Top 10 by Decade - Divisional Ranking Experiment

throwing out a thesis on why modern middles to welters to lightweights are taller and have longer reaches,

and assuming it is correct that it is not in fact caused by next day weigh-ins,

I think it might be because of the change in style of fighting. In the old days fighting from a crouch with a bob and weave style while always pushing to get in close where reach and height disadvantages actually can become advantages was the norm for the shorter guys. The judges generally penalized jab and clinch style fighting from the taller men. Now it seems you can never clinch too much. Even if the judges favored a boring jab and clinch style in the old days, the promoters would avoid the guy as box office poison. Who wants to lose money? Being an action fighter was needed to draw paying folks at the gate or getting matches on TV where it was necessary to draw the far more casual fans. So a guy trained to exchange, with the shorter but perhaps sturdier fellow having a better chance.

Now it is not all one or all the other, but just as an observer, I think this is the trend, probably brought on by guys staying in the amateurs so much longer, with the amateur jab and circle style becoming so much the norm.

Now this is just a thesis, or guess, tossed onto the table for discussion.

 

I think it’s an excellent thesis. As jab-oriented offenses and outside fighting became more prevalent and acceptable, height and reach became that much more important. Simple and plausible.

 

That must be it then. Case closed. Glad we got to the bottom of that.

 

Thanks for doing the work to post this.

World War II might have diluted competition, but the bantamweight title certainly wasn't "frozen" during the war. Ortiz won his title in 1942, defended it 8 (!!!) times in 1943, and 4 times in 1944. He didn't defend in 1945, and possibly was in the service, but he was back defending in 1946.

Nor, by the way, was the featherweight title. Wilie Pep won the title from Chalky Wright in 1942, defended it against Sal Bartolo in 1943, against Wright in 1944, and Phil Terranova in 1945.

Louis, Lesnevich, Zale, and Cochrane did not defend during the war years, but Pep and Ortiz did.

Like I said, I guess competition might have been diluted, but these champions were in the ring fighting.

 

The fact which really jumped out at me is how poorly Carlos Zarate did.

Like I posted in another thread, I think he is a bit overrated.

As for Jofre, he might have fallen victim to the "Monzon effect" which is The Ring raters apparently not knowing what was going on in South American rings so outstanding fighters like Monzon, Perez, and Jofre weren't rated much before suddenly winning a title and dominating a division for years.

 

Q:Hmm, were they too short to serve? 4F?
A:66-74 inches tall to fit the GI clothing. Willie Pep =65 inches, Manuel Ortiz =64 inches. Probably didn't meet the weight standards either.

 

Great stuff, only just caught up with this last night and watched them all back to back. Checked it out this morning to see the bantams, my favourite division.

 

Waiting for you to get to the concluding summary. I can't get excited about the strawweights.

On Flyweights, my main observation is that Perez joins Monzon and Jofre in the "Monzon Effect" of South Americans not being much or at all in the ratings until they suddenly win the title and dominate the division for years. A reeflection, I think, of The Ring not having good sources in South America. Like the others, Perez probably should have gotten a few earlier rating points.

 

Just on this point, what is the current south American scene like now? I wonder if a Luis Angel Firpo type heavyweight might crop up soon