By Fred De La Riva

29.09 - "The bigger they are, the harder they fall", somebody much smarter than me once said. In the modern heavyweight division though, that saying should be revised to read, "The bigger they are, the bigger they are!" Their reach is much greater, they carry a lot more weight and lately it seems, they are not running out of gas a fast as they used to. It's not uncommon anymore to see a match between two fighters that stand 6'5' and above.

The new crop of heavyweights is by far the biggest and most athletic the sport has ever seen. Now I'm not saying they are necessarily better than the fighters of yesteryear, I'm just saying that these men are behemoths. Take into consideration one of boxing's first heavyweight superstars, John L. Sullivan. At the height of his career, he stood only 5'10 ½" and weighed 185 pounds. By today's standards, the "Boston Strong Boy" as he was known, would be small even for a cruiserweight. In comparison, UkranianVitali Klitschko would tower over him by nearly a foot and would have a close to 70 lbs weight advantage. Now I'm not saying Sullivan would lose. He was one tough hombre, since part of his career was fought during the last days of the bare knuckled era, but you'd have to admit that the deck would be stacked against him.

The sport's first prototype in terms of size to the modern heavyweight was Primo Carnera. This Italian giant towered over his contemporaries as he stood at 6'6" and tipped the scales at over 260 lbs. In a match against Tommy Loughran, Carnera had a weight advantage of 86 lbs! Carnera was a crude fighter with very little skill. He wasn't a powerful puncher per se, but managed to KO Jack Sharkey for the heavyweight title on June 29th, 1933. Carnera holds the dubious honor of being called one of the worst heavyweight champions of all time. His nickname "The Ambling Alp" says it all.

As the years went by, the average heavyweight was not much taller than 6'2' and weighed in at roughly 220 lbs. Occasionally, you did see a very big man step into the ring, but the smaller men ruled the division. Then in the 70's, men such as Ernie Shavers, Ernie Terrell, Ron Lyle and ring legend "Big" George Foreman came into prominence. These men were not giants, by today's standards, but they sure packed a lot more weight and these men could fight.

The 80's had Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson as the decade's most talented champions and their prime weights rarely went over 220, but as the 80's drew to close, new fighters, such as Riddick Bowe, Lennox, Lewis, Razor Ruddock and Ray Mercer, routinely fought at weights of 230 or more. A new dawn was coming in the heavyweight division and along with it came a lot of beef.

I can still hear Lou Duva holler in ecstasy as James "Buster" Douglas weighed in at 246 in his fight vs Evander Holyfield. Today, champion Lennox Lewis routinely weighs in at 245 and looks very good in doing so. The sport's elite are not the lumbering giants of years past. They are well conditioned and have physiques that most men would kill for. But one thing is becoming fairly common. We are seeing more and more heavyweight matches, where one combatant outweighs his opponent by 20 or more pounds. We would not stand for this at the lower weights, but at the heavyweight level not a peep is heard from boxing's fan base or its governing organizations.

In my opinion a new super heavyweight division should be created. I can understand the arguments I am sure to hear from boxing's purists, but the safety of fighters is first and foremost. The super heavyweight limit can begin at 235 lbs. Let people such as the Klitschko brothers, Jameel McCline, Michael Grant and Lennox Lewis fight it out at the super heavyweight division, and leave men who weigh between 191 to 234 duke it out in the classic heavyweight division. The amateurs have already done it and I haven't seen it hurt the amateur ranks much. I would rather see Jeremy Williams, John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield and even Mike Tyson face each other than see another mis-match take place.

Now I'll be the first to say it. I hate the heavyweight division. I think they are slow, lumbering and just plain boring, but fair is fair and right is right and there is no sense of seeing a man go into a fight with a major disadvantage from the get go.

You may contact the writer at reevee@earthlink.net