By Gav Duthie: It seems to be a continuing trend that when a boxer loses a fight he isn’t supposed to, weight issues are often given as the the excuse. Ex 2 division world champion Ricky Burns is the latest to make a strategic move up to 140 lbs as he tries to rebuild his career.
Burns joins fellow Brits Nathan Cleverly and Tony Bellew who made the big leap from light heavyweight to cruiserweight as well as Alfredo Angulo to 154 from 147 and Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr to 160 from 154.
What makes a fighter successfully move through the divisions? The question is with these fighters in particular is whether the move is the correct one? Are they past their best? Or were they not good enough to begin with?
(Speed and ring IQ) versus (Strength and power)
Generally fighters who have good hand speed, clever boxing skills and a high ring IQ travel through the divisions better than aggressive sluggers. In Mexico for example despite boasting some of the greatest boxers of all time they only have three fighters (Juan Marquez, Jorge Arce and Erik Morales) who have won titles in four weight categories. Stereotypically Mexicans are rugged, aggressive fighters with a high work-rate, good body punching and are very strong. These kind of attributes don’t carry well through the divisions as the higher you go the stronger the opponents are and with a better punch resistance meaning your knockout ratio goes down. If you look at some sluggers from other parts of the world like Roberto Duran, Ricky Hatton and current fighter Brandon Rios they looked invincible but then sometimes struggled in higher weight classes.
Intelligent multi-weight world champion fighters like Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La hoya rely on their boxing ability. Floyd hasn’t knocked anyone out since Victor Ortiz and even that was controversial but he can use his speed and footwork to his advantage. Adrien Broner made the mistake thinking he could move up two divisions but found against Maidana that his lack of footwork and inferior strength was his downfall as he couldn’t bully his opponents like he did at lightweight.
It takes a special fighter to carry their skills against bigger opponents so how will these 5 do. Is a jump in weight genuinely the right move, can they become world champions or is this just a desperate last throw of the dice.
Ricky Burns
Burns is a WBO world champion at both super featherweight and lightweight. It seems moving up again to light-welterweight is a desperate move for the Scot. Ricky only has 11 knockouts from his 35 wins so is unlikely to have power at 140lbs. One of his main benefits in the lower divisions were his height @ 5″9 and a 70″ reach that was generally longer than his opponents. His high workrate seems to be faltering based on his last fight with Zlaticanin. If he is to fight compatriot Scott Harrison at 140 this does nothing for him as he has never fought there either. I cannot see Burns gaining another world title with champions like Garcia and Peterson.
Cleverly and Bellew
The original bickering married couple comedy act. The only accomplishments these two will achieve at Cruiserweight will be to have a ‘fatter’ rematch against each other. Basically these two thought Kovalev, Stevenson and Hopkins are too good at light heavyweight so lets avoid them. I actually thought Cleverly might try to get down to 168 after is defeat but he followed the Liverpudlian upstairs. Bellew looks out of shape at cruiser. They are both good to a certain level and I would enjoy a rematch but I can’t see either fighter beating a Marco Huck or Yoan Pablo Hernandez and to be honest I think British born Ola Afolabi would also probably beat both fighters.
Alfredo Angulo
After getting busted up by Canelo the team lead by Virgil Hunter are moving up and Angulo says he is ready to take on the middleweight division. I doubt he has any chance as his loss to Canelo and others is due to a lack of defence and tendency to be out-boxed. Of course he could go for a winnable title against the victor of maybe Soliman-Taylor and would have a chance but in general I reckon hes more likely to get out-boxed and less likely to knock opponents out at 160. A fight with Cotto for December could be interesting as the Puerto Rican waits for the winner of Golovkin-Rubio and Cotto doesn’t seem to fancy fighting genuine middleweights but Angulo doesn’t win that for me either.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr
It has been some time since Chavez predominantly one sided defeat to Sergio Martinez. The Mexican was laterally banned for 6 months for substance abuse and upon his return decided he wanted to fight at 168lbs. For some reason he chose to fight Brian Vera who is also a 160lb fighter and in their first fight Chavez was closer to light heavyweight than super middleweight. His win was highly controversial but has since won a rematch. Negotiations are ongoing for a fight between the Mexican and Carl Froch. For me moving up in weight is an excuse for Chavez to train less and I don’t think his power will carry against the likes of Froch. If he continues to fight lazy then he is better going after Arthur Abraham than Froch as there is no way he can beat the Cobra at present.
Summary
In conclusion I don’t really see any of these 5 making serious dents in higher weight classes. Im here to be proven wrong but I really feel all five are making the wrong decision. I don’t see any of them have the prerequisite skills to outbox, outpoint or knock out bigger and stronger fighters at a higher weight class but we will wait and see.
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