When and why did super heavyweights improve?

Without resistance training and nutrition/supplements/sports science, the Klits and AJ and the later 90s LL wouldn't be 240+lb.

 

I think maybe the bigger guys had better role models which gave them more confidence that they can fight big and still be skillful.

 

They are unbelievable

 

They improved?

 

12 rounds.

 

This. If anything the competition isn’t as tough. The modern guys nowadays tend to have less fights and benefit from more careful matchmaking.

 

I just think humans are evolving and so are their bodies. Look at Lebron James and how atheletic he is for his size, or Shaq during his heyday. Clumsiness came more then atheleticism, when you had an awkwardly tall athelete. Tyson Fury is probably the most skilled fighter Ive ever seen who is that tall. I think he is more skilled then Lewis and the Klitschkos technically, but not Bowe.

 

I don't think that they did improve.

It is more that what would have been a 220lb man, became a 245 lb man.

 

Advanced ped’s and training methods that are more suited for big men. I don’t agree with the post about them not improving because it’s pretty obvious that they have

 

It is basic fact of evolution that it takes many generations for any sigficant genetic change to occur.
The exception could be a rare mutation that is favorable & strongly selected for in a certain environment.
This does not apply here, we are talking a matter of degrees.

More refined training & a much larger population & more of them having access to training & athletics makes the difference.
And PEDs are a significant factor for many also.

 

Let's not take it down this route, but epigenetic changes are real and happen in a generation. If you know any guys who grew up in first world countries who are like a foot taller than their third world dads, that's epigenetics. People born in the last forty years are actually gonna be bigger on average than people who were born in the 1800s or early 1900s. Having ample calories, protein, fat, and fewer serious childhood illnesses basically turns growth genes on.

 

The freakishly tall are still uncoordinated and gangly. Unless they are part of some kind of professional athletics regime

I think training methods and sports science (PEDs on the cornflakes) have led to them being able to mask that and be competitive against more coordinated and skilled smaller men.

NoNeck makes good points.

In sports where you need superb feet and body coordination like football (soccer), all of the most skilled footballers are under 6 foot, many are 5 foot 7 and 5 foot 10. Once you get to over 6 foot 3 as a footballer it is a given that your ball control and skills will be poor in comparison to the other players.

 

I think if training and childhood nutrition explained everything we would have 20 6'6"+ guys who can move fast for 12 rounds, but we don't.

Since the 90s we've had a few at any given time and then a sea of others who are just a little bigger than the HWs of the 60s or much bigger but with speed/endurance problems.

To me it points to a small, gradual natural increase in size and athleticism and for some (but not all) a large artificial increase.