Ring Magazine web article on modern super heavies.

Heavyweights have become super sized


By Michael Rosenthal


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[/url]In the 1910s and ’20s, Jack Dempsey was considered a big man. He was 6 feet 1 inch and no more than 200 pounds during his fighting career.

Behemoths like 6-6½ Jess Willard, who Dempsey knocked out in 1919 to win the heavyweight championship, and 6-5½ Primo Carnera about two decades later were considered freaks, lumbering giants with minimal ability.

Now? Big is in.

Consider our heavyweight titleholders: Wladimir Klitschko, 6-6½, 245; Vitali Klitschko, 6-7½, 250; and Nikolai Valuev, 7-0, over 300. David Haye, who faces Wladimir Klitschko on June 20, is the same size as Muhammad Ali (6-3, around 215) yet he’s considered small.

The experts suspect this is part of a universal trend toward bigger, stronger athletes in all sports, they believe the giants are very difficult to beat and they anticipate a day when a “super heavyweight” division is standard in boxing.

One person who knows is Chris Byrd, a small heavyweight who fought both Klitschkos and 6-6 Jameel McCline.

“These guys are huge,” he said. “Back in the day, you didn’t see any really big heavyweights like this. You were big if you weighed 220-225. George Foreman was considered big and he weighed only around 225. Now, they get up to 7 feet and 300 pounds. And the really big guys we did have back then weren’t very talented. Now, they’re coordinated, talented guys with power, height and reach.

“It’s almost an impossible task for a smaller heavyweight to compete with them. These guys are getting bigger and better.”

Former heavyweight titleholder Michael Moorer, 6-2, 220-225 at his best, pointed out that the giants mentioned above –- plus 6-7 contender Alexander Dimitrenko –- are all from former Soviet states and wonders “what they feed their children over there.”

Most likely, athletes over there are getting bigger naturally. Here, too. Byrd said his father, who runs a busy gym in Flint, Mich., told him recently that he’s astonished at how big the children in his program have become.

The problem in the United States, several observers suggested, is that the most-athletic giants are playing defensive end in the NFL or power forward in the NBA.

Byrd knows imposing 6-11, 265-pound Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, who dabbles in boxing in his spare time. The fighter had Howard hit the mitts one day in the gym and couldn’t believe what he experienced.

“I was like, ‘Mannnnnnn,’” Byrd said. “He had an amazing right hand; he punched right through the mitt. I told him, ‘If anyone squares off with you on the court, you’re gonna go to prison. You’re gonna kill somebody.’ He has a perfect right hand; he knows how to throw it.

“If he had started as a boxer or even if he were converted, man, I think he could be something.”

Howard is busy, though. That leaves us with the giants from the former Soviet Union who are nowhere near as athletic as many of the NBA stars but are effective in the ring.

As Byrd will tell you, the Klitschkos and Co. are immensely strong, have solid fundamentals, know how to use their height, train extremely hard and are more coordinated than people realize.

They have been beaten. For example, Wladimir Klitschko has been knocked out three times by marginal heavyweights, raising lingering questions about his chin. And Valuev was outboxed by 6-1 Ruslan Chagaev even though he gave up more than 90 pounds, proving that size can be overcome with ability. Valuev and Chagaev meet again Saturday.

Byrd, who went 2-2 against the Klitschkos and McCline, said the best strategy to beat an extremely large man is to get him to go backward. He said Wladimir Klitschko, in particular, cannot fight on his heels. However, it’s next to impossible to move King Kong.

“I fully expect the next heavyweight champion to climb the Empire State Building,” historian Bert Sugar said.

Indeed, it’s the big men who almost always use their strength to move opponents backward and then impose their will. They’ve found a formula to win consistently –- albeit against a weak pool of heavyweights.

The Klitschkos, Valuev and Dimitrenko are a combined 168-6, with 135 knockouts.

“There’s nothing really graceful about the Klitschkos or Valuev,” said trainer Joe Goossen, who worked with 6-8 Lance Whitaker. “They know what they’re doing, though. They hold you off with their left and then try to drop a right-hand bomb on you. They’re so big, they have the range to do that. They get great leverage on that right hand. And I think the guys they fight are vulnerable to their best weapon.

“Unless you’re a real cutie-pie southpaw who is just impossible to touch against a bigger lumbering guy, I’ll take the bigger lumbering guy every time.”

The boxing establishment has already begun to deal with the increasing height and weight of its biggest fighters, raising the cruiserweight limit to from 190 to 200 pounds.

One day, the experts believe, the powers that be will introduce a super heavyweight division if there are enough fighters the size of the Klitschkos. Byrd suggested a heavyweight limit of 225 pounds, meaning all the fighters mentioned here would be super heavyweights.

“The thing is these guys who are tall and weigh 250 pounds are very, very strong guys,” trainer Freddie Roach said. “I think they’ll have to create another division eventually. They already started to make cruiserweight more of a heavyweight division.

“I can see moving cruiserweight to 210 pounds so you don’t have guys 50 pounds heavier than another. That’s a lot of weight to give up. These guys really are big.”

Michael Rosenthal can be reached at

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And where are the 185-215 pound heavies today? Out of business. Well, if you look hard enough you might find one top 15 ranked guy at or around 215 pounds.

And were they any great 230+-pound heavies around when the 185-215 pound guys were kings? No! They did not exist.

As the article says, the Willard’s, Baer’s, and Simons of boxing simply lack the skills of the modern big fighters today. If you cannot see that after watching the films, there really is not need for you to read any further.

Bigger alone does not mean better, but bigger with skills, and speed is better. The article did a fair job of explaining why, but could have expanded upon it a bit. The simple physics is bigger and longer means you have the advantage as an out fighter, and the majority of boxing is out fighting, not in fighting. Bigger also means heavier and stronger in most cases, so the advantage of the clinches, and wearing the other man down in his favor too.

In sports, the saying goes a great big man beats a great little man...and it is especially true in physical sports, and even more true in combat sports. I would say a merely good huge man would likely beat great little men too…unless the little guy has some serious fight altering punching power, he’s in for a pasting.

Should there be a super heavyweight division? I would say not right now. There is not enough talent to split the heavyweight division from 200 to 225, and over 225.

In addition, does the heavyweight division really need more world champions? No again.