GOING BIG
T he transition for those who step up from light heavyweight (175-pound limit) to cruiserweight (200) is the biggest in boxing: 25 pounds or 14% of the original weight. No other jump from one division to the next exceeds 5% of the original. So is that move a particularly difficult one? Well, history says not necessarily. A number of top 175-pounders have transitioned to 200 with great success. That includes big-name champions like Virgil Hill, Tomasz Adamek, Tony Bellew and Gilberto Ramirez, all of whom won titles at the higher weight. And Ramirez is set to defend his unified titles on May 2 against David Benavidez, who will be fighting as a cruiserweight for the first time. “It was very easy,” Adamek told The Ring when asked whether it was difficult to transition from 175 to 200. “I weighed around 197, 198 pounds. It was my natural weight.” The cruiserweight division was born in 1979, when the WBC decided it made sense to create a division between light
Dawson fight, Adamek said, “I felt great. I was quick, strong. I hit my sparring partner and dropped him. I was 192, 193 pounds three and a half weeks before the fight. Then, by the time of the weigh-in, I was very weak. I didn’t have power. “God said, ‘It’s time to move to cruiserweight.’” The questions raised when a fighter – even an elite one – makes that transition are obvious: Will they lose quickness as a result of the added weight? Will their punching power be diminished at the higher weight? Will they have enough punch resistance against bigger, stronger men to have success? The answers to those questions for Adamek (53-6, 31 KOs) were no, no and yes. The fact that the New Jersey-based Pole no longer had to deprive himself of nourishment made him feel stronger than he felt at 175. “The worst thing is you can’t drink water,” he said of his days at 175. And he said one clear advantage he had over his 200-pound opponents was
his quickness, which helped him both offensively and defensively. One certainly can’t argue with his success at the weight: He went 7-0 (5 KOs) at 200 – including a split decision over the respected Steve Cunningham to win the IBF belt in 2008 – before moving up to bigger-money fights in the heavyweight division. “Everybody is scared to go up [in weight],” Adamek said. “‘The guys are stronger. They can knock you out.’ It’s not really true. Yes, 200-pounders are stronger, but they’re slower. They’re not as quick as light heavyweights. Even if you don’t have a good chin – and I had a good chin, like a metal chin – it’s difficult to hit you cleanly. “The only times I lost in my career was when I didn’t feel quick.” Of course, good matchmaking also helps with the transition.
cruiserweight initially, going 8-0 (6 KOs). That included a third-round knockout of Ilunga Makabu to win the vacant WBC belt in 2016 and a successful defense against BJ Flores later that year. He moved up to heavyweight after the Flores fight, taking down former titleholder David Haye twice (at 213½ and 210¼). He then moved back down to cruiserweight for the final fight of his career, an eighth- round knockout loss against undisputed champion and future heavyweight star Oleksandr Usyk in 2018.
Bellew had a parallel experience to that of Adamek. Any advantage his cruiserweight opponents might’ve had in terms of strength were superseded by his superior speed. In fact, he echoed Adamek’s observation: “You could see punches coming in that division.” “I didn’t face anyone at cruiserweight who was even nearly as quick as the light heavyweights I faced,” he said. “They were all lightning-fast. [Two- time opponent] Isaac Chilemba was one of the quickest fighters I ever faced. I was lucky to see his hand coming back after he punched. The cruiserweights might’ve been stronger, but they were a lot slower. “When guys were slower than me – at any weight – they had problems, especially when I was technically better. I found only one person who was technically ahead of me: Usyk.” Dave Billows, a U.K.-based strength and conditioning coach who helped Bellew bulk up to 200 efficiently, is a proponent of fighting at one’s natural weight to avoid the dangers of deprivation. His assignment was relatively easy. Bellew went on a high-protein, low- carbohydrate diet – avoiding all junk food – to build muscle and become
Adamek won a cruiserweight title by defeating Steve Cunningham.
Bellew smashed BJ Flores in his first cruiserweight title defense.
heavyweight and heavyweight. The original weight limit was 190 pounds, a less drastic 15 pounds over the light heavyweight maximum. The limit was raised to 200 in 2003, which reflected the increasing size of the sport’s biggest participants. Adamek made the transition from 175 to 200 in 2007, four months after he lost a one- sided decision and his WBC light heavyweight belt to Chad Dawson. Bellew, who also spoke to The Ring, made the move three-plus months after he was stopped by then-WBC titleholder Adonis Stevenson in 2013. Adamek and Bellew both gave a typical reason for deciding to move up a division: They could no longer make the weight. Referring to the beginning of training camp for the
Adamek fought journeymen Luis Andres Pineda, Josip Jalusic and Gary Gomez in three of his first four cruiserweight fights – the fourth bout being a one-sided victory over former champ O’Neil Bell – before challenging Cunningham. In other words, Adamek was allowed to ease into the division. “You have to know who the opponent is,” said veteran matchmaker Jolene Mizzone, who began working with Adamek early in his transition from 175 to 200. “You have to grow into the division. I remember him against Cunningham [at cruiserweight]. He weighed about the same as earlier fights (198), but by then he’d filled out more. “Tomasz did it the right way; he built muscle over time. I think discipline was the key to his success at all levels.” Bellew (30-3-1, 20 KOs) fought primarily at 175 pounds until the devastating Stevenson setback, which illustrated the dangers of staying at a lower weight too long. The Liverpudlian fought as a
heavyweight as an amateur, which has a limit of 200.6 pounds (91 kilograms), yet killed himself to campaign as a light heavyweight the first six years of his professional career. He regrets staying at 175 so long. “I was an idiot,” he said. “It was easier at the start, but I would say I was never comfortable at 175. By the time I fought Stevenson, I was shot at that weight. I could no longer do it safely. And I never tried after that fight. “How did I do it?” he added, referring to the move up to 200. “I didn’t starve myself anymore, I didn’t deplete myself anymore. I still had to lose weight. I was still coming down from around 225. But the first 10 pounds just fell off. That left me at 210. It was no problem getting down to 200 from there.” Bellew also had a perfect run at
54 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 55
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker