Would the top ranks of the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions look any different with no cruiserweight division, over the past 40 years?
The very broad heavyweight divisions tended to result in unofficial stratification. The smaller guys fought each other, and the bigger guys were forced to do likewise.
Holyfield would find it harder. He'd turn pro at light heavy ,not sure how long he'd be able to hang about there ,then enter straight in to the big guys brigade. So he'd be fighting the heavy s around 86 .He'd possibly face Tyson around 88 .Not sure how that work's for him ? It would have changed the late 80s heavy weight scene for sure.
Ever heard of the ideal gas law? The basic principle is that a gas expands to fill the volume available, and I suspect something analogous happens with weight classes. If you create a category, it's amazing how people will behave according to that category simply because it exists. (I can't tell you how many times someone has tried to prove to me a logical fallacy exists just be cause someone somewhere who may or may not have had a relevant degree gave it a name. ) Anyway, to the actual point, I remain to be convinced that there was any good reason at all for the cruiserweight class to be created. The reason usually given is dubious at at best, as it was created right around the time the Spinks brothers were at their height and Jerry quarry wasn't even retired.
Yeah, Holyfield is probably the biggest question mark. I think he'd probably have had a less illustrious career if he'd moved up in '85 and fought as a small, Dempsey-sized heavyweight. Would have been very rough on him, depending on how slowly Duva and company brought him along.
Camel who beat that Willie "The Cannon" Shannon. Plus the other champion Carlos De Leon, who defended quite a few times. I forgot about Ossie Ocosio too. New biography helps Marvin Camel fight time, obscurity http://missoulian.com/lifestyles/te...cle_6233ac27-167c-5357-9748-57c6bca92b2b.html
Definitely, he'd have being thrown in a lot faster than he was. He either faces Tyson when Mike was at his Best ever or he comes along very slowly ,but he wouldn't make the same impact .
Wasn't the original weight limits 176-190....then it went up to 195, and ultimately 200 tops??? (Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom)
The whole thing was a big mistake. A high order **** up. A blunder of the highest order. There was no need for cruiserweight at all. Roids made it possible for giants to become more functional in the 1980s. So The new division came from the oposite end of the heavyweight spectrum. Not the lower end where classically the champions had always came from. They should have made 230lb the Superheavyweight division and left the heavyweight division alone. Just as they did with Amateur boxing.
Ocasio becomes a HW trialhorse DeLeon makes 175lbs and contends in that division Holyfield and Braxton stay at 175 lbs Hopefully was 23 yrs old physically mature making 178 lbs. He could fight 175-180 lbs. If Braxton stayed hungry he could make LHW.
