Lennox Lewis would have been a Cruiserweight Today

Obviously its fairly situational and some fighters can lose freakish amounts of weight and others struggle greatly and suffer physically from it. I just don't think its likely that a guy whose comfortably fight weight is around 225-233 pounds after probably having lost 10 or 15 pounds already could cut 24-30 pounds in the space of 24 hours and remain in fighting condition physically.

Obviously its possible, but its not a situation i would give the benefit of the doubt, and more often than not i would say it would lead to very negative effects. You also have to factor in the fact that he was not use to cutting significant amounts of weight, unlike lower weight fighters who have done it for decades.

 

No way someone of his size and build could either cut or lose 224lbs and still be healthy, nevermind in a fit shape to fight competitively.

Not unless he LITERALLy lived like a monk for years on end; which would also be very detrimental to his health.


So no, he could never have been a CW, career wise.

 

People really have no idea how cutting weight works.

While Lennox losing 24 pounds would be very, very hard it's certainly possible. It's not like he'd actually have to diet all camp and lose the weight there, you sweat it off in the days before the fight you morons.

 

24 is quite a lot to lose , even for 224 , 6'4" lewis , even if possible without risking his health it will effect him. toney lost 15-16 for his 168 defense against roy jones and it effected him badly.

but marciano and corbett could have made 175.

i remember my argue with cross trainer (only about corbett) , and he (basically) said they were dehydrated at heavy then becuase they were stupid.
but i will say about this : maybe dehydrated , but not making weight dehydrated , there is a differrence.

also regarding marciano - dehydration could have brought him to 175.
if toney got from 183-4 to 168 , then marciano could have gotten to 175. very simple.

 

it surely helps losing fat instead/to save you (part of the) dehydration , doesn't it , smart guy ?

 

Thats debatable.

Considering his weight at the end of training camp early in his career was typically between 224 and 235, its likely that he was starting his camps at 240 odd.

Sweating 30 pounds in a few days isn't going to be particularly easy.

 

Yeah, cause 'sweating off' (as in stripping water from your musculature and skeleton), combined with barely eating and drinking, is an incredibly easy task, so easy infact that you can lose 24 pounds in a few days, then compete in a boxing match.

Also, there's no need to be calling people morons, Mr. Internet Toughguy

 

Agreed. Vitali lost to a pumped up cruiserweight. I'm glad you said it. If Fighting Weight or someone said it they would just be accused of being haters.

Vitali got stopped from a fat, old, out of shape cruiserweight. Good point.

 

He maybe able to cut 20lbs of water to make 200lbs but he wouldnt bother because he'd easily be the best HW and cutting 20-30lbs of water affects your performance/durability/strength etc etc. Also when they do a pre fight weigh in and a fighter gains 20lbs+ sometimes that is with clothing/boots on which probably weighs 5-10lbs

 

Well if your going to be fair by saying well Lennox could make Cruser aswell as Louis & Ali by dehydrating 25lbs, then in that case Ali and Louis could have made LHW 25lbs of water too. It works both ways

 

I think very early on he MAY have been able to make the current limit with a fair bit of dehydration, but even then he was mostly coming in at around 230...that's still a lot to ask regardless of his body size. Lewis naturally increased in size (as do pretty much all boxers) over the course of his career, from the McCall loss onwards I think it may have been impossible to cut to 200, not without seriously risking his health - at this point he was weighing in at 240+. Practical implications aside, Lewis would have had no financial incentive to do so, and would probably fought at HW even if the CW limit was 220! Though that is pure speculation of course...

If we look at David Haye, who is a naturally much smaller man than Lennox, and, if Haye's weight draining stories are to be believed, this is some indication that Lennox would have had immense difficulty making 200 even early in his career. I think ultimately Lewis would perform best at HW and as such I would define him as a natural HW. Guys who come in at around 210 are much more borderline and may in fact be much more effective at CW.

 

He's not the kinda guy that'd wanna cut weight just to have even bigger physical advantages over lesser opposition.

He'd have rather been a strong heavyweight that was still big.