Quote:
Originally posted by Cap
You have a wonderful sense of humour, kid. The plodding, overpaid, doped up bags of suet that masquerade as heavyweight contenders today wouldn't last thirty seconds with the single-minded, quick-fisted, razor sharp battlers of the last century. A left hook to the chin is still a left hook to the chin, boyo. Only thing is those guys knew how to throw one, and it was generally preceded by a jab and a thudding right hand. If the fighters of today throw two punches together, it generally wears the clumsy sods out.
Thanks for the chuckle.
Cap
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How dare to you refer to such awesome physical specimens as Brian Nielsen as "bags of suet"!
Pretty funny Cap.
But really, both you and Pretecf make good points. Since there is no weight limit on heavyweights, a talented fighter who is in good shape at 195 can eat lots of junk food and come in at 250, though he won't fight very well. Nielsen is a good example. Lots of today's fighters are in that category.
However, the same 195 pound fighter can, through weight training and a good diet, transform himself into a great 220 pounder (for example, Holyfield) if he is sufficiently dedicated. There is an incentive to do that, as a fit 220 pounder will beat a fit 195 pounder of equal talent most of the time. That type of thing regularly takes place today but just didn't happen until the late 1970's.
I'm convinced that a 190 pound Marciano could beat the stuffing out of 250 pound suet bag Brian Nielsen, but he'd have a very tough time against super-fit Wlad Klitchko.
This situation doesn't hold for fighters in lighter divisions though. If a 135 pound lightweight chooses to train hard and gains 15 pounds of muscle, he'll be stronger, but he'll also have to fight welterweights. So there's no real advantage for him to do that. Look at Fernando Vargas. He built himself up from lightweight to welterweight (using steriods, as do lots of fighters). He's stronger now than he was but he's now facing fighters like De La Hoya, Mayorga, Forrest and Mosley, so he's not as overpowering as he used to be.