The factor of size in fighting

Constantly I see the issue of size brought up in terms of fighting (I've noticed this a lot with heavyweight threads) so let me ask you these questions ESB as to get different people's perspectives: How big of a factor is size in a fight? Is being the bigger fighter always an advantage? Is being the smaller fighter always a disadvantage? What is your position on this and why?

 

Size and Reach is a factor not disputing that but when it comes to skill and will it can determine how much of an advantage it is sometimes the smaller fighter can make it so that the larger fighters advantage also becomes their disadvantage as well. Like Charlie Goldman saying you make a tall fighter look taller and a short fighter shorter. It could go both ways. Some would say a larger man is slower but that can be countered by the fact that guys like Ali, Wlad, and even a Buster Douglas could move well for their size. Or the fact that a lot of big fighters aren't considered great inside fighters when you have the likes of Bowe who proved his infighting skills for his size. The problem occurs when a person equates their size to certain attributes. Just because a man is larger doesn't mean that he has overwhelming strength or a hard punch because we've seen some weak punchers who are big and we've seen some small ones who are strong for their size who have even pushed around some larger men. So there is two sides of the coin that you could go either way on but nothing is absolute in the fight game or impossible

 

well if we want to get into some known fighters from different accounts, I've never seen Joe Louis really have any problem pushing some of his larger opponents, on film and by other accounts Jack Dempsey has muscled some large men but struggled in sparing sessions with the likes of Gerb. even Holyfield who started off at Crusierweight and grew into a small heavyweight did it to some large fighters(except for Foreman of course and expended energy doing it to Bowe). Joe Barbados Walccot who was a welterweight with a short height but had strength and punching power was beating fighters from welterweight all the way up to heavyweight. As stated it's dependent upon the fighters that compete with each other where their skill set is and their will more so than their size alone.

 

that was in reference to frankenfrank