Why have LHW's had bad luck trying to capture the HW crown

I dunno maybe the weight diffference is far greater than that at lower weights moving up.?

 

the Old adage; "a Good Big Un beats a Good little un".

 

There`s a far higher weight and height gap between heavyweights and lightweights, there is no limit to how big a heavyweight can be, a welter can only weigh as much a 147 etc.

 

Simple Marciano hit harder than Moore who was dropped at light heavy by a much lighte fighter than Marciano who would only be a light heavy himself in today`s fight game, Louis punched harder than anyone Conn faced at ligt heavy and Conn really only weighed 168, he would have only been a super middle in today`s game, Foster`s body was far too skinny to fight a puncher like Frazier no light heavy could take Frazier`s power. Carpentier was tiny.

 

This is just my theory so it’s bound not to be popular.

When weight categories started off for many years there was medium sized men, big men and small men. Anything that was not a big man was medium. A middleweight. No real set weight but I assume the category might have ranged as high as 168 and as low as 145. Anything not considered a medium sized man was called a lightweight. So there was heavyweight, middleweight and light weight. Small medium and large. That was it.

But none of this factored in the ages of the men and boys fighting who would grow bigger at different rates. and it probably didn’t matter so much because with just three weight classes a fighter could get bigger and still stay within his weight class.

obviously to create advantages extra weight classes were put in to define more evenly matched specimens. But it didn’t change the fact that humans were still large medium and small. All these extra categories didn’t really change that. Instead of 3 weight classes there became 6 of them to seperate the range between the top end from the bottom end of each 3 sizes of humans. Two types of each species.

light-heavyweight was the last of the “original” weight classes to be invented. It sat between large and medium sized human. It was supposed to be the smaller half of large. rather than simply being the larger half of medium.

Trouble was, it was often a taller medium sized man. A tall middleweight who filled out as he got older. Whatever they weighed it was still a middleweight or medium sized man. It was what we now call a super middleweight. A type of middleweight. A medium sized man.

some were of course were small heavyweights who fought in the heavyweight division. You can go all the way to Mate Parlov before you can find a lightheavyweight champion who never fought a heavyweight opponent.

People like Joe Maxim who were about 170 as a teen but were clearly a 190 man who could make 175 if they had to. Two types of lightheavyweight in the same lose weight class.

so historically you had heavyweights who already couldn’t make it at heavyweight using the new division as a springboard to challenge the heavyweight champion…or very good middleweights who could carry the extra pounds.

 

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Physically overmatched.

Spinks was able to do it because :

- He was tall for a LHW with a pretty long reach.

- He utilized his funky movement to hit and run and pile up points

- Holmes was clearly past his best

 

Charles actually made 8 defenses of the heavyweight crown and also beat Louis in the middle of it so i think you are selling him a little short. He did far more than Spinks there in terms of beating the best in the division and defending the title.

When i was watching boxing in the 80's they always stipulated light heavyweight "champions" with regards to how long it was since one had won the heavyweight strap which cut Charles out and made it go so much further back especially given Tunney also never won the official 175 strap i believe. It made the whole thing so much more sensational but never really added context. Technically tho it was correct......

 

Floyd Patterson was once the #1 light heavyweight contender and also won the HW title by beating the then light heavyweight champion to become heavyweight champ.

 

Yes true but mentioning him as failing against Marciano brought him into the convo in my mind.

Of course we know Charles should have been champ beyond a shadow of a doubt but those "technicalities" sure allowed them to sensationalize Holmes - Spinks a fair bit more.

It's a big jump especially given the size of heavyweights now. Usyk's efforts so far from cruiserweight are almost akin to the old scale in some ways. I'd hate to be a lineal light heavyweight champion trying to move up now even with the day before weigh ins.

 

Because they are lighter than heavyweights.

Duh.