Usyk weighing in 227 lbs

i dont believe thats a factor. it takes your body from 12 to 24 hrs to go from using up your stored glycogen and start breaking down fat for energy. its not an instantaneous process.

 

Cool. Thanks Serge. I just recalled at least one fight night weight of 214/215 or so. I’ll have to re-check.

 

I’ll be keeping an eye on his legs, can’t have much left on them I’m willing to bet, Usyk isn’t like Moore or Toney where he can fight quite the same way with cement feet… look what happened to Ali and the shots he took later… haven’t watched much of Usyk lately just as things happened… has he become more stationary? I don’t think so, I think it’s coming though - do you remember how Juan Diaz vs Juan Marquez went? Marquez could no longer push off, Diaz thankfully obliged him by going into the chop shop and lending him his momentum, actually this could be how Usyk chooses his next opponent… DDD will go straight into Usyk shots, he doesn’t need to lead much, a guy who boxes with Usyk might stand the best chance if he’s lost his legs overnight. It might be how he picks between Parker and Kabayel how he feels tonight below the waist.

 

He has a different body type that makes him look less jacked compared to a lot of other fighters. I wonder how much it contributes to his style, power and stamina compared to fighters with big shoulders and chests etc.

 

Fat tissue also absorbs some of the damage.

 

Ever since the money started getting bigger in the 1980’s Heavyweights show up fatter and fatter. They don’t care because they are making multi millions of dollars.

 

I think its more a change in the rules and how they are enforced, since the fighters back then were making just as good if not better money relatively.

But things like 15 rounds down to 12, and even then a lot of fights are at 10 rounds even at the elite level. Plus holding is more common and acceptable with inside fighting being less and less used. A lot of this is down to how the refs referee and the judges judge. All of this helps heavyweights to get away with being bigger, and being bigger actually helps more depending on the style of the fight.

I'm not even going to touch on PED evolution and development in that timeframe that allows for bigger fighters.

 

he’s also white. If you’ve ever seen a bodybuilding competition, you know that white dudes use that crazy bronzer stuff on themselves to turn their body dark. Darker skin shows muscle and definition a lot better than pale skin. I have no idea why that’s the case but it clearly is.

 

I'm sorry dude, you do not have a fighters physique.
Fat is not contractile tissue. Fat is used as an energy source after glycogen is depleted yes, that takes days.
You can hit harder at heavier weights, if we're talking about muscle in the arm/back/shoulders/legs that can help generate force, whatever extra fat mass you have on your arm probably slows you down more than the weight provides to the force equation. Unless you're butterbean tier

 

I'm not saying huge amount of fat gives a boxer extra advantage. I'm talking about 5 - 6 pounds of extra fat.

And it doesn't take "days" to use fat as energy source, if muscle glycogen levels are depleted, body uses fats as energy source.

 

Do you know how long it takes to deplete glycogen dude? If you were on a cut, a calorie deficit, glycogen is what's burnt first before fat. It takes a week or two to get through that stored glycogen before you burn fat. Do you think this happens all in the span of 30 minute fight, where the muscles are completely deprived of all their carbs instantly and the body starts eating itself????

 

Fat can definitely be an advantage where lean mass wouldn't work. If you want extra weight without having it take up as much oxygen and energy then fat is your man.

It would definitely help with punching power, that is straight physics and we've had this discussion on the forum multiple times if you want to search it.

The other thing is that having a bit of extra fat can help with overall health and energy levels during camp, not necessarily the glycogen levels just on fight night. But everybody is different and needs slightly different levels of fat to maintain homeostasis and stay in peak condition especially during the rigours of a camp.

 

I asked artificial intelligence, it said fat is also used as an energy source during a boxing match:

Even in a hard boxing match you are always burning some fat alongside the stored sugars: most of the overall fuel across the whole bout comes from the longer-lasting “engine” (which can use both sugar and fat) while the explosive punch flurries lean mainly on the faster sugar stores; between bursts and during the one-minute breaks your body shifts a bit more toward using fat (including tiny fat droplets inside the muscle) even though these fat stores release energy more slowly than sugar; regular smart training (steady aerobic work plus intervals) teaches the body to tap a little more fat at a given pace, slightly easing the drain on muscle sugar, but sugar still powers your highest-speed actions—so the key idea is fat never “turns off,” it keeps helping in the background while carbs drive the fireworks.