Putting on weight before a fight. It makes sense to many of the best.

If theres no limit on the weight sure.

 

This doesn't just happen at HW.

Many fighters try and put as much muscle as possible onto their frame while staying in a weight class. Look at /manny and Floydd

 

Well obviously. You want to be as strong as possible at whatever weight you're competing in. Obviously at heavyweight you've much more room to play with as there's an unlimited margin for error.

 

Wlad and Vitali are so tall that putting on extra muscle won't affect their range of motion or cardiovascular fitness. Not everyone is so lucky however...
It all depends on fighting style and body composition. If you're bottom heavy and try to put on muscle while also trying to stay in your current weight class(assuming you're not a HW)...frustrating days lay ahead.

 

I'm failing to see a point?

Unless you mean we shouldn't criticize fat fighters for not hitting the gym more? In which case I would say that extra muscle is usually good for any heavyweight, whereas coming in looking like Chris Arreola serves no useful purpose. Weight is a hindrance if it's not muscle.

 

I don't think smaller is better but you can't just add muscle and expect it to make you better either. Looks follow function, not the other way around. Rico put the horse in front of the carriage by saying he needed ten more pounds to arrive at his completely arbitrarily chosen fight weight. He's basically bodybuilding himself towards that weight.

 

Rico isn't one of the Klits. They know what weight they're in the best shape at, because they've done it countless of times. Rico is a buffed up small man who thinks being 250 pounds will give him a shot against real heavyweights.

 

Is it possible to put on muscle mass doing traditional boxing training? (i.e shadow boxing, hitting the heavy bag, hitting the pads, sparring, interval training without weights). Is this sort of training more likely to reduce muscle size? :think

 

It depends on the amount of muscle you currently have. It won't keep piling on muscle, but instead it will stagnate at a point optimal to the task you're performing. Assuming of course you're on a calorie surplus. I've gained some muscle on my back for example, but I already had enough on the arms so they got reduced a bit.

 

I think I've got room for growth in back and legs, but not upper body. I'm only asking because I'm at about 196lbs atm, which would be fine for fighting at 200, but I'm not really in a position where losing weight would drop me down to 175- I'd just become a small heavy (amateur) if I did lose size

 

Not true. It won't affect their range of motion but sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (bodybuilding) decreases relative capiliary density (blood supply) to the muscles, no matter how big you are.

strength training (microfibrillar hypertrophy) is always good, mass training not so much.