I was wondering about this, looked it up and it's been done before. What I was wondering though is which fighters from the past would of advantaged from day before weigh ins. Example: Tommy Hearns - Ray Leonard. How much bigger and stronger would Tommy of been with 24 hours to replenish.
LaMotta vs Robinson for the middleweight title while Ray looked amazing had LaMotta been less effected by the cut (given a day to recover get back the water weight) it would have probably been more competitive.
You beat me to it. Lamotta would have been really nasty with an additional 24 hrs...Carmen Basilio would have loved the idea at welter too.
Back then, if I'm not mistaking, there were no inbetween divisions, meaning in this day and age, Robinson could have gotten down to the 140lb division cutting weight with 24hrs to replenish.
I wonder what would happen if we went back to same day weigh ins, and used the divisional weights as more of a guideline. For example, welterweight is 141-147. That means that the most a welter should be out weighted is by 6 pounds. If one fighter weighs 145(without cutting) and the other weighs 151( without cutting) then the fight could still be fought at a fair weight discrepancy. I would assume that fighters would not want to risk cutting the same day of a fight, given today's known risks for doing so.
Lionel Rose is an obvious one from here. Im sure a 24 hour weigh in would have benefited Lionel immensely. It does go both ways though, with Pro's and Con's that make sense. At the end of it, if a fighter is totally withdrawn prior to a match, then his trainer has to be accountable for the lack of strength and potential damage done to his fighter, as both fighters are weighed in at the same time. Personally, a 24 hour weigh-in process is a better course to take for health reasons.
