How many HW champions meet U.S. Army weight requirements?

You also have lanky *******s like Thomas Oosthuizen, Willie Nelson and Kingsley Ikeke who weigh in far below 200 pounds.

There was also some recent 6'6 guy who weighed in below 190 for 3 or so fights but I forgot his name

 

Not embarassing at all, no.

 

I understand what you're saying.

However, I think we are seeing in the variation is the result of specialization. Boxing, what other systems, has become more specialized over time to be more effective in achieving its desired result.

 

There are many reasons that fighters don't fall into that weight requirements anymore; 12 rd championship fights, different approach to conditioning, s&c coaches, etc.

The big one is the approach to conditioning. All of these s&c coaches think because they have a degree they know the fight game. You can't train a boxer like a football player or other athlete. No other athlete does constant work for 3 minutes straight 1 minute rest for 12 rds . NOT EVEN CLOSE. Lifting weights for anything other than legs is idiotic. Calisthenics should be done religiously. Even weight training for the legs should be minimized. Running up steep terrain and power cleans are good enough to build up leg strength/endurance. Boxing is an endurance sport not strength.

The heavyweights have always had a lower punch count than the lighter weights but it became more apparent when SHW started to dominate the scene. A cruiserweight Marco Huck went up to heavyweight with a 20 lb weight disadvantage and gave one of the top guys in the division a tough fight which some say he won. Guarantee if a 210-215 lbr with good stamina came on the scene they would really do some damage at heavyweight. Everybody is so obsessed with size nowadays that if there is a 1 inch height difference they think it is the end of the world. You here it all the time "He's too big for me".

They need to bring back 15 rdrs. There can only be good that comes of it. Better fights and better talent.

 

Boxers to a certain degree evolve to suit the times. Most successful heavies of the past few years have been huge hitters so there's an expectation today that to achieve anything you need to be as powerful as possible. That leads the smaller guys to pack on more weight to compete as well as improve their punch resistance and staying power in the clinch, among other things.

Whether that's genuinely beneficial or not is a matter of debate, though the fact that lighter fighters like Steve Cunningham who stay within their natural weight boundaries tend to get badly manhandled leads me to suspect that it generally is.

 

[QUOTE="Mr.DagoWop, post: 18183561, member: 111569"There are many reasons that fighters don't fall into that weight requirements anymore; 12 rd championship fights, different approach to conditioning, s&c coaches, etc.



They need to bring back 15 rdrs. There can only be good that comes of it. Better fights and better talent.[/QUOTE]



Let us not forget that changing lights from 12 to 15 rounds was done under false pretenses!

Ever the opportunist Don King along with his puppet and cohort Jose sulaimon took the opportunity 2 shortening fights making them more commercially convenient under the false pretenses that it was done for fighter safety. There is no appreciable safety game by lowering the length of fights. Safety is improved by ensuring that Fighters are properly hydrated. One could argue that this was done by eliminating same-day weigh-ins. However this is not the case. Studies now show that in cases of extreme dehydration the brain requires an excess of 72 hours to properly hydrate.

 

Absolutely nothing.

 

Sounds like you feel that you know better than modern trainers, fighters, and strength coaches?

 

What exactly is the thrust of your argument? I feel it lacks focus.

If you're saying that heavyweights now are less athletic than past fighters based on their height to weight ratio then you have to take into account the changed landscape of the division as well as the influence of more powerful and versatile PEDs that can be used to artificially add muscle mass without adversely affecting performance in other categories.

If you're arguing that heavyweight boxing was more entertaining back in the day then I'd agree with you due to the fact that, by and large, mobile fighters who throw punches in bunches tend to produce more moments of excitement than oversized lumps who spend nine and a half rounds manhandling each other. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they were 'better' than modern fighters in a H2H sense.

As for what you can draw from any of this I'm not sure you can draw anything other than the very obvious effect of performance enhancing drugs in the division and a greater propensity for fighters, trainers and conditioning coaches to prefer bulk and strength over speed and agility, neither of which is a particularly shocking point to make.

 

Hardly any fighters/trainers really know about how to train anymore. What have these strength coaches done for the fighters? Bottom line is heavyweights of today have a lot more stamina problems than the fighters of the 15 rd era point blank period. Do you deny this? That is what conditioning is, it is getting your body in shape to go the set amount of rounds. It has nothing to do with skill, speed, technique, or power. It is directly how long you can fight for.

What factors have changed aside from the people? The training methods. If you want to debate different training methods I am 100% ready and open for it.

 

A lot of heavyweights these days just seem bone idle to me and unwilling to muster any sort of professional work ethic. That's not really the fault of the strength and conditioning coaches, or a knock on their lack of knowledge. There are plenty guys around today who know their stuff, but if the athlete isn't willing to put the work in there's not much they can do about it.

Cruiserweights tend to be far more conditioned due to having to keep their weight in check and it results in an overall more exciting and dynamic division, albeit one that is criminally neglected by the wider boxing public.

 

Absolutely. See my post above.