What would Corbett and Burns be ranked today at HW?

You don't think Burns was any good then ?

 

He was outstanding in a pound for pound sense, but arguably one of the weaker lineal heavyweight champions.

I think that Corbett was overrated for most of gloved boxing history, thought now the pendulum is swinging too far the other way.

 

Burns would be a champion middleweight or super middle with the ability to weigh in the day before, and a darn good one. In today's world, they would not even allow him to fight as a heavyweight.

Corbett would be a cruiserweight champ, who possibly could move up. Heck, Usyk moved up and already he's being ranked highly.

 

The difference between Corbett and Usyk is that prime Corbett weighed only slightly above LHW, at a time when he could weigh anything that he felt comfortable with - whereas Usyk kept his weight just under 200 lbs, because he had to.

Once Usyk didn't have to make weight any longer, he went up to 215 - and at 6'3" with a 78" reach, he's a naturally much bigger man than Corbett. I find it rather unlikely, that Corbett could make an impact at HW today!

 

Did Corbett ever actually weigh in?

 

Interesting question! And if he did, what was the scale like? In some of these historic Heavyweight fights, did they just take the word of the fighters at times. In my youth, I heard from old timers that they sometimes just took them at their word...in the Heavyweight Division.

 

Some of the numbers on boxrec are just what the fighters stated, a lot of them are ringside guesses.

I'd need to have a look at the reports of Corbett to see if I can find where the weights have came from.

They'd sometimes measured the fighters in the days leading up to the fight, I don't think those are generally put on boxrec. For example there's a report of Bob Fitzsimmons weighing in before the Ruhlin fight, but in that case he did it fully dressed.

I'll maybe have a look later if no one has the answer.

 

Actually, Corbett was bigger than most think. He was in the 190s typically. Keep in mind that he and others back then trained down in weight because they weren't just training for 12 rounds like today, but for 20 rounds or fights to the finish. So yeah, he was 185 for fights where he might have to go for hours on end.

 

It's POSSIBLE...maybe a 2% chance....that Corbett could win a "Creole" belt at light heavyweight or cruiser, if he was protected
against big punchers, and was matched against men that would enjoy dancing with a man in thongs.

Burns would be on Tuesday Night Fights, which of course is a canceled show.

 

Probably not.

My hunch is that his claims were not too far wide of the mark.

 

Both of them would run the heavyweight division today!

 

So basically this is one of those threads where these old senile 70 year old boxing fans still think a 160/170/180 pound guy could compete against modern heavyweights?

Even if these guys were to fight at lower weight classes now they wouldn't do anything at all. You do realize boxing has evolved since the 1800's early 1900's right? The most skilled guys during that era would be 100 times less skilled than the least skilled guys during the modern era.

 

You might be quite disappointed when you find out the age of some of these senile 70 year old boxing fans!

 

STFU I'm not senile!

What was your name again; I forgot.

 

I don't think they'd fight at HW, so unrated.