Former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew has highlighted the ‘only fighter’ that sticks out to him in the history of boxing who was able to comfortably move up and down between weight-classes and continue to be ‘effective’.
Bellew famously moved up to cruiserweight after two unsuccessful world title challenges at light-heavyweight, losing out to both Nathan Cleverly and Adonis Stevenson after previously achieving British honours at the weight.
Those defeats prompted a move up to 200lbs in 2014 and after six wins in two years, including victory in the rematch against Cleverly, Bellew landed a dream cruiserweight world title fight at Goodison Park – home of his beloved Everton Football Club, against Ilunga Makabu for the vacant WBC belt.
A memorable night ensued, as ‘The Bomber’ survived an early scare to stop the Congolese southpaw in the third-round. The proud Evertonian would defend his belt just once against B.J. Flores before a move up to heavyweight for two grudge match showdowns with David Haye.
Bellew won both by knockout before dropping back down to cruiserweight for one final fight, taking on Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title.
Unfortunately for Bellew, the skill of the Ukrainian was too much and, despite a spirited attempt, Bellew was knocked out and decided to call time on his career.
On social media, Bellew highlighted how difficult it is to drop down in weight and maintain your skills, explaining that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the only name that springs to mind at being able to do so ‘effectively’.
“Only one fighter in the history of boxing comes to mind when I think about being able to drop back down in weight and be effective! I’m not talking about serial weight climbers like Pac Man and Canelo I’m talking fighters who spend most of their career around a certain weight! FM [Floyd Mayweather Jr.].
“When people reside at a weight for so long and go up they tend to get hurt on the way back to the old weight. Hopkins never struggled at middle never mind 175 and Baby Jake [Matlala] I’m not sure on how much he jumped. I’m talking the likes of your Roy Jones Jr’s and [Shane] Mosley’s and so many others etc.”
Mayweather fluctuated between welterweight and super-welterweight during the early 2010’s, defeating Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero, Canelo Alvarez and Marcos Maidana with each fight alternating between 147lbs and 154lbs – despite beginning his career as a super-featherweight (130lbs).
‘Money’ Mayweather was seemingly able to do this by not focussing on maximising his possible weight for contests at super-welterweight, comfortably weighing in at 151lbs and 150.5lbs against Cotto and Canelo and not forcing his body to gain unnecessary weight.
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