Well, Whyte wasn't 6'4. Nowadays he claims 6'3 but in reality he is 6'2. 6'4 is not a SHW in any way, it puts you at a disadvantage vs the modern SHW. Nobody would claim Joseph Parker as a SHW
Boxers getting larger, taller & heavier + the difficulty of moving up even from Cruiserweight-even when they may come in the ring up to more or less 10% heavier than the CW limit, & thus are larger than the average HW for most of the division's history: of course we need a weight category between LHW & HW! CW is not the best name, but the label matters less than accommodating folks. How about Neo-quasi-semi-demi-nearly-sorta-almost-used to easily be-Heavyweight? If we are being fair. really fair to the hard working fighters & scien-terrific, rigorously rational in what we really have knowledge of, we have *no idea* how common PED usage is. It could be ~ 20% or a good 80%. Even these numbers could represent those who ever dabbled, or those who regularly used effective courses-or something in between. Guys who do not look ripped or huge or are flabby could have used. Guys who are built like Frank Bruno (or him), 6' 3" max & fought at a chiseled 247, might be natural. Some of the very best guys do not have a size or growth pattern that makes them likely to have used. Usyk & Fury are obvious examples. That they may have no more makes it even likely than that any of us might be wife beaters makes it likely to be true. To address the original question: I also do not buy the premise that CW never took off. It has varied in popularity, & more hard core fans appreciate them. Of course we should be very interested in the group that both is likely to be able to beat everyone else than HW-& sometimes them-& men who are by relative necessity more consistently fit that HWs overall.
It's a self defeating prophecy. "No one cares about cruiserweights!" Everyone believes this, so natural CWs bulk themselves up to HW and further drain the talent pool. There's no shortage of great fighters historically who would be natural CWs, but who fought before the division existed.
Yeah. It’s exactly like Floyd Patterson and Jimmy Ellis in the HW division during the 1960s. That always happened before and it goes on now. HWs in the SHW division same as LHs were always among the HW division.
It’s time to change the name. now that everyone knows what a SHW is why should the highest division still be called HW? give the HW label to the cruisers. It will increase prestige for that division. The champions of it will rightly be seen as the descendent of fighters the size of Tyson and Holyfield. The size bigger than them is Superheavyweight. Just as it is in the Olympics.
The most outstanding HW today is 6ft3 217-220lbs with the conscious effort to put mass on and with the aid of PEDs (probably) Joe Louis isn’t noticeably different in size to Usyk really. So Is Ali, Evander, Holmes and many more.
And in historical heavyweight terms they are first and foremost bonafide classic sized heavyweights. Not Superheavyweights. And not strictly a cruiser. cruiser is HW.