How was it with weight cutting in the past?

There isn’t much of a sample size.

 

Cos most fighters like to exploit the lack of rehydration limit

 

How much weight do you think people put on when they weighed in at the arena when they arrived?

Everyone on the Ali-Frazier card weighed in at Madison Square Garden the afternoon of the fight and Ali never left the arena because he was afraid traffic would be too bad getting back to the Garden from his hotel a few hours later.

The point is fighters knew then they were weighing in the day of the fight and the majority just fought in the division where they maintained their best weight. If you were 144 or 145, you were a welterweight.

Why do you think there weren't any champs in four divisions EVER in the history of boxing until 30 years ago? Let alone five divisions. Or six divisions.

It's because guys who would be natural welterweights in the 1970s (141 to 147) are now fighting for titles at super featherweight, lightweight and junior welterweight because they can put on 15 pounds after the weigh in ... because the weigh in is usually 30 hours or so before the main event actually begins the following day.

But if they actually had to get in the ring and compete at super featherweight or lightweight, they couldn't do it. Because they're just drying out to make an NUMBER on the scale before rehydrating for a day and a half. They aren't actually stepping in the ring and fighting in the division AT ALL.

Maybe you started watching the sport when that was common.

To people who watched boxing for years when people actually entered the ring and fought in the division they weighed in for, it's maddening.

When Tim Bradley fought Brandon Rios a few years ago in a "welterweight" bout, I was looking at those guys and going "they're huge." Rios was reportedly 170 and Bradley was in the mid 150s. And they were supposed to be WELTERWEIGHTS fighting for a WELTERWEIGHT Title.

That's bull****.

How could you compare them to welterweights in history? You'd have to compare them with middleweights and light heavyweights from 1980 and earlier. You'd have to compare Rios with Michael Spinks (who weighed 172 in his last light heavyweight title fight). Not Hedgeman Lewis.

And Rios was supposedly a guy 'moving up' to welterweight. How much did he actually weigh when he was fighting below "welterweight?"

 

Right, and if thousands of fighters become required to use rehydration limits, and it nets one or two additional deaths or serious TBIs, it isn’t worth it imo.

 

I think you’re being hyperbolic. A lot of same day era fighters still drained and or/rehydrated depending on the era, weightclass, and time of weigh in.

It’s not like everyone dropped down one or two weights when day before era started. Guys like James Toney came in draining and rehydrating and didn’t seem all that much bigger than guys like McCallum and Barkley.

 

NO Deaths on a 'rehydration' limit, that's not what is being said or should happen.

the point is simple, don't complicate it...

IF your a 6' 1" man walking around at eitherside of 200lbs, guess what your a HEAVYWEIGHT.

the Point is the Governing bodies shouldn't allow these guys to compete as Super Middleweights, or worse Middleweights - because they Are NOT... especially when they enter the Ring at 185 or 190lbs a day or two after the Weigh - in.

in the Old Days fighters NEVER Dreamed of such things,

a 5' 10" fighter walking around eitherside of a 170 lbs, was a Middlweight fighting at Catchweight Contests as either a Middleweight or Light - Heavyweight. only entering the L-HW Division in his later years as he got older and Bigger, not able to make the weight anymore at Middle.

they didn't have 4 months to make weight, they often only had a few weeks or so, and when they could no longer do it, they moved up a Division. It's not hard to understand, there is a Whole History of THOUSANDS of Fighters who fought exactly like that and for Decades.

IF your dropping 25 - 40 lbs, given 4 months to do so and entering the Ring a Day or Two later with 15lbs or more gained back by then... Well you are NOT Really that Division... it is simple, and more importantly.

It Should NOT Be Allowed!

 

How am I being Hyperbolic? The sport completely changed when they moved weigh-ins back a day. It's true.

The number of fighters who won titles in multiple divisions exploded. For the entire history of the sport, only a couple of guys won titles in three divisions. Now you have champs in six and seven divisions.

You had 170 pounders entering the ring fighting for welterweight belts.

Weight divisions are no longer divisions. They are maximum weight targets for guys looking to dry out for as light as they possibly can go for five seconds on a scale and then blow up during the 30 hours before the bell.

There are between 10 and 13 boxing deaths on average a year today. There was, on average, between 10 and 13 boxing deaths a year when there were same day weigh-ins.

All moving the weigh-ins back has done is screw up ALL THE LIGHTER weight boxing divisions ... all of them. The only division it didn't impact was the heavyweights.

Now you have guys in lower weight classes claiming to be champions of divisions when they can't even enter the ring and compete at that weight.

It's not saving anyone. But it's screwed up basically everything else.

You used to have guys whose best fighting weight was 145 or 146, they weighed in on the day of the fight at 145 or 146, and they were welterweights for the entirety of their careers.

Now, a 147 pounder is trying to figure out how many divisions he can grab a strap in below welterweight and not pass out on the scale before rehydrating by the time the bell rings.

It's the single worst decision the sport ever made. It changed everything, and not for the better.

 

Tommy Hearns with a next day weigh in and the improvements in nutritional knowledge / weight cutting of today would be ****ing lethal lol

 

It’s on a continuum. Mayweather won titles at 154 without entering the ring over that limit (probably). Toney somehow was not a giant at 160/168 while fighting guys who built their careers at those weights in same day era. The point is that it’s been going on for a long time. It’s just more prevalent now. Some fighters don’t gain a lot after weighting in and still have success.

 

Bad example.

James Toney literally grabbed his gun, got in his car, and drove over to his manager's house to "kill her" because he couldn't physically dry out to make 168 pounds for even a couple seconds on the scale anymore (he started camp over 200 pounds and he weighed in the 180s when the bell rang for the Jones fight) and he heard she had agreed he'd rematch Jones at 168.

Drying out was so difficult, he was going to murder his own manager for agreeing that he'd dry out that much again.

Toney's mother had to call Kallen and tell her he was on his way to kill her so she wouldn't get shot.

And, of course, he didn't rematch Jones at 168. And Toney and Kallen's partnership dissolved.

Marvin Hagler never decided to murder the Petronellis because they booked him another middleweight fight, because HE WAS A MIDDLEWEIGHT ... his whole career. That was his best weight.

Hagler wasn't DYING trying to dry out to make an artificial target weight he could never fight at. He'd often come in 'the day of the fight' well under the limit (157) for title fights.

 

They can just fight at a higher weight if it's too dangerous.

 

They won’t though.

 

The king of hyperbole doubles down.

 

It's completely true. Read "Dark Trade" by Donald McRae. Toney, Toney's mom, and Kallen told him.

Since when is the truth hyperbole?

 

Right and that's there problem like you said.