Does anyone still think the old time heavyweights were too small to be competitive in the modern era?

[BKM-]

Lol this would make sense until you realize the current heavyweight champion Usyk weighed 175 pounds until his 20's and 199 pounds until his early 30's. Also since the 1970's there have been tons of 6'5 plus inch heavyweights. In the 1990's when I was a kid growing up you would frequently see 6'6 250 pound plus heavyweights and nobody was impressed by their size or act like their size was shocking. None of these guys became champions either.

This is another way you can tell that most people who pretend to be boxing fans pretty much get their information from YouTube channels.

Right well Lennox Lewis became the dominant lineal champ who cleaned out the division by the late 90s-early 00s, and then passed the torch to two Russian giants who dominated the HW's for over a decade next, who were then taken over by the next generation of Fury, Joshua, Wilder etc. It's really only now that Usyk has taken over and as much as he deserves credit, Furyy in particular is significantly past his prime and Usyk may be a generational talent.

So while I believe your story of witnessing giant HW's who never amounted to anything, we're gonna have to stick with the reality of very large HW's making up most of the elites since the 90s and yes their size along with skills had a lot to do with that.

Now yes a lot of these big guys don't amount to anything but it's a top heavy group. Let me explain, having a lot of size can either be massive advantage if used right or the opposite if used wrong. Most athletes that size are clumsy, then those who aren't gets weeded out if they can't take a punch, and the ones with the most potential usually go to the 2 lucrative sports like basketball and football. Hell Wilder was a basketball player too but ended up with a killer instinct to launch nukes from the other side of the ring with his frame.

[ShoulderRoll]

Bring back 15-round title fights and I bet you would see giants dominating even less.

[The D3vil]

It was always nonsense, for the most part.

Fact is, all of those guys would be bigger if they fought today because of PEDs.

Usyk himself was naturally a middleweight, who lost to Shawn Porter in the amateurs.

50 years ago, he'd be a light-heavyweight or something.

Joe Louis would be like 225 today.

[Bundana]

It was always nonsense, for the most part.

Fact is, all of those guys would be bigger if they fought today because of PEDs.

Usyk himself was naturally a middleweight, who lost to Shawn Porter in the amateurs.

50 years ago, he'd be a light-heavyweight or something.

Joe Louis would be like 225 today.

If we want to discuss a fantasy match between Usyk and Louis, do we picture in our minds a 175 lbs Usyk, as he would have been in Louis' day - against a 225 Louis from today? Or do we try to imagine, what would happen in a fight between the two, as they both were in their own time?

[IronDanHamza]

It was always nonsense, for the most part.

Fact is, all of those guys would be bigger if they fought today because of PEDs.

Usyk himself was naturally a middleweight, who lost to Shawn Porter in the amateurs.

50 years ago, he'd be a light-heavyweight or something.

Joe Louis would be like 225 today.

How do you come to the conclusion he was a “natural Middleweight” when by age 21 he was already competing and winning titles at Heavyweight?

[Bronson66]

if we want to discuss a fantasy match between usyk and louis, do we picture in our minds a 175 lbs usyk, as he would have been in louis' day - against a 225 louis from today? Or do we try to imagine, what would happen in a fight between the two, as they both were in their own time?

I always match fighters as they actually were.

[Bundana]

i always match fighters as they actually were.

Which of course is the only sensible thing to do!

[Bronson66]

Marciano at 187 was the product of extreme hard work and discipline. In retirement he was over 255 lbs and was never actually āfat?like someone today.

when people say he is 187 and too small I laugh at this notion because his light weight is a product of his training.

who in any world is 240 lbs while running 12-15 miles in boots every morning, on top of a whole days work of training. Itās like saying the 237 lb version of Ali that fought Shavers has a chance against Fury but the 210 lb version in his prime is simply too small.

Marcianos last 4 rounds in a 15 rounder involved him throwing over 100-120 punches a round. In the heavyweight division this is brutal to crank the pace like this in the late rounds. Nothing can overcome this but conditioning alone.

I just donāt understand how he gets written off for his weight but everything else he does getās thrown at the wayside.

regardless of the Louis age, if he is 218 and Marciano is 184 - Marciano is giving up so much weight he shouldnāt be big enough to beat Louis let alone outgun him with relative easy. Louis was the one who stated himself that Marciano was as strong as a bull.

IF Marciano was throwing just 100 punches a round, let alone120 that would be 1,500 over 15 rounds, or1,200 over 12 rounds as the two below did

• Ibeabuchi landed 332 of 975 punches, and Tua landed 282 of 755 punches. They combined to throw 1,730 punches, which set the record for punches thrown in a heavyweight fight. Ibeabuchi also set the individual record for punches thrown by a heavyweight, which was broken .

Ibeabuchi was235lbs Tua 226lbs

Just like stories of Marciano running15 miles every day it's BS!

And Marciano was fat in retirement,that is a fact.

[BKM-]

It was always nonsense, for the most part.

Fact is, all of those guys would be bigger if they fought today because of PEDs.

Usyk himself was naturally a middleweight, who lost to Shawn Porter in the amateurs.

50 years ago, he'd be a light-heavyweight or something.

Joe Louis would be like 225 today.

See, again. Making a fantasy version of these old fighters giving them new attributes to make it "fair". It's very childish and irrelevant. If you're gonna match up past fighters against present then take them for what they were. There is no prime "225lb Joe Louis" he didn't exist. And he sure as hell wouldn't be the same fighter he was if you start messing with attributes and history,

[BKM-]

IF Marciano was throwing just 100 punches a round, let alone120 that would be 1,500 over 15 rounds, or1,200 over 12 rounds as the two below did

• Ibeabuchi landed 332 of 975 punches, and Tua landed 282 of 755 punches. They combined to throw 1,730 punches, which set the record for punches thrown in a heavyweight fight. Ibeabuchi also set the individual record for punches thrown by a heavyweight, which was broken .

Ibeabuchi was235lbs Tua 226lbs

Just like stories of Marciano running15 miles every day it's BS!

And Marciano was fat in retirement,that is a fact.

I love that. pretending that a 255 pound Rocky wasn't a morbidly obese middle aged man. You can just tell the kid got wide eyed excited when he read that and the 255 number stuck with him and gave him hope.