Time Tunnel: The Bigger They Are: Super-Sized Heavyweights Then and Now

by B. R. Bearden

23.10 - It is pointed out again and again how much bigger the heavyweights are now days. The top men seem larger than the top men of bygone eras, giving the appearance of an age when the smaller great champions of the past would be better suited to cruiser weight or even light heavyweight. But appearances more often than not are deceiving.

Yes, we do have a legitimate 6'5" heavyweight champion in Lennox Lewis. He is skilled and he has beat the best they've put against him; if not always the first time around, then at least on the rematch. There is also an equally legit top contender in 6'6" Wladmir Klitschko, who is also skilled and so far has passed all but one challenge. At no other era of the division have both champion and top contender been so large and at least on the surface it might seem logical to assume it's a situation that would close out the past champions.

But, a study of the past shows that there have always been such large men in the heavyweight division. That they seldom make it into the top two positions might be attributed to the fact that there were better, smaller heavyweights around to dethrone them handily, if not outright defeat them before they ever attained such status. Also, bigger men tend to be slower and more easily fatigued. But is there evidence that even today's top two heavyweights might not fare well against really good, but smaller fighters? The fans of Tyson, at 5' 11", will tell you that had Tyson and Lewis fought when Tyson was in his prime, the outcome would have been different. Even if the outcome had not changed, it would have been a much more competitive contest and Lennox Lewis would have known he was in a fight. Others point out that had he a punch, Chris Byrd would have done better against Klitschko.

Looking at Lewis's record, one can see that he's fought men as large as himself and done well against them. Michael Grant is 6' 6 ½", Akenwande 6' 6", Tony Tucker 6'5", Tyrell Biggs 6'5", Calvin Jones 6'6". He's also fought men much smaller, Lionel Butler 5' 11", Tyosn 5' 11", Tua 5'11" and Ossie Ocasio 5' 11 ½".

If this were the era of the super-size heavyweight and smaller men of the past need not apply, then that would be apparent in the way Lennox Lewis has more easily dealt with the small men than with the larger. However, such is not the case. Butler at 5'11" was TKO'd in the 5th round, 6' 6 ½" Micahel Grant didn't last one. Tua at 5' 11" went the full 12, while Golota at 6' 41/2" didn't survive the first. A much past prime and passive version of 5' 11" Mike Tyson took 8 to KO while 6'5" Derek Williams was out in 3. Even against Ossie Ocasio, 5' 11 ½", Lennox had to use the full 8 rounds even though Glenn McCrory at 6' 4 ½" was KO'd in 2 a little over a year later. Of course, some of the big men lasted longer, such as 6'5" Tony Tucker who was around for the end of the 12th, but it still appears Lennox has more trouble taking care of the small men, even when he has 5-6" on them. And this is not a knock on his ability, for he is a good fighter.

In Lennox Lewis's only loses, KO losses at that, it has been smaller men, Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall, both 6'2 ½", who turned the trick. And against 6' 2 ½" Evander Holyfield he has looked less than impressive. This is significant in a discussion of the merits of the heavyweight champions of the past verses the best of the pro-wrestler size super-heavyweights, because many of the great heavyweight champions were very close to the size of Rahman, McCall, and Holyfield. And, they fought and beat men of the size of Lennox Lewis. In fact, across the board, they beat them with ease.

To those who say this is a new era of super-heavyweights and the smaller men of legend would need to find other means of employment besides the heavyweight division today, I would point out that if the best super heavyweight so far has been Lennox Lewis, and I believe it has been, then the greats of another time should hold on a second before filling out their unemployment forms.

Lewis's nemesis can be profiled as someone with power at around 6'2" or someone with great skill and decent power at even less. Who fits in that range? At 6'2"to 6' 3" we would find James Jeffries, Max Baer, Jimmy Braddock, Ali, Foreman, Norton, and Holmes. At 6'1" we bring out Jim Corbett, Jack Johnson, Dempsey, Schmelling, Louis, and Liston. At the very short 5' 11" of Tyson, Tua, Butler, and Ocasio we could put in Rocky Marciano, Patterson, and Frazier. I challenge anyone who calls himself a true fan of the sport and its history to declare that these men wouldn't have done as well or better than the men of similar size Lewis has fought. And remember that in the case of McCall and Rahman, better isn't necessary; just do as good.

What of Klitschko? A look at his opponent list shows a much less impressive array of names than that of Lewis. He's only fought a couple of real "names" and except for Chris Byrd those name fighters have been pretty shop-worn. He has fought and KO'd or TKO'd a lot of very big men, but looking at those giants, a pattern emerges. They are big but they have low knockout percentages, an indication of both lack of power and poor technique. In other words, not really good fighters. For example, he TKO'd 6' 5" David Bostice, but Bostice has had only 13 KOs in 35 fights. Paea Wofgramm is 6' 5" with 14 KOs in 28 fights. Carlos Monroe at 6' 6" has 7 KOs in 18 fights, while Joseph Chaingangu, 6' 4", has 14 KOs in 27 bouts. By comparison, light hitting Chris Byrd at 6' 2" has 20 KOs in 37 fights. Power-wise, Byrd is a harder hitter apparently than the much bigger men Klitschko has fought. Of course, in Byrd's case it's speed and technique that wears down his opponents and leads to knockouts and not a single punch.

There have always been big men in the heavyweight division and the All-Time greats fought them with success. Jack Johnson fought a whole string of very big "great white hopes" before finally losing to 6' 6 ¼" Jess Willard. And Johnson was much past his prime.

Jack Dempsey fought Firpo at 6' 2 ½", Willard at 6' 6 ¼", Fred Fulton 6' 4 ½", and Carl Morris at 6' 4". Of them all, the smallest, Firpo, is the only one who gave him any trouble. The fact is, Dempsey preferred the bigger men, finding them slower and easier to hit. And lest someone cry that Lewis is better than any of the Manassa Mauler's big opponents, I must painfully point out that Lennox was knocked out twice by single punches from smaller men. On the other hand, Lennox-sized Jess Willard suffered a jaw broken in seven places, a smashed nose, knocked out front teeth, cracked cheek bone, and broken ribs before his seconds threw in the towel. Any one of the punches that did that damage must have been equal or greater than the single KO punches of McCall and Rahman, just based on damage inflicted.

A study of some records show that during Dempsey's era there were many fighters campaigning who were over 6' tall. In fact, just as today, most of the heavyweights were over 6'. Here's a partial list, with weights where I could find them:

Of men Dempsey fought:

Luis Angel Firpo 6' 2 ½" 215-230 pounds
Bill Brennen 6' 1"
Jess Willard 6' 6 1/4" 245 pounds
Ed "Gunboat" Smith 6' 2"
Carl Morris 6' 4" 220 pounds
Fred Fulton 6' 4 ½" 220 pounds
Bob Devere 6 ½"
Arthur Pelkey 6' 1 ½"
Gene Tunney 6' 1"
Jack Sharkey 6' 205 pounds

Fighters active during the era that Dempsey didn't fight, but Tunney, Harry Wills,
or one of the other top fighters did:

Harry Wills 6' 4" 220 pounds
George Godfrey 6' 3" 220-260 pounds
Floyd Johnson 6' 1"
Al Reich 6' 2 ½" 215 pounds (fought Firpo)
Denver Ed Martin 6' 3 ½" (fought Jack Johnson & Harry Wills)
Tom Cowler 6' 1 ½" 83 ½" reach
Martin Burke 6' 3"
George "Boer" Rodel 6' 1" (fought Willard)
Dan Daily 6' 6" (fought Willard)
Luther McCarty 6' 4" 80" reach (fought Willard)
Jack Renault 6' 1"
Bob Martin 6' 2"
Al Kubiak 6' 1 ½"
Al Kaufmann 6' 1"
Bombardier Billy Wells 6' 3"

That's 26 men (counting Dempsey) active during his era who fought often enough to have substantial records listed. Most of them had 25-75 fights and all of them fought at least one Hall of Fame fighter, putting them easily in the ranks of the most active heavyweights today. Of the 26, only one, Jack Sharkey, wasn't over 6' tall. Of course there were shorter men fighting, too, just as today, but that there were 26 men of that time this tall who fought Hall of Fame fighters and champions should be equable with today's listings of heavyweights who have fought name opponents.

Averaging out the height of the 26 men, it comes to 74.5" tall or 6' 2 1/2". And that's circa 1920!

Now, let's put up the current Top Ten list:

Lewis 6' 5" 84" reach
Vladimir Klitschko 6' 6" 81"reach
Tyson 5' 11 ½" reach 71" reach
Byrd 6'2" reach 73" reach
Rahman 6' 2 ½" 82" reach
Kirk Johnson 6' 2 ½" 81" reach
Holyfield 6' 2" 77 ½" reach
John Ruiz 6' 2 ½" 77 ½" reach
Jameel McCline 6' 6" 81 ½" reach
Frez Oquendo 6' 2" 80" reach
David Tua 5' 10" 69 ½ reach

This gives us a 74.5" tall average for the Top Ten of today. That means 26 of the main heavyweights fighting in 1920 were exactly the same height on average as the Top Ten heavyweights of today. I didn't skew this by picking men who were big but never really fought. Every one of these men had a large number of bouts and fought Hall of Fame fighters and/or champions. In the watered down, multi-divisional arena of today, that should equal most of the guys who are ranked somewhere in someone's Top Ten listing. That's not tosay those 26 would be Top Ten fighters today, but the possibility is that at least a couple of them would make it.

The first giant-sized heavyweight to hold the title was Jess Willard, who everyone must know dethroned Jack Johnson. Willard was 6'6, 245 pounds, and almost died from the beating 6' 1" Jack Dempsey handed him. Willard was a real fighter, and he did defeat Johnson, though the latter was past his prime. Modern writers will dismiss Willard as unequal in any way but size toLennox Lewis, but his defeat of Johnson was more of a contest than Lewis's pounding of a comatose Mike Tyson. Would Willard have fared as well against the other men Lewis has faced? Maybe not, but on the other hand, would Lewis have lasted as long against the bone breaking punches of Dempsey as Jess did? And before someone chimes in that Dempsey wouldn't have landed those punches on Lennox, I must point out that Lewis is very hitable. Even a sedated Mike Tyson landed a few shots.

The only other real giant-sized champion was Primo Carnera, 6' 6" and 260 pounds. He's hardly credible as many of his fights were fixed, but in losing his title to Max Baer he showed he didn't lack for courage. He was knocked down 11 times in 11 rounds before relinquishing the crown.

But during the era of Carnera and immediately after there were some other really big men. Buddy Baer stood 6' 6" and 245 pounds and in 1941 he knocked Joe Louis down in the first round. He lost on a DQ in the 7th. The next year Louis knocked him out in the first round.

Abe Simon was another big man at 6' 4" and 260 pounds. In 1940 he knocked out future heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the 6th round. But he lost twice to Joe Louis, a 13th round TKO in 1941 and a 6th round knockout the next year.

Jorge Brescia, 6' 4 ½" and 220 also challenged the smaller Brown Bomber and was knocked out by Louis in 3 rounds in 1936. During that same era, there were two Argentine brothers, Vittorio and Valentine Campolo who stood 6'6 ½" and 6'5" respectively. Both weighed in the 230-240 range. Vittorio fought some top fighters, including Hall of Fame light heavy champion Tommy Loughran, who at 5' 11" was still too much for the towering fighter to handle.

There were also 6' 4" Arthur DeKuh of Italy, 6' 4" Knute Hansen of Denmark, 6' 9" Jose Santa of Portugal. And topping them all was 7' 300 pound Ben Moroz. DeKuh fought future heavyweight champions Jack Sharkey and Max Baer, heavy contender Young Stribling, and 5' 7" middleweight Mickey Walker. He lost to all of them. There's also something of a pattern here, as many of these men came from Europe or South America, just as do many of the big men we see listed on the resumes of Lewis and Klitschko. Of course, they're European fighters themselves, so it would be logical they fight men in their region of the world, but it also seems that one of the pre-requisites for heavyweights in Europe has always been "BIG".

There were others in the 6' 3"- 6' 6" range who were not Europeon, such as Jack Trammell (6' 3"), Roy Ace Clark (6' 5 ½"), Clayton Worlds (6'3"), and Elza Thompson (6'3"), in roughly this same time frame, the reign of Joe Louis. None of them impressed enough beyond size to fight for the heavyweight crown but they did fight some of the top contenders and future champions of the day. It's reasonable to assume that with all the sanctioning bodies today, some of these men might find themselves gracing somebody's Top Ten list. As mentioned above, several of the giants were ranked high enough to challenge Joe Louis, so we can assume they would qualify to challenge Klitschko or Lewis today.

At 6' 7 ½" 255 pounds Ray Impellitiere came out of New York to awe opponents with his size if not is skill. He was nicknamed the "Skyscrapper" for good reason, but was toppled by Bob Pastor, a 5' 11 ½", 185 pound Top Ten contender. Pastor also KO'd in 1 round 6'5" Chuck Crowell and out pointed 6' 2" Roscoe Toles. While Pastor could handle the big men, he was beaten by light heavyweight Billy Conn and twice by Joe Louis. Just as Dempsey asserted, Pastor found the big men slow and easy to hit.

In the 1948 there was Jim Cully, a 275 pound, 7'2" giant out of Ireland who came to America, fought twice, winning one and being KO'd, and vanished from the boxing scene. Hank Thurman, 6' 5", fought throughout the 1950s and lost to 6' 1" Rex Layne and 6' 1" Zora Folley. Layne would be KO'd by Rocky Marciano and Folley would lose to Liston and Ali. George Parmentier, 6' 6", ambled around in the '50s also and was KO'd in 3 by light heavyweight champion Archie Moore who stood 5' 11". Like many of the giants who proceeded them, they weren't good enough to earn fights with the champions of the era, Louis, Walcott, Charles, and Marciano because they lost first to the heavyweight contenders.

Rocky Marciano at 5'10 ½" did fight 6' 5" Pat Connolly, 6' 5" Johnny Shkor, and 6' 4" Carmine Vingo. Connolly didn't last a round while Shkor was able to survive until the 6th before being KO'd. Vingo was almost killed by Marciano, spent days in a coma, and was never able to fight again.

In the July, 1954 issue of The Ring they said, "The era from 1928 to 1944 saw more oversized fighters active than at any other time in boxing history. It was truly the 'Era of Heavy Giants'." In other words, there were so many super-sized heavyweights around during those two decades that Ring called it a giant era, just as some people are calling today.

In the 1960s and 70s there were some big men around, and many point to the reign of Sonny Liston as the beginning of the age of the big heavyweights. Considering Liston was 6'1" and his best fighting weight was around 215, the evidence of the men I've listed before him hardly makes him a really big man. Ali at 6' 3' and prime weight of 215 was impressive enough but again, hardly a giant. He did fight big men after his best years were behind him, such as 6' 3" Foreman, Joe Bugner at 6' 4", Norton at 6' 3", and 6' 6" Ernie Terrell, but he had more trouble closer to prime with two 5' 11" fighters, Joe Frazier and Oscar Bonavena. Just as Lennox Lewis, it was the guys 4" shorter who bothered Ali.

In the past decade or so, we've seen 5' 11" Mike Tyson destroy some big men, including at 6'5" Andrew Golota and Tyrell Biggs, and at 6' 3" Frank Bruno and Tony Tubbs. He was so far over the hill against Lennox Lewis that Tyson hardly counts as the same fighter and we can only speculate on how the fight would have gone a dozen years ago. Evander Holyfield, who is often referred to as a blown-up cruiserweight, has done well against bigger men, also.

There is therefore much evidence that the best heavyweights of the past would do well against the super-sized fighters today, just as they did against such men in their own era. Look again at the 6'5" men Klitschko has beaten, their low knockout rates, and then look up the same size men that Dempsey, Johnson, Louis, and Marciano beat and you will see those current super-heavyweights are no better now than they've ever been. For example, Abe Simon, the 6'4" fighter who was KO'd twice by Joe Louis, had a record of 38-10-1 with 28 KOs, a knockout percentage as good or better than the big men beaten by Klitschko.

Lennox Lewis and Klitschko aren't the heralds of a new era of giant heavyweights as much as they are exceptions to a century old rule; the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Sources:
Boxrec.com
The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame
Ring magazines circa 1949-1956
Post Boxing Record, Sports Annual 1936