Should Boxing officially institute a 'Super-Heavyweight' weight class?

old argument, they talked about a 'dreadknought' class back in the 30's.

 

It's already happening. Look at the weights of David Tua and Chris Arreola. At some point, they started fighting 15-20-25 heavier than they were before. And they weren't as effective as they were before. Before McCall 1, Lewis usually weighed around 230. After, he was fighting closer to 245.

 

No. Most of the current heavies are simply people who can't be arsed get into proper fighting shape; there are very few natural superheavies. If you want the best chance against a legitimate SHW then results have shown that it's the most well trained individuals, not the biggest, who have performed the best.

Proper training and conditioning is what gives you the edge, not useless mass.

 

Yeah and Lennox was never better than when he was 227lbs - it absolutely bugs the hell out of me when people try to claim he was better with Manny just because!? Lewis was a million times better in the Ruddock/Tucker/Bruno days - it's like night and day every time I go back and watch those fights I'm going "God Lewis was so much better in those days!!? He was SO much faster his reflexes were a million times better - that was the real Lennox Lewis for me - not the fat old man who fought Holy and Tua etc?". RANT OVER

 

, i said it millions of times, lewis never was natural 245 pounder, he was more a 228-235 pounder, he was much more athletic and faster at 230 pounds, ruddock weighed barely 188 pounds in his early carrer and then he got 230 pounds training in a gym.. it is why some ignorant people think that they were naturally bigger than the guys of the 70s, they think that more weight is = bigger .... tyson never had bigger frame than frazier...george foreman weighed usually 218-225 in his prime and guys like thommas,spoon,berbick,ruddock... weighed how much as him... but no ****ing way they had the big frame of george

 

Back in the 80's the boxing fraternity were always talking about what a poor era it was because of all the overweight heavies. I had the privilege of meeting Tim Witherspoon a couple of years ago and it struck me that he looked in better shape now than when he was fighting.

 

The weights are heavy now and nobody cares about the Heavyweights. The Heavyweights need to be less Heavy.

 

given the HEIGHT increase, this is why they are 225-260lbs fighters. we need a S-HW division this is the only way to seperate the Giants from the 'normal' size bigmen!

 

Or they could enforce a mandatory bodyfat percentage rule...over 12% and you're not fighting.

I think we'd be surprised at how many fighters come in at well under 250 then.

 

What about the Arreola rule? If your tits jiggle by more than two inches each way during your early morning jog (providing you even do an early morning jog) then the fight's instantly called off.

 

That could work.

 

It's pointless. Think about it ..

With these early weigh-ins, we have middleweights who can weigh in a dried-out 160, but come fight time some of them are closer to 180.

So I guess someone like Wladimir could come to a weigh in at 230 or less.
Him and his brother could make heavyweight, so who'd gonna be left at super-heavy ?

If we lower the division to 220, we have the guys who come to the ring at 235 and 240+ making weight.

We could set it at 210 then, but that's only 10 pounds above cruiser as it is now.
Why is no one concerned for the guys currently stuck at cruiserweight (a division spanning 25 pounds) who can't quite make 175 dried-out so have to move up and battle 'cruisers' who come into the ring at a 'natural' 220 ?
That's certainly happening now.
What's happening at heavyweight is fairer because generally the fighters are actually the weight the scale says they are.

 

We need to make the move back down to 8 divisions. Makes all divisions stacked and the champions are actually worthy champs who are good enough to compete in any era.
Imagine that? Floyd Mayweather vs Gennady Golovkin

 

Pandora's Box has been opened, there will be no going back to eight divisions/one champion.

But there are more practical things that can be done even in today's environment. One thing I would like to see be done is fairly simple, and would benefit the sport and more important safety:

All matches over 12 rounds would have three weigh-ins*. One a week before the bout where a fighter would need to come in within 105% of the contracted weight, the next three days before the bout where the fighter would need to be within 102% of the contracted weight, and then the final weigh-in still 24 hours before the bout, where the fighter would need to make the contracted weight.

The idea being a fighter would basically need to show the ability to be at 'fighting weight' for a week prior to the bout, thus hopefully stopping fighters who should be fighting a division or two higher manipulating the 24 hour weigh-in rule.

I appreciate that some may still succeed in gaining massive weight post the final weigh-in, but at the very least it will stop fighters drying out in the last week of the bout to lose massive amounts of body weight.

*Obviously this would not apply to Heavyweight bouts.