As I watched Vitali Klitschko systemically pound Tomasz Adamek into submission on Saturday evening, I came to the conclusion that boxing needs to strongly consider creating a Super Heavyweight Division. Adamek, like many of the other averaged sized heavyweights, are not necessarily losing these fights because they are bad boxers, but instead because they are fighting guys that are on average nearly 4-6 inches taller and nearly 30-50 pounds heavier than them. Because of the drastic size and weight advantages, the fights are somewhat reminiscent of the movie Rocky 4, when Rocky has to fight Ivan Drago. Remember, many of the classic heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Joe Louis weighed right around what Adamek weighed for his fight against Vitali on Saturday.
Vitali and his brother Wladimir have been reigning over the heavyweight division for the past few years, along with their fellow giant eastern European friend Nikolai Valuev until he was dethroned by David Haye back in 2010. When you think of Valuev, think Andre The Giant minus the beer belly. He is 7 feet tall and weighs around 320 pounds. A guy I used to know that boxed at the same gym as me who was a professional heavyweight, named Otis Tisdale, flew to Germany a few years ago and fought him. I've stood beside Otis and he is a pretty big and strong man. He's not huge, but he is a large man by normal standards. He is a genuine heavyweight boxer, and he looked like a school child in there against Valuev.
I'm not saying that these heavyweight giants can't be beat by the smaller heavyweights, because they all can and have been beat, but I am saying they have a huge advantage by being that much larger. It's one thing to be a giant boxer who gets in the ring, but is sort of clumsy, awkward, and out of shape with not much boxing skill. That is not the case anymore. These guys are big, fast for their size, very strong, very fit, and on top of that, actually do have a lot of boxing skills.
I think it may be asking too much of these smaller men to have to fight guys that much larger than themselves. It's not impossible, but maybe it's not fair either. Case and point, when we talk about the smaller boxing weight classes, we make a big deal about a fighter who is a pound or two larger than another fighter. For example, in 2009, when Floyd Mayweather faced Juan Manuel Marquez, he weighed in at 146 pounds. Marquez weighed in at 144. At the time of the fight, we can assume maybe Floyd gained a few pounds. He tends to weigh around 148 or so on fight night. After Floyd manhandled Marquez, all of Floyd's critics started screaming, "Foul!" They said Floyd was too large for the man who was considered the #2 Pound For Pound boxer in the world.
I'll admit Floyd was slightly larger, but let's have a look at the math. Let's say If Mayweather were two pounds bigger than the 144-pound version of Marquez and weighed 146 pounds. Then that means he would have been roughly 1.4% larger by weight. If he were 10 pounds heavier and weighed 154, then he would have been roughly 6.9% larger by weight. A lot of people in boxing were jumping up and down over this. They acted like Floyd was some sort of bully, and said he should fight guys his own size (Off subject, but in truth, Marquez could have been 20 pounds larger and could have had a baseball bat and still probably would have lost to Floyd, who is a boxing savant. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it wasn't a close fight at all).
Now let's look at the Adamek/Klitschko fight. Adamek was 6'3" and weighed in at 216 pounds. Vitali Klitschko was 6'7 1/2" and he weighed in at 243 pounds, which means Klitschko was 4.5 inches taller, 27 pounds heavier, and 12.5% larger by weight.
You tell me, does that sound fair? That would have been like if Juan Manuel Marquez weighed 144 fighting a version of Floyd Mayweather who weighed 162 pounds. That's an 18 pound weight advantage. These numbers do show the drastic size advantage, but in some cases, the larger men have carried even larger height and weight advantages than the example I have given, like when Nikolai Valuev fought David Haye and had a whopping 9" height advantage, 99-pound weight advantage, and a roughly 46% weight advantage over his opponent, who was forced to run and jump to squeak by with a decision win.
As they say, pictures say a thousand words, so why don't you take a minute, go to Google and do a few image searches on the weigh-ins of these giants' fights. You can easily see they are head and shoulders above much of their opposition. I'm not saying these guys are not great champions, or that they should not be held in high esteem; I'm simply saying they may have too big of a size and weight advantage and it's part of what may be killing the excitement in the heavyweight division.
I think boxing needs to at least consider creating a Super Heavyweight Division for these skilled giants. Let the giants fight the giants, not the mere heavyweight mortals.