Floyd and Pac have done well skipping the whole process at welter; and the most dominant fighters of the 'last' era, Hopkins and Jones, had long, dominant reigns coming in close to contracted weight, too. Is there anything to that? Just an observation, somebody talk to me.
Sometimes I just feel like I'm in a field of oversized buttercups but the flowers keep growing until they dim the light and now the stems are so long I'm tangled up in them and can't breath.
I honestly don't have much to add I'd say the domination of Floyd and Pacquaio has as much to do with them being really good at fighting and their opponents not being really good at fighting as anything else
Are you sure about your two examples, Hopkins and Jones? Pretty sure I've heard Jones talk about gaining 15 lbs after weigh ins, but maybe he was referring to his middleweight days. I guess we've heard how Hopkins always stayed around weight, but I don't know if I've ever seen his day of weights. Regardless, gaining a lot of weight after weighing in is an advantage for most fighters. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it. The contrarian view on this issue is very unlikely to be true for most fighters. You read about Jack Dempsey working out the morning of a fight...then you had fighters who didn't cut weight...now look at the sport...it's evolution. Fighters are unlikely to do things that don't benefit them, at least things like gaining weight after weigh ins.
This is the main thing. Difference in skill means more than difference in size, therefore Floyd and Hopkins have been able to beat their bigger opponents. Of course there is a limit where functional weight advantage becomes too big and fight between guys with comparable skills becomes lopsided (Gatti - Gamache). If rehydrating was harmful to fighters, I'd suppose it wouldn't be done as I am pretty sure people in Soviet Union and DDR studied these mattes Another thing, especially with Pacquiao is that competing against heavier guys gave him advantage he didn't have as much in the lower classes (speed, workrate) and thus in some cases a fighter can be better when he fights in higher division than his "natural size" (I hate the term) would be
i think one of the lesser discussed aspects of boxing is the functional gay advantage held by wald pussy over his foes
Well it is like Nikolai Valuev's height advantage over his foes: it is so obvious there is nothing to discuss
Could it be that the buttercups represent deep rooted submissive tendencies and the flowers representing big dildos ?
How long is a piece of string? Joe Louis had a functional weight advantage over Billy Conn. For something to have a functional advantage, it must perform a function. Functions, by implication then, would be advantageous. A really fat guy who can't move would have a dysfunctional weight advantage , or in simple terms, a weight disadvantage.
Jones was coming in at 185ish for his LHW fights, Hopkins close to 170 by the end of his MW reign. Not ridiculous weight gains compared to some, but not quite the same as Floyd/Pac. Floyd & Pac are just better than everyone else, if Floyd boiled down to 135 he'd be even more of a force. He doesn't have to, so he doesn't.
Yeah, I meant Jones at light heavyweight. I think he fought relatively close to contract weight there, through most of his reign. maybe the odd 5lb gain. Ditto Hops.
Sorry, I meant boiling down to contract weight then filling back out by a huge amount, like Alvarez for instance. I know I've asked a vague, pointless question with no possible unqualified answer, I was mainly just fishing for someone with an opinion or insight on the question. So, the take home of this fantastic thread is 'Hut isn't completely sold that weight cutting and rehydrating is all that effective'. Now it's on the record.
It depends on the individual I suppose. Gatti got away with it. Matthew Saad Muhammad got away with it. For a certain period of time. It counts for very little though when the other fighter is grossly more skilled than the "heavier" guy.
