Mark Hunt is 5'10, Cheick Kongo is 6'4. And in this case the taller guy was actually significantly faster than the shorter guy which is unusual. Didnt stop Hunt from wrecking Kongo with ease thanks to his superior skill. His build would also make it very very difficult for the taller guy to take him down.
This guy Cheick Congo was pretty lame so I can't really take this as a representative example... deserved to get his ass kicked by that fat guy.. (samoans are freakishly strong tho.. they are somewhat exceptional at any height)
I did some analysis to see how commonplace shorter fighters are, as by your logic there should be at least some champions knocking around given the tiny factor height plays is in your eyes. Shall we see the the results?
List of ALL consecutive UFC heavyweight champions since 2000
jDSantos 6'4
Cain Velasques 6'1
Shane Carwin 6'2
Frank Mir 6'3
Brock Lesnar 6'3
Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira 6'3
Randy Couture 6'1.5
Tim Sylvia 6'8
Andres Arlovski 6'4
Rico Rodriguez 6'3
Josh Barnett 6'3
Mean height: 6'3.2 inches
Mode height: 6'3
instances of sub six foot fighters:
ZEROThe fact is, the most undefeatable fighters are tall. And there may be
some rare exceptions otherwise amongest journeymen contenders or examples of loss (I know they may have lost the occassional fight to a shorter guy -- no need to list them
, but the CHAMPIONS are
tall with no exceptions.
I am choosing 6'3.5 as a height because I believe it to be the best alround,
these numbers almost exactly support such thinking.
I didn't even bother with heavyweight boxing because height is an even bigger advantage.. even 6'2 David Haye was considered small in this division!!