Joe Louis vs Sonny Liston of 1960?

There would be no upset, Sonny is big favorite and rightly so, he'd send Louis into the ER.

 

Well it usually comes up in H2H discussions and these are usually taken as best for best obviously. There's plenty of credence to the one true weight in that discussion. Holmes at his peak always aimed for 212 1/2. Looking at the weights around his peak 212 1/2 would be a fine representation of his size. Boxers are incredibly fine tuned athletes and we can see patterns emerge during their big fights. We see Holmes extremely close to that number during his big fights against Spinks, Ali and Cooney. I mean he was bang on for two of them and 1 pound off on the other. These would have been his most heralded fights between Norton and Cobb.

Height and other such things are obviously another matter entirely.

Both his trainers are on record years apart singing from the same songbook regarding the weight drop for Conn. That's a pretty big stick to wield.

 

Highly likely. I guess it's entirely possible even if rare that the scales could be ever so slightly off. The odd set of weights have been strange over the decades.

 

Yes, as well as Futch. It was a point of contention with Futch who wanted him to start coming in heavier around the Witherspoon fight due to age.

I disagree to a fair extent. A lot of the variations can be put in context e.g. I've shown Holmes coming in lighter for his biggest fights around his best period i.e. the weight he believed he fought best at.

Ali's 60's peak was oh so obviously as he was going into exile. He was peaking at around Holmes beloved 212. He'd grown into himself.

It does. By the time they have to let their weight out they are invariably past peak. These weights are commonly not their peak weights. It's mostly age/body specific. At some point trying to train down to previous best performing weights = diminished returns.

It's a bit of a different game at this point in regards to what we are talking.

Well they'd never be far off but perhaps they might be enough on a rare occasion to ponder the Louis/Conn situation.

Yes and no. I find some want to utilize them for personal leverage at the expense of being true and fair. Some of it is so blatant it's embarrassing tbf.