BoxRec

Now that both Roy Jones and James Toney have been able to jump from middle weight to heavyweight, who has made the most weight gain from their pro debut?

Has anyone gone from light weight to Cruiserweight? Or welter to Heavyweight?

Basically, who has gained the most weight over their career?

The great Ted 'kid' Lewis started as a Pro around the Flyweight limit I believe but don't have the precise weights. Lewis of course won many titles including the World Welterweight Title. He also challanged Georges Carpentier for the European Light Heavyweight Title.

I'm almost certaio Georges Carpentier also started his career around the Fly/Featherweight divisions. Georges Carpentier as we all know challanged Jack Dempsey for the World Heavyweight Title.

I forgot Len Harvey who won various British and Commonwealth Titles at Welterweight, Middlewight, Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight.

Now thats a fighter.

zojo, wrote:Now that both Roy Jones and James Toney have been able to jump from middle weight to heavyweight, who has made the most weight gain from their pro debut?

Has anyone gone from light weight to Cruiserweight? Or welter to Heavyweight?

Basically, who has gained the most weight over their career?

Check out Paul Poirier.

Brockton Super Lightweight of the early 1970's, stablemate of Marvin Hagler, came back in the 90's and fought Larry Homes at Heavyweight

KOJOE90 wrote:I forgot Len Harvey who won various British and Commonwealth Titles at Welterweight, Middlewight, Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight.

Now thats a fighter.

And he started off as a flyweight!

Young Stribling started his career as a bantam or feather I believe and ended up at Heavyweight.

Young George Dixon a journeyman boxer out of Portland during the 20's and 30's, began as a Bantamweight in 1924, was up to Middleweight by 1927, and finally fought a comeback bout as a Heavyweight in 1938.

Stuff like that was fairly common in those days, due to the fact that many boxers started fighting professionally when they were 14-15 years old.

tegenm wrote:Stuff like that was fairly common in those days, due to the fact that many boxers started fighting professionally when they were 14-15 years old.

Do you think another factor was diet. I'm thinking that as Boxers have almost always come from the poorer sections of society that when they started Boxing they were undernurished. Then as they started getting regular extra money from fighting they put on weight as they could afford to eat better.

Just a thought.

..carpentier and others mentioned here fought in all of the existing divisions at the time...flyweight to heavy. wouldn't it be interesting if a fighter did that today...with all those half-steps from one division to another? heck...a junior flyweight or whatever those guys are called up to bantam ...can do it with just a few heavy meals. accomplishing all eight in their careers i find much more impressive....and harder to fathom...then the phoney five "titles" in that many divisions that the candy ass ray leonard has...especially when you throw in the alphabet sanctioning bodies where a fighter has so many "titles" to go after.

Nothing profound in my comments here...just got to thinking how a thread like this illustrates how much boxing has changed over the years.

It is my belief that more pre-1920s fighters put on alot more weight during their respective careers as they became older. This was due to the fact that fighters were boxing in the professional ranks at an earlier age before 1920. After all, a fighter starting at fifteen or sixteen is still growing for the most part.

- Chuck Johnston

Chuck1052 wrote:It is my belief that more pre-1920s fighters put on alot more weight during their respective careers as they became older. This was due to the fact that fighters were boxing in the professional ranks at an earlier age before 1920. After all, a fighter starting at fifteen or sixteen is still growing for the most part.

- Chuck Johnston

Very true, and in Britain the trend continued right through the 1920s. With no official organisation in place to see to the wellfare of fighters, talented teenaged boxers were pushed into fighting professionally years before they had reached physical maturity. If they showed real promise, they would also face the strains of staying within the same weight class, at an age when they would be growing constantly. This led to the ruin of some truly great prospects, my Grandfather being one: http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=103423

..with amateur boxing..and especially the olympics...now being the training ground for young fighters...more than the prelims are.....it might be interesting to include them in a boxers history if weight gain. tommy hearns would be an example to cite here....i don't know what weight he fought at as amateur (someone here will know)...but he went all the way to light heavy as a pro.

does any one else have any other examples?

Jaclem wrote: tommy hearns would be an example to cite here....i don't know what weight he fought at as amateur (someone here will know)...but he went all the way to light heavy as a pro.

Hearns fought at Lightweight. I have his fight against Aaron Pryor on tape. Hearns was very much the Boxer in those days.

Guillermo Jones, welter to cruiser at a high level