, yes, HWs being 40 lbs heavier and three inches taller on average today probably makes them harder for fighters of Burley's size to beat

 

surely you mean 7 inches taller and more... they already were 2 & 3 and 4 inches taller back then than the welters and many middles.