McCallum Vs Watson

After beating Nigel Benn,I'd like to have seen Watson take on another contender before challenging McCallum. He gave the Bodysnatcher a good fight,but was always one step behind.

 

Yeah? You sure? It's just that when you look at guys like Watson, McClellan and Barkley it's very hard to belive they are under 170 lbs in the ring. That would be tough to manage without weighing in the day before.

 

I don't think Watson looks that big, to be honest.
Barkley had a huge frame but at 160 (against Hearns 1) you can see he's got no excess weight, skinny legs etc.

Maybe they struggled hard to make weight. They definitely might have put on 6 - 10 pounds between weigh-in and fight, with the same day weigh in.

 

10 lbs would really be a stretch. And to me they seem to be at least that much over the limit. But maybe you're right.

Anyone else know anything concerning this?

 

10 pounds might be a stretch, but here's Alan Minter talking in 1982 :

At 4:05

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbZE8bZDB_0[/ame]

For people who don't understand British talk (stones-pounds) , he says a full-blown middle will come in to the ring at 165 - 168.
So I guess some guys could push it to 170.

I think sometimes guys who are in great shape can simply LOOK heavier, they have no fat and their muscular size stands out.
160 pounds of ripped muscle and bone is by no means a small guy.

 

Yeah, it's just that there suddenly were a number of MWs who looked huge in the late 80's, much bigger than previous ones. Watson and McClellan had both come down from LHW, for example. Don't know about Barkley, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was the same for him.

When looking at McCallum-Watson, it's hard to believe that Watson doesn't have at least 10 lbs on McCallum. Likewise with Curry-Nunn and Jackson-McClellan to name two other MW fights from that period. That even though they all scaled ca 160 at the weigh-in.

 

It became more competitive to be 'big at the weight', fighters discovered that by using steam rooms and diuretics they could easily lose 10% of bodyweight through cutting waterweight and manipulating water consuption. 24hour weigh ins means you can fully rehydrate and get the electrolytes back in your system. If they know how to properly cut water weight and get all the electrolytes/nutrients back even a morning weigh in shouldn't dehyrdrate/drain them too badly come fight night. The main reasons fighters get drained is because they make the mistake of cutting water at the wrong times, dehydrating for too long, cutting too many calories. I know a powerlifter who cuts 15% bodyweight through water in 24hours, puts it all back making sure to add electrolytes etc and it doesn't hinder his performance at all.

 

Yeah, there have always been fighters who are significantly bigger than their weigh-in. For example, Jake LaMotta was a light-heavyweight really.
The early weigh-ins have allowed them to take it even further.

 

The use of diuretics is one of the worst things athletes do.
Dehydration in itself just seems wrong. But I guess athletes will always do it to gain that edge.
I guess the best thing that can be said about boxing nowadays is that at least heavyweights don't dry out like they used to.
Years ago, even heavies were encouraged to cut water a bit and dry out a day before the fight. It's really not worth it though.

 

Ok. Do you know when the day-before-weigh-in started, though? I'm really interested to know. Unforgiven has given some information, but the more I can get, the merrier.

 

Lamotta by today's standard is a pretty small is a pretty small MW, he happily weighed 165-167 without a weight limit, if he knew how to manipulate water he wouldn't have had any problems making weight. I'd guess he could get down to 147 by cutting water right with a 24hour weigh in and men as big as Lamotta make 147

You can cut 30lbs of water without diuretics, but caffiene and Vit C is a diuretic, don't you drink coffee or eat oranges? Some guys will use 10grams of vitamin C to cut water

Diuretics are really useful if you don't know how to manipulate water, try drinking 3-4galons of water for a week, then cut water out for the day before a weigh in and get in a steam room for a few hours, you'll cut 10% of bodyweight doing that alone without needing diuretics. The thing is most boxers don't know about the right techniques in water cutting so will just stick to saunas (not as good as steam rooms) and diuretics and starving themselves

I reckon Pacman used shedloads of diuretics in the lower weight classes, he cut 17lbs and suffered no ill effects, either that or he was very good at cutting water.

In the early 80s but I don't think they were constant until the 90s, I could be off with that though. Initially fighters probably weren't all cutting weight and still today Mayweather and Barrera have hardly ever cut weight. Pacquaio used to cut shedloads of weight and now is fighting at his real weight but he's been a WW but he was adding 14+ pounds

I think a factor as big as 24hour weigh ins though is fighting less regularly. You don't really want to cut loads of water weight every other week

 

He probably weighed 165 - 168 in some of his middleweight fights too, with weigh ins the same day.
I know he spent a lot of time sweating off weight.
Yeah, I guess he's in the normal range for a middleweight.
Yes, with today's early weigh ins he might even make welter.

Good info. But I think the top guys (their trainers) have always known how to do this, it's just that sometimes they leave it too late, or they lack the discipline, or at a certain point it all catches up on them (fighting in the same weight class at age 26 that that they were in when they were 20).

And as you say, the old-timers had the pressure of making weight far more often.

 

About late '91 or early '92 the new day-before weigh-in rule was brought in

 

LaMotta was pretty good at cutting weight. For the Tony Janiro fight he went to drastic measures in order to make 155. Dehydration was a part of it. Here he talks about his weight troubles for the 6th Robinson fight:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOo3OjzR8E4[/ame]

10:00

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmFTqkfF964[/ame]


Despite his reputation for putting on excess weight in between fights, he was a dedicated trainer when a fight was coming up much like Ricky Hatton in recent years. He trained hard to get down to 168 lbs. His first trainer said that LaMotta was the most dedicated boxer he ever had.

 

:good

I disagree on this fight being McCallum's graduation day, I'd make it more like a school year, he learnt a lot of things in that fight, but he didn't really have any success or proved that he belonged at that level, although his performances with Eubank later proved he did.

I really like this fight for just seeing a good technician break down another good technician by being in control.