DAVID ISAACSON | Does size really count in boxing?

If you want to know how big the heavyweights of the world have got over the past 40 years or so, consider the following.

Kevin Lerena on Saturday fights for the interim World Boxing Council (WBC) bridgerweight title, a fairly new weight class between cruiserweight and heavyweight, with the limit set at 101.605kg, or 224 pounds if you’re American.

In the good ol’ days of boxing, there used to be just eight weight divisions, with the two biggest being heavyweight, followed by light-heavyweight, where the limit was 79.4kg.

So in 1979 the cruiserweight division was established by the WBC at 86.2kg, though it has since been pushed up to 90.7kg, about 200 pounds.

But recently the WBC decided it needed yet another intervention, which means that the sanctioning body now offers 18 different weight divisions.

This isn’t the first time a category between cruiserweight and heavyweight has been established.

In 1997 Lerena’s trainer, Peter Smith, fought for the super-cruiserweight belt created by the marginal Britain-based body, the World Boxing Union.

For that bout Smith drained himself before weighing in at 93.5kg. John McClain, the ex-husband of Laila Ali, tipped the scales at 87.7kg and won on a first-round stoppage.

So nearly 10kg separates the top end of what is effectively the same division.

Sure, men are getting bigger, but are they getting better? 

Smith’s father Kosie fought for the world light-heavyweight title, coming close to pulling off a shock win when he clocked Victor Galindez in the fourth round of their battle in 1976.

It’s not common for father and son to challenge for world titles, and ironically both lost.

Kosie, who had lost on points over 15 rounds, possessed a tough attitude to both the ring and life. He once knocked out Mike Schutte, a South African heavyweight champion, in sparring. He was comprehensively outclassed in a 10-round gym sparring war by stablemate Pierre Fourie, arguably the country’s greatest light-heavyweight of all time.

Kosie was ringside for Peter’s challenge at the Carousel’s Cheyenne Saloon, and he offered his son little empathy.

I bumped into Kosie soon afterwards and tried to offer consolation by pointing out that the great Jack Dempsey had been stopped in the first round of a fight before becoming world champion.

“But Peter isn’t Jack Dempsey,” Kosie replied.

Light-heavyweights traditionally struggled to make the transition to heavyweight and Kosie never tried.

Billy Conn was 11.6kg in the red when he was outboxing Joe Louis in 1941, before getting nailed in the 13th round.

Fourie ended his career taking on Gerrie Coetzee for the South African heavyweight crown in 1977. Outweighed 84.4kg to 95.3kg, he was knocked out in the first.

The first light-heavyweight champion to dethrone a world heavyweight king was Michael Spinks, who was 9.9kg lighter when he outboxed ageing Larry Holmes over 15 rounds in 1985.

Spinks’s 4.5kg advantage over Mike Tyson counted for nothing as he was blown away in 91 seconds in 1988.

Tyson, at 100.7kg, was no match for Evander Holyfield, a former cruiserweight champion who weighed 97.5kg.

Corrie Sanders was almost 8kg lighter when he blew away Wladimir Klitschko in 2003.

Weight certainly won’t be an issue for Lerena at bridgerweight, though it will be a factor if he returns to heavyweight, as he’s planning to do.

Yet sometimes weight has not always been an issue. In 1935 Joe Louis demolished Primo Carnera, the former world heavyweight champion who was heavier by 29.3kg. 

And Dempsey was 26.3kg lighter when he dethroned Jess Willard in four vicious rounds in 1919.

But before anyone says the old-timers were tougher, let’s see what happens when Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship, set to take place in Saudi Arabia in February next year.

Fury weighed 123.4kg in his last outing, while Usyk, like Holyfield a former cruiserweight champion, was 100.2kg.

Dempsey and Louis would have laughed off the gap, but let’s see if Usyk can emulate them.

Or will Fury show that size really does count?