Will there ever be another small Heavyweight Champ?

The thing is, the prevailing attitude is 'bigger is better' so a natural 200 pounder is either going to cut weight to be a cruiser or he is going to artificially put on 30 pounds by bulking up with increased food intake and weights. Or not training that hard to make weight.
Nobody wants to come in that light anymore. Guys like Herbie Hide and Holyfield were among the last (as far as I am aware) who did not want to weigh more than 210 or so. Even Holy eventually added some more muscle to get north of that figure.
It's very tough building an entire career around being smaller and weaker in a division where size and strength are prized assets.

So we won't see it because nobody wants to come in that light anymore. The most obvious and compelling reason is that that fighter is always fighting an uphill battle
against naturally bigger men, some of whom naturally are 6 inches or more taller and have 30 to 50 pounds on him.

You might see a short guy being successful again; after all a short heavy can still be 220+ pounds naturally but the day of the natural 200 pounder who dominates is clearly over.

I think it's a bit of a pity because it's creating a vacuum of skill.

 

Oh sorry one other thing ...we don't need another division. I would hate to see a super heavyweight division. It will create more problems than it solves, imo.

 

That would exclude one guy from the past

 

Just eliminate the cruiser division and even it up.

 

No that would be much worse.
Then folks who are smaller than HW but too big for LHW will suffer. Especially when folks have gotten ******, that would be very bad.
When even small HWs ae nearly extinct, removing a division that covers many lbs. AND tons of folks naturally fight at is very bad for the sport & showcasing men ae, common, natural sizes.

 

The irony is that the Cruiserweight division delivers what most actually miss about the older heavyweight eras, which is more active fights with more well rounded displays of skill between 195-210 pounders.

Sure, it might not have the romanticism of being the unlimited weight class, but if it's really those qualities in the fights you want, it's perfect. Most of people's favorite historical heavyweight fights would've been Cruiserweight matches. It doesn't make the fights any worse.

Getting rid of CW eliminates those entertaining fights, although it would make the Heavyweight division look significantly deeper because the top Cruiserweights would be top 10, top 15 caliber. Perhaps rebranding it as the "classic heavyweight" division would give it some more cache.

 

Can there be one? Yes, but that fighter is going to need to be a big time puncher, durable, and have an attacking type of style, with some defense.

Personally I think the days of heavyweight champions under 210 pound are over.

Fans of short attacking heavyweight should check out M. Nistor from Romania. He’s less than 6 feet tall for sure. Nistor is the 3rd super heavyweight to quality for the Olympics. Nistor can punch ( Stopped Joshua in the amateurs ) is gritty, loves to mix it, and has a grade a chin. Decent punch variety too, he’s the only man to win a round vs. Usyk in 2013.

 

If we're talking about the Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson variety of small then probably never.

 

200 to 225 light heavyweight/ 225 plus Heavyweight..problem solved!


200 to 225 Heavyweight 225 plus Super heavyweight..problem solved

either one would make perfect sense!190/200 well they need to create a new division or make that a cruiserweight,since Cruiserweight seems to confuse ppl in between LHW and HW!

 

Do you really want 4 more belts, and stupid " catch weight " fights?

Most cruiser’s who walk around at 212 can make 200.

 

The fights would be more even regarless..it makes no sense for a 215 pounder to struggle against 230 plus monsters.worst case scenario make 190 to 220 HW..and just add the super HW at 220 plus..destroy the cruiserweight division as its not as important in making realistic Hw fights.there are many 220 pound athletic guys who would be good fighting 220 pound guys not 250 pound ones.

The average Hw is now over 230 I think that should tell the boxing commission something.

 

we had former mw byrd recently stopping superheavy vitali.

 

Yeah Chris totally outboxed, outclassed, humiliated and beat the livin sht out of Vitali. It wasn't even a match.. Vitali got hit in the arm and quit like a geek who got bullied on the play ground.. All this nonsense about torn rotater cuffs is just drivel... Hail to the almighty Chris Byrd.

 

HerolGee,

This is like saying a former cruiser weight ( Ali ) Stopped George Foreman! List the weight of the fighters when they fought. Ali by the way was a light heavy in the Olympics by the way.

90+% of Byrd’s career was at heavyweight. By the way Byrd was 210 ¾ for Vitali, which is more than Ali was for Sonny Liston.

I don’t think you’re dim witted like Dino, but if you keep this up I’ll be more than happy to sharpen my verbal judo skills by tossing statements like this out the window.

Do you think George Foreman was Ko'd by a cruiser weight? Say yes, and you're digging a deeper hole. Say no and you're using a double standard.

My guess is you won't say anything:deal

 

And Cruiserweight Holyfield stopping Iron Mike Tyson, funny old game boxing isn't it....