Size In Boxing III: The Myth of the Super-Heavyweight

During the 1990s there was a rising theory among many boxing writers, fans, and television commentators that the heavyweight division had crossed some line of demarcation into an era unlike any other. Lennox Lewis, Michael Grant, and the Klitschko brothers created the impression among many that the kinds of fighters competing in the heavyweight division was going to change drastically: tall, quick, muscular multi-talented athletes were going to replace the typical heavyweight fighter of the past. In addition to the success of Lewis, the Klitschko brothers, and the pre-Lennox Lewis Grant, this impression was helped along by the rising weight of the average heavyweight fighter. By first couple years of the 21st century this theory was solidly implanted into the mind of the boxing public by Lennox Lewis's dominant wins over Mike Tyson and David Tua and it has been an accepted factoid ever since.

'A factoid is a spurious (unverified, incorrect, or invented) "fact" intended to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion. It appears in the Oxford English Dictionary as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", namely a speculation or an assumption. The term was coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. Mailer described a factoid as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper", and created the word by combining the word fact and the ending -oid to mean "like a fact".'

Dictionary.com

The first 'super-heavyweight' to win the heavyweight championship of the world was Jess Williard in 1915. He weighed 238 1/2 lbs for the fight and stood 6'6 1/2". Though he was considered less talented than Jack Johnson, the man he beat, he won by virtue of size, strength, and physical conditioning. He wore Johnson down over 26 grueling rounds, despite being outboxed in 25 of them, and knocked Johnson out. Everyone knows Willard's story after that; or rather, everyone knows that he was a footnote in the stories of Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey. The 6'1 Jack Dempsey destroyed Willard by absolutely brutal 3 round TKO. Willard was down seven times in the first round alone.

A drought in big heavyweights followed. Most people in boxing thought that big heavyweights were too awkward and uncoordinated to be any good, and no big men emerged to counter that thought. Primo Carnera was the next 'super-heavyweight' of prominence, and he was viewed as a joke whose fights were fixed and who never learned how to punch properly. He won his big fights by physically mauling smaller men, who gave up when injured. Light-heavyweight great Tommy Loughran lost to Carnera because of a broken foot, Carnera won his title fight with Jack Sharkey when Sharkey broke at least one (and possibly both) hands trying to hit Carnera in the body. Carnera, of course, was destroyed in his most famous fights by much smaller men: Max Baer knocked him out to take his world championship and Joe Louis beat him into hamburger in the fight that established Louis as a great contender. Carnera's resemblances to modern day fighters Audley Harrison and Nicolai Valuev are hard to ignore. He was a highly protected fighter of limited talent built for big paydays, who under-performed his hype regularly and folded against quality opposition.

Louis, Carnera's conqueror, fought quite a few bigger men in addition to Carnera. Buddy Baer and Abe Simon were also as big as today's super-heavyweights, and Louis did to them as he did to Carnera. From the Louis era on, 'super-heavyweights' have been the occasional presence but rarely a huge success.

The seeming dominance of bigger men in the 1990s was based primarily on two things: 1.) Lennox Lewis, by recovering from his loss to McCall and becoming a complete fighter, proved that a big man could learn to be a good boxer and 2.) the weights of heavyweights had been rising across the board in the 80s and 90s.

When one closely examines number two, however, one finds it's not because modern heavyweights are bigger, more powerful, and more athletic. It's because of two factors: the rise of weight lifting in boxing training and the decline of classical boxing training methods at heavyweight. In the 80s, many talented heavyweights simply didn't put the time in on the road and with the jump rope. An increasing number of bloated, out-of-shape heavyweight fighters appeared on the scene and this trend has never completely stopped. Worse, the belief that size matters more than anything has led to fighters whose best weights would be in the 200-230 range coming in from 230-250 in order to prove they are 'big enough.'

Most serious heavyweight have ranged from 6' to 6'3 and weighed from 190 - 230. The former hasn't really changed. Particularly small fighers (Tommy Burns and Mickey Walker in the past, James Toney more recently) have made their appearance. So have particularly big fighters. They aren't new. Look at the top ten fighters at The Ring's updated rankings on the internet, at heavyweight. There are precisely four 'super-heavyweights' on that list: Vladimir Klitschko (1), Nicolai Valuev (4), Vladimir Virchis (8), and Tony Thompson (9). One of these four, Nicolai Valuev, has already been exposed once, is likely to be exposed again when the protection is lowered for the big money once more, and is only on the list because he's held an alphabet title and won a pretty bad decision over John Ruiz. Thompson's sole loss is to a much smaller man, Erik Kirkland. Virchis' sole loss is also to a smaller man, #3 contender in the world Ruslan Chagaev, who stands 6'1. Vladimir Klitschko is the best fighter in the world and I don't believe anyone else on the top ten can beat him on his best night: but he has lost three times and one of those losses was to 6'2 Lamon Brewster. Valuev's sole loss, like Virchis', was to Chagaev.

Clearly, even in this age of modern 'super-heavyweights', smaller men can beat bigger men and size isn't enough to dominate the division. The other six contenders on the list are:

2.) Sam Peter - 6'0 1/2
3.) Ruslan Chagaev - 6'1
5.) Alexander Povetkin - 6'2
6.) Sultan Ibragimov - 6'2
7.) Oleg Maskaev - 6'3
10.) John Ruiz - 6'2

As noted above, Chagaev has beaten two much bigger men who are both on this list: Virchis and Valuev.

But, you say, Sam Peter is huge! It's not just about height!

Sam Peter's best fighting weight is just under 230. He weighs in at such monstrous weights because he doesn't work hard in the gym. He doesn't run, he doesn't jump rope. His atrocious stamina has been on display a couple of times: when he was totally outboxed by James Toney and when he was unable to generate serious offense against Vladimir Klitschko for more than a punch at a time. He knocked Klitschko down three times with big shots, but was totally outboxed in every other round and for much of the time in the rounds he scored knockdowns. He's not a big heavyweight. He's slightly larger than a prime Tyson, naturally, and if he had sense he'd train hard and come in slightly larger than a prime Tyson.

So even in this 'modern era of big heavyweights', the majority of the top heavyweights aren't that big. The top heavyweight in the world is a big man and there are three other highly ranked big men, but the second and third heavyweights in the world aren't even 6'2! Ruslan Chagaev, who does have good training habits, comes into the ring under 230 more often than not and has never reached 240, let alone topped it.

So the argument for this 'new era of modern super-heavyweights' comes down to Lennox Lewis (an all time great), the Klitschko brothers (a couple of good, if inconsistent, fighters), and a few guys here and there who have spells as contenders. Most of the guys at the top are around the same size they've always been, packing more pounds because of either weight-lifting, bad training, or both. Give Joe Louis some weights and a nutrition plan and he'd come in at 220 if that's what his corner thought best. And he'd do to Nicolai Valuev what he did to Primo Carnera. The argument in favor of the super-heavyweight is shaky at best.