I was looking at Ring's top 10 designations now and noted how almost all of them are 6'4 or over now. Average right now is just under 6'5. On a lark, I looked through the Ring's historic rankings about every 5 years or so. About the same 5 and 10 years ago (because Valuev threw off the averages, but the median is taller, i.e., there are more super tall hw contenders now). 15 and 20 years ago averaged about an inch and a half shorter than now. 25, 30 35 about 2-2.5 inches shorter, 40-50 3-3.5 inches, 55-60 4-4.5. It's actually really remarkable how consistent and linear a progression it has been. For those people that don't think size and height matters, and that modern hws don't have an advantage H2H over past fighters, how do you explain the fact that the height of the top contenders has been very steadily growing over the past 60 years? Just raw coincidence? And how do you explain the fact that that has also happened in all of the sports with tangible records, where the athletes have demonstrably higher outputs than earlier?
