Boxing over the years has been littered with fighters that have changed weight at some point in their careers with mixed success. Manny Pacquio is a prime example of this he is a 5 weight world champion and he has been able to maintain his hand speed, power and quickness, as he moved up the weights. However there has been a number of fighters who have moved up in weight and they may have won a world title at the new weight but there rarely the same fighter if they decide to come back down to their original weight. You will often see a fighter looking tired and slow once they’ve moved back down. For an example of this look at Ricky Hatton he moved up from light welterweight to welterweight in 2006 to take on Luis Collazo for the world title, and Hatton won that fight but then when he moved back down to welterweight to face Juan Urango in 2007 although again he won the fight he looked slower and his punch power and resistance wasn’t what it was. I believe this was due to the strain that going up and down in weight had put on his body.
I’m not saying that a fighter can’t go up and down in weight successfully as Nathan Cleverly has proved. When he lost his light heavyweight title he decided to move up to cruiserweight, but then after he lost to Tony Bellew in their rematch he made the decision to move back down to light heavyweight and is a world champion again and looking something like his best.
Sometimes fighters move up in weight because they are struggling to made weight as was the case with Tony Bellew during his fight with Adonis Stevenson in 2014 you could see that he was tight at the weight and his punch power and resistance just wasn’t there. So after the fight he moved up to cruiserweight and his career as gone from strength to strength, he also looks healthier and seems to be punching harder. I’m just not sure he can keep that power at heavyweight and what toll is his body going to take if he comes back down to cruiserweight.
A lot of the time a fighter will move up in weight because they want that big money fight this was the case with David Haye ok he won the world title but he is not a natural heavyweight and the last time he fought a heavyweight in their prime he lost.
I’m not saying that moving up or down in weight is necessarily a good or a bad thing to do it’s just a gamble that can make or break a fighter’s career.
Please comment below and let me know what you think