who started the era of the overblown heavyweights

[BrocktonBlockbuster49]

u look at the heavies now and most of them are overweight and out of shape and would be better of fighting at 30lbs less.

- but in the past there never used to be overweight heavies, who let there weight fluctuate way to high.

who started this trend??? was it the early 80s alpha champs????

i heard some people say it was muhammad ali because in the late 70s he came in at high 220s for his fights compared to his peak 210lb weight.

[The Great John L]

u look at the heavies now and most of them are overweight and out of shape and would be better of fighting at 30lbs less.

- but in the past there never used to be overweight heavies, who let there weight fluctuate way to high.

who started this trend??? was it the early 80s alpha champs????

i heard some people say it was muhammad ali because in the late 70s he came in at high 220s for his fights compared to his peak 210lb weight.

There have always been overweight HW's all the way back to Ed Dunkhorst. How about Meehan, Galento and Cockell? The difference is that there are more of them now than in the past, so your question is still valid. I think it's just a change in US society of the past 40 years. We are a nation of overweight people, and we admire size. Sometimes we are even blind to the fact that the size is simply fat.

[tagjohnson]

Depends on which particular type of lardbucket you are talking about. Greg Page was very, very, talented and unfortunately knew it. So he would show up out shape and depend on talent as opposed to talent and hard work. Tim Witherspoon would fit this mold. The other answer would be Leroy Jones, he was was basically a fat slob who strung together enough w's to get a title shot where he got his butt beat. A large portion of Mike Tyson's victims uh opponents go in this category.

[probert24]

If you look at who the really big (hefty) heavies are in the Boxrec top 25 almost all of them are not Americans.

Wladimir Klitschko
Vitali Klitschko
Samuel Peter
Kirk Johnson
Matt Skelton
Danny Williams
Nicolay Valuev
David Tua
---
Jameel McCline
Lance Whitaker
Tye Fields

And not to be a smartass but the largest champ ever was an Italian.

[BrocktonBlockbuster49]

yeah well it wasnt cockells fault john L buti get ur pooint. cockell had the glandular problem that made his weight baloon up to 220lb but he was actually in good shape.

[kick asner]

Buster Mathis comes to mind as far as a fighter being a prototype to the modern day heavyweight. However he possesed surprising speed and agilty for a big man.

I think that the modern day overblown heavyweight is just a sign of the times. All athletes in all sports are bigger with golf being one possible exception.

[bollox]

Nobody in particular. The culprits were the explosion of purses and cocaine

[kick asner]

Cocaine is an unfortunate aspect of sports. Money I would say is not nessesarily a negative. You will always have some people who are unable to handle it, but anytime you are able to make top dollar in your field that is what you strive for. It also gives a fighter a chance to quit the sport with his health still intact. Plus I think it's good to see the athletes reaping some of the rewards rather than see it all go to excecutives and promoters.

[funso banjo baby]

If you look at who the really big (hefty) heavies are in the Boxrec top 25 almost all of them are not Americans.

Wladimir Klitschko
Vitali Klitschko
Samuel Peter
Kirk Johnson
Matt Skelton
Danny Williams
Nicolay Valuev
David Tua
---
Jameel McCline
Lance Whitaker
Tye Fields

And not to be a smartass but the largest champ ever was an Italian.

well the italians are lovers not fighters....but the era of fat heavies wasting their talent started in the eighties with Kings freaks such as Page, Tubbs, witherspoon, yanks

[overhand_right]

But that was all because of Don King, not the fighters themselves. They were trapped.

Why work your arse off for no money?

Buster Mathis was probably the first. He was best at 250. He trimmed down to 220 for one fight & nearly got beat. After that he stayed heavy. It suited him better & he had skills & stamina regardless of how fat he was.

[Roco]

The work rate for modern heavyweights is extremely low, so they can get away with being fat and are still able to be competative.

[JDC]

It's not a prototype. It's just lazy bastards who earn too much money before they've had any success (just look at the difference between the Solis who won the Olympics and the one who fought Vitali). They lack the belief and desire required to get to the top. Consider the size and condition of Tyson and Lewis once they'd retired. Other idiots walk around like this in their prime, with little or no success.

Queue up, weight in, cashout, f#ck off.