Lightheavies that became Heavyweights

Robinson · Post by **Robinson** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:24

Hey all

Would you guys be able to list of some 'obscure' and even some more famous LHWs that tried there bit at the big man division.

Guys like Carpentier, Charles, Foster, Loughran, Moore, Moorer, Conn,
Maxim and Michael Spinks etc.

Thanks again guys. Do you have a favourite and would you be able to tell me about them. Just doing a bit of research at the moment is all.

Thanks again.

kym

Evander · Post by **Evander** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:25

Roy Jones Jr

MEISINGER · Post by **MEISINGER** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:36

chris byrd
james toney
eddie mustapha muhamad
dwight qwawi

Robinson · Post by **Robinson** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:37

What was Eddie Mustafa Mohammed like as a HW ?

Ill look up his stats later. Did he transistion well ?

MEISINGER · Post by **MEISINGER** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:46

Robinson wrote:What was Eddie Mustafa Mohammed like as a HW ?

Ill look up his stats later. Did he transistion well ?

no he sucked.he lost to renaldo snipes and came back down to lightheavy.

MEISINGER · Post by **MEISINGER** » 17 Sep 2007, 22:53

john henry lewis.he had his last fight of his career at heavyweight
when he challenged joe louis for the title.
not a smart move on john's part

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 17 Sep 2007, 23:00

Mickey Walker
The Toy Bulldog was an all time great.
Welter, Middle,he also fought at lhw and hw.

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 18 Sep 2007, 01:02

meisinger.....john henry lewis was through...eye problems. he challenged louis strictly for one final purse, and louis took the fight with that in mind. rather than subject lewis to a longer battering, louis went right to kayo him, which he did in the first round. the reports i've read of the fight all indicate that lewis never really got started....didn't seem to know where to move, and he was often described as a boxer who had "wings on his feet." i have a clip of that fight, but it just just the kayo....not the fighters coming out of their corners so i haven't seen that part of it.

joey maxim, though small for a heavyweight, actually reversed the process....rated as a top ten heavyweight before he dropped down to light heavy to challnege for and win the title.

decagon's list is complete, as far as i can recall. i think joe frazier is the only heavyweight champion who was ALWAYS a heavyweight as an olympic boxer to win that title and then turn pro.

by that i mean the first...then the bigger guys won at that weight in both the olympics and the pros....georgre foreman is one on my mind as i write this.

there are others whose pro career was officially light heavy but who often fought heavyweights, without ever challenging for that title. harold johnson is an example.....he beat rated heavyweights. there are a lot of boxing folk who think he would have beaten floyd patterson, or at least would have made a better opponent than some patterson fought. cus d'amato is one rumored to be in this latter camp.

I Feel Fine · Post by **I Feel Fine** » 18 Sep 2007, 01:52

Braddock, Ellis, Holyfield started out professionaly as Light Heavyweights, and Braddock fought for the Light Heavyweight title. There's a lot of examples you could name.

barry · Post by **barry** » 18 Sep 2007, 02:07

The turn of the century and light heavyweights of the teens who were also top notch heavyweights as well: Kid McCoy, Bob Fitzsimmons, Peter Maher, "Philadelphia" Jack O'Brien, Battling Levinsky, Jeff Clark, Sam Langford, "Fireman" Jim Flynn, Kid Norfolk, Tommy Gibbons, Billy Miske and Gunboat Smith to name several, but there are still many more that I haven't named.

The 1920s and 1930s seen a lot of light heavyweights fight successfully at heavyweight: Al Gainer, Tony Shucco, "Tiger" Jack Fox, "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom, Harry Greb, Len Harvey, Martin Burke, Tuffy Griffith, James J. Braddock, Mickey Walker, Jimmy Slattery, Jack Delaney, Young Stribling, Lee Ramage, Melio Bettina and several more.

Also during this era there were a little lesser light heavyweights than those above who were often successful against heavyweights. Guys like Tony Cancela, George Manley, Charley Belanger, Battling Bozo, Dick Daniels, Frankie Wine, Babe Hunt, Natie Brown, Billy Jones and Rosy Rosales were but a few of this level of fighter...there were many, many others as well!

A couple of later light heavyweights who competed successfully at heavyweight: Bob Satterfield, Harry Matthews, Jimmy Bivins, Tami Mauriello, Doug Jones, Danny Nardico, Dave Whitlock, Dolph Quijano, Dan Bucceroni, Nick Barone and Don Cockell are a few!

That should be a pretty good list to search through!

markl · Post by **markl** » 18 Sep 2007, 04:30

nevermind

Ambling Alp · Post by **Ambling Alp** » 18 Sep 2007, 09:05

A couple more that don't bleieve anyone mentioned are Gus Lesnevich and Willie Pastrano. Gregorio Peralta was also a lightheavyweight early in his career.

Martin Sosa Cameron · Post by **Martin Sosa Cameron** » 18 Sep 2007, 09:17

-

Tommy Loghran

Billy Conn

Martin Sosa Cameron · Post by **Martin Sosa Cameron** » 18 Sep 2007, 10:09

Adolf Heuser
Isidoro Gastañaga
Battling Siki
Miguel Ángel Páez
Len Harvey
Gus Lesnevich
Joey Maxim
Archie Moore
Vicente Rondón
Gustave Roth
Max Schmeling
Mario Melo
Don Cockell
Doug Jones
Bob Satterfield
Dan Bucceroni
Bruce Woodcock

dempseyfire · Post by **dempseyfire** » 18 Sep 2007, 10:11

Loughran and Charles were light HWs who had the skill and ring savvy to have great success against some very good Heavyweights.

Holyfield and Schmeling were light HWs in their early 20s who moreso "filled out" up to being natural small HWs by their mid 20s (190ish) while Holyfield added more lbs "artificially".

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 18 Sep 2007, 14:34

...well...after i wrote "decagon's list is complete" i was to lazy to go bacj and correct it, so i covered my ass by adding, "as far as i can tell" and then stuck on "there are others." i guess i'm too influenced by the politicians way of speaking during this season.

as for frazier, i meant he was the first olympic champion....and by that i meant GOLD medal...who was always a heavyweight.... and went on to win the undisputed professional heavyweight title. (no wbo "title holders")

..and the bigger guys came later. such as foreman, whom decagon left off of my quote.

anyway, thanks to all for adding to the list of light heavies who fought heavyweights. i thought the thread meant those who stepped up to the heavies in their "official" ratings....and not just the smaller guys who fought heavies while still considered as light heavies. but...there were as lot of guys i missed when i referred (while hedging my statement) that decagon's list was "complete".