Why were "small" men able to dominate the HW division?

I think those guys are around but they don't look so good wearing bigger gloves and carrying excess weight compeating with naturally bigger men.

Put 30lb on Jack Dempsey and give him 10oz foam filled gloves rather than the lethal 5oz horse hair filled gloves and he would be severely handicapped against giants. He would lose that edge in speed and half the punching power. Have a modern referee allow the big guy to lean all over him too. That's some serious handicapping for the classic sized heavyweights.

You handicap the best fighters and they are never allowed to look so good.

 

Who do you see as being a potential Dempsey or Louis, if only they were allowed to wear smaller gloves, and stand over their opponents?

Is it not simply the case that there is a paucity of quality fighters around that weight zone?

 

Kovalev with those old gloves and conditions would be lethal. Imagine him setting about Tyson Fury or wilder with 5oz gloves!!!

Of course Fury and wilder would be as lethal with those gloves too (it goes without saying) but they have to nail down a faster guy who could get off first. the faster lighter man gets more chance to make an impression earlier under those conditions than he would today.

 

Not all of them. Do you think Mike Perez at 6'1" would be more than 200lb before the colour TV era?

If you get big men to train like small men using traditional diet and old theory training everyone is lighter and depending more on skill and pace.

If you introduce modern methods everyone apparently depends on size and power. Now who does that favour? The big man or the smaller men of the division?

 

That's true but you can pin point the target cleaner directing it through smaller gaps. The instrument impacting on the target is harder. Wet horse hair is as hard as sand. There is less between the bone. Precision is improved. Skin is torn. Jaws, temple, heart and kidneys can be hit cleaner and faster.

 

The problem with the smaller glove arguments, and the neutral corner arguments, is that whatever difference they make cuts both ways.

If they made it easier for the smaller men to KO the bigger men, they also had to take punches from much bigger men wearing the same gloves.

If they got to stand over the bigger men when they were down, the bigger men also got to do the same with them.

 

I think Tony was an exception to the rule of his time. An extremely rough character who used his weight well at a time when most concentrated on speed and skill. Perhaps he could have been bigger today?

I accept that's the way the sport has evolved but could this be because of the conditions? If it is then yes. Of course boxing is right to decide this. Power and size, explosive spurts, interval training etc must be the way to go.

size and power seems more important than before within divisions. Look at how the lighter guys want to be as big for the weight as possible. Where did all the 5'7" middleweights go?

bigger men yes. Giant men absolutely. Giants used to be handicapped and now they are not. Perhaps old style training did not suit giants so well, it proberbly did not best suit their assets. I am not saying old style methods are better but I am saying they probably suited some better than others. Less tailored to the individual perhaps? Some Modern training methods must get the most out if a giants size compared to years ago.

I agree. That is how things stand now. The conditions today get more out of bigger men than ever before.

 

But that is where pace and tempo used to come into it. Of course the bigger man will be absolutely lethal if he can land and get set to deliver against a quicker smaller moving target. Wilder will find it easier to hit Kovalev but who is the bigger target? I'm not saying it's going to be easy for Kovalev because he has small gloves but it us certainly EASIER than it would be for him with big gloves.