Size Importance

Pugilist_Spec · Oct 9, 2015

andrewa1 said: ↑

I just fact checked and Holmes actually was usually outweighed by his opponents, not by much, and he was usually taller than his opponents, but its fair to say he was average sized for the top hw's of his era overall.

Ali though outweighed his opponents in 14 out of 19 title defenses, was noticeably taller in 10 of those defenses, most of the others they were about the same height, only Terrell and Wepner were noticeably taller. So Ali's era was really fairly comparably to the current era, he usually is as tall or taller than his opponents (not quite as much as Wlad) and usually outweighs them (more so than Wlad). It's just the era featured significantly smaller fighters.

Also, classic misconception above I'd be remiss not to point out. Ali's weight even later was a big advantage. In his later fights he clinched and leaned on his opponents (like Wlad) to use his weight to tire them out. Even "fat" weight is useful in boxing, when it gives you a weight advantage in a fight and doesn't impair you too badly in other performance factos (and it didn't for Ali, since he used his ring iq to turn fights to his advantages). Another blog has an extensive collection of h2h history of fights based on weight, and you can see that even "flabby" fighters tend to win against comparable lighter weight fighters.
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The weight was a disadvantage. The sole reason he needed to lean on his opponents and clinch in the first place is because he was out of shape, not to mention his legs and reflexes were gone.

And the weight differences weren't that big. Mostly around 5-10 pounds.

andrewa1 · Oct 9, 2015

Pugilist_Spec said: ↑

The weight was a disadvantage. The sole reason he needed to lean on his opponents and clinch in the first place is because he was out of shape, not to mention his legs and reflexes were gone.

And the weight differences weren't that big. Mostly around 5-10 pounds.
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We'll have to agree to disagree. He didn't lean because he was keeling over, it was very strategic and very effective. It's not a knock on him but a credit as far as I'm concerned. Also, the weight gap wasn't huge but still meaningful. It was a larger weight advantage than Wlad has had in his defenses.

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Size Importance

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Size Importance

Pugilist_Spec Hands Of Stone Full Member

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