Size In Boxing: Why A Middleweight Will Always Be A Middleweight

There are two kinds of fighters who move up in weight.

The first is a man with a frame naturally larger than the amount of weight it is carrying. Thomas Hearns is the best example of this, but Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, and other fall into this category. Hearns had the body of a middleweight, but as a tall and lanky kid he was able to fight very well at welterweight. While he eventually did start to have trouble making weight, for the early part of his career he claimed to walk the street at 150 lbs. Such a fighter is forced to move up in weight as he matures as a man, because as men get older they put on weight. Eventually that frame fills out and it becomes difficult-to-impossible to make the original weight, and continuing to do so can have a negative effect on a fighter's performance. Thomas Hearns' struggles to make weight in the last part of his welter career had negative effects on his stamina that can be seen in Hearns-Leonard I. Such a fighter is not a 'natural middleweight', he's a 'natural light heavyweight' or a 'natural super middleweight' and he's fighting below his best weight either because he hasn't grown into his body or because he seeks an advantage in fighting against naturally smaller men. In former days of the same day weigh in, this advantage was mainly one of reach and strength and the belief that one had more speed at the lower weight but, in today's era of the day before weigh in, it has become a significant strength and power advantage for those able to gain a lot of weight between the weigh in and the fight. This is why dehydration has become such a danger among boxers, they starve themselves of fluids to cut their weight and then rapidly rehydrate to gain weight after the weigh in.

The second kind of fighter who moves up in weight is a guy who packs more weight onto his naturally smaller frame in order to fight bigger men. There are many examples of this: Roberto Duran, Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones, and Shane Mosely all come immediately to mind. Jones was a middleweight who packed a few more pounds on to fight James Toney and eventually a lot more pounds on to fight at light heavyweight and even heavyweight. Because of his immense athletic talents, he was able to do very well in all these weight classes despite being a naturally smaller man. However, eventually it caught up with him and he was knocked out by a naturally much bigger man, Antonio Tarver. Roberto Duran, after being possibly the best lightweight of all time, had very mixed results at higher weights. Alexis Arguello (who falls into both categories, actually), a natural lightweight, was great at featherweight, 130, and lightweight, but received two awful beatings at welterweight.

This why size becomes part of discussions about fights in which one of the fighters have come up in weight. Sometimes size is a very important part of the discussion. While Jones won because of other talents, there is no question that, to use an example, Virgil Hill was a much bigger man than Jones at light heavyweight. The size difference could be seen, no one could believe these two men were both light heavyweights. Technically they weren't. Hill was a natural light heavy, Jones was a natural middleweight.

No matter how far up in weight class you go, you'll always be your 'natural' size. It's just a question of the pounds your body carries. With a few exceptions (of which Jones is the most notable) most guys who pack on extra pounds to fight above their natural size are either not successful or have mixed results. With those exceptions in mind, most men who go up in weight and have success are not naturally members of the weight class in which they begin their careers. Oscar De La Hoya has fought from 130 lbs to 160 lbs, he's probably a natural welterweight. At 160, it was easy to see his size disadvantage against Bernard Hopkins (who was a big man at middleweight, a natural light heavy) and the results showed the difference. Ditto Felix Trinidad against Hopkins, Winky Wright, and more recently against Jones.

There's a reason that Marvelous Marvin Hagler never went up in weight looking for a title in another weight class, despite the criticism some modern day experts send his way for the 'lack.' He was a middleweight and he knew it.

A middleweight will always be a middleweight.