Is Spence a weight bully?

I don't think so.

Fighters are always going to cut weight, they do and did. That being said removing same day weight-in, whilst necessary, naturally allows younger and willing fighters to zombify themselves on the weight day and rehydrate as much as possible. Rehydration clause would be a solution, but changing the system would mean too much turmoil and lost dollars, and true weight bullies aren't that common anyway, though they definitely exist.

 

Remember, they're only weight bullies if you dont like them and they win.

If you do like them and they lose, they were "weight drained"

 

Or they are heroically coming up in weight against all odds like Loma when he faced that physical juggernaut Haney.

 

Crawford is not a smaller guy. He walks around at 160+ and actually has a longer reach than Spence. They're fighting because they're the 2 best fighters in their division.

 

Sure, but do weight-bullies have to have bad stamina?

This is a very weird thread. We all know we have guys who never blew up much from the beginning like Lomachenko, Mayweather, Bivol, Judah, there are plenty. Then there are the guys who cuts around 10lbs+, then you have the extreme that cut 15-20lbs (today guys are apparently cutting to 24lbs) like Chavez (160 to 180), Zurdo(175 to 200) and supposedly Devin Haney(135 to 160 according to Mauricio Sulaiman).

They all make weight, understood. I personally don’t care either if a guy is big or not, if they make weight, we have a fight. But why are we sensitive to the term weight bully? I’m not following. Are we denying the existence of guys really big for a weight or just don’t care when we say “weight-bullies don’t exist”?

I also know guys aim for ”hot” divisions, I believe Spence mentioned it as as the reason he fights at 147, likewise with Pacquiao as the reason he went to 147.

 

You saw the fight night weighins at 140lbs for Crawford? HBO i would guess.

 

Yep.

 

Because "bully" connotes an unfair advantage. Saying a guy is big for the weight is one thing, it's quite another to try to diminish his accomplishments on that basis. Just look at the Loma apologists on the forum. They say he struggled with Haney because "Haney is just a weight bully".

The OP is a perfect example. He says Spence "can easily fight at 154 or 160 ... Why is he always picking on smaller guys like Mikey Garcia and now Crawford?"

By saying that Spence is picking on smaller fighters, OP is saying that he has an unfair advantage at 147. Which is dumb and anti-boxing history for the reasons already noted.

 

Incredible people don't believe in weight bullies because everyone must 'make weight'.

There are massive size differences in the same weight classes because some fighters cut huge amounts of weight compared to others. It doesn't just proportionally impact their performance and make them weak, it doesn't all even out, it helps them win, which is why they do it.

They are abnormally big for the class compared to others. Eventually it can catch up to them but for a period they will have a huge advantage. There are so many examples, in both boxing and mma.

Darren Till is a perfect example in MMA, killed to make weight and be bigger than everyone, was dominant and overpowered people. Moved to his natural weight class and stopped bashing people up, started fighting defensive, started losing. It was the size ad that gave him his success.

If it wasn't a problem the orgs wouldn't have put in hydration limits on fights like the one Jacobs skipped when fighting Golovkin.

Weight bullies are real and it's a form of cheating the system.

 

When did you start following boxing? Fighters always have cut weight to stuff themselves into the smallest division they can, and yes it's for competitive reasons. And yes, it's completely legitimate. It's not cheating the system, it's following the customs set in boxing (and wrestling) almost since the beginning.

Brandon Figueroa is huge for the lower weights, especially when he was at 122. But as long as he could safely make the limit under the rules, it was perfectly legitimate for him to do so.

If you want to argue for a rules change with more stringent rehydration clauses -- I like the ones prior to the fight better than day of -- I'm all for it. But guys are not getting unfair advantage; the system is working as intended and in accordance with boxing history.

 

Short answer no, he makes the weight within the rules like everyone else.

Do some fighters drop more weight than others? Of course but it isn't always an advantage. Hearns dropped a lot more weight than Leonard to make Welter but it was Leonard who beat him. De La Hoya was huge compared to Pac but making the weight left him too drained and so he lost. Taylor is a big 140lber but he was lucky to walk away with his belts vs Catterall.

Fact is being bigger can be an advantage but it can also come at a cost. Just like making weight comfortably might mean you are out sized but could also provide benefits in terms of conditioning and stamina.

In regards to Spence specifically, coming in bigger probably helps him as he has a physical style and grinds guys down but for a fighter who relies on speed and movement coming in heavy probably is a disadvantage.

 

From what I’ve gathered everyone knows weight-bullies “exist”. They just don’t want to acknowledge it because of the negative connotations on fighters they like?
In MMA it play a bigger role due to the wrestling. They go really crazy in that sport. In boxing it’s not as effective, but some guys are heavily reliant on it that when they move up, they quickly become exposed and get hurt.

 

This is an interesting point of view.