If the Cruiserweight title had being made official in around the late 1940 s, who do you see possibly winning the belt? Any guys who struggled at light heavy or heavy maybe? Lot of years to pick from?
I don’t think much changes at all. The HW crown would still be the prize. The lighter guys would move up. Maybe Archie reigns at cruiser for a long time. Maybe Rocky never gets to 185-190 range maybe he stays heavier? Who knows maybe Bob Baker is HW champ awhile. Many possibilities.
The heavyweight division would have lost much of its great talent. There weren’t too many talented big men in the 1940s to fill the void. Anyone who was talented at 180-195 would be forced to gain weight if they wished to stay in the division which may or may not have been in their best interest depending on how it effected their speed and skills. My guess is Billy Conn would have been one of the stronger candidates for cruiserweight champ.
The division would be brand new and hold no prestige, so I can’t see any top established light heavyweights having much interest in it, since the big paydays would still be at heavyweight. Guys like Billy Conn and Archie Moore would still go for the heavyweight title and wouldn’t waste their time on the division. Cruiserweight would be an unnecessary division in 1940 much like it is today, since despite the cruiserweight division having been around almost 40 years it still holds very little prestige and the best talents rarely stay in the cruiserweight division.
The best guys who weighed in above 180 for heavyweight weigh ins would have still been Heavyweights. Most wouldn't have needed to gain weight, just stop losing so much weight before the weigh ins. (It'$ called Prize Fighting for a rea$on.)
I also could see Walcott going down and grabbing a title, after one of his many heavyweight championship bout losses.
I'm not sure if Archie Moore would have bothered with the Cruiserweight Division, or not. He could have picked up that belt if he wanted it, but he would have still competed at Light Heavy and Heavyweight. The man had a knack for going up and down in weight.
You know why he doesn’t. Money. He was only interested in the big prize. He was obsessed. He knew the money was at HW.
