Can one really be ranked P4P when you demand catch weights?

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

Aren't P4P Rankings all hypothetical? Why should weight even matter?

Welcome to Saddoboxing mate.

I agree that there is WAY too much emphasis on P4P. Maybe emphasis is the wrong word but the ratings just seems TOO Official these days...
They are re just a Magazine ratings... Ratings from a magazine that is owned by a Boxer come Promoter.

Its all very incestuous.

Now onto Catchweights. They suck. They all ways have and always will. Weightclasses are there for a reason. I mean, as it is there are too many weightclasses in the lower divisions!

Health and safety aside, negotiating over 3 pounds is IMO very unmanly.

Again i bring up my point about the Heavyweights... How is it that there is a complete objection to introducing an intermediate weightclass to RE (Note the word RE) Bridge the gap between Heavyweight and Cruiserweight, yet so many of you think that it is perfectly fine to fight at catchweights?

Fighters these days strip down to their lowest weight to fight the smallest opponents possible (again something i find very unmanly but there you go.) so its safe to assume that if they could go lower, they would..

So I just dont understand... If we all know Cotto wont perform well at 143. And we all know its a huge risk to ask a 37 year old (Mosley) to strip even more poundage at this point in his career... Why make a point for Catchweight's if there CLEARLY not viable?

If the fight doesn't work, the fight doesn't work period.

We don't know that Cotto cannot make 143 or 144 lbs. He looked drained in his last fights at 140 but a halfway house might be a balance.

Cotto is much bigger than Manny so for Manny to fight him at 147 is to his disadvantage. 143-44 represents a compromise. And you could hardly call Manny of being unmanly. If he was a career junior welter weight then fair enough, suck it up and move up a division but this is a guy who has already stormed through 7 (SEVEN!!!!!!) weight classes, so cutting his some slack over a few lbs in order to allow a MEGAFIGHT to happen is hardly a big deal.

As for another weight class between cruiser and heavyweight I don't believe the boxers themselves want it. Very few heavyweights would want to move down to a halfway division and miss out on the glamour of being in the heavyweights if they can fight there, it represents the pinnacle of our great sport after all, the Premier Division so to speak, you win the heavyweight title you are the best boxer in the world, in an absolute sense.

Also there is such a thing as critical mass and its been proven in countless fights in the heavyweight division over the years that beyond a certain point sheer size is simply no longer an advantage. The extra bulk comes at the cost of speed and mobility and even power, very few giant heavyweights have been one punch knockout artists.

So in the heavyweight division the difference between a man weighing 215 lbs (providing he is able to use his superior speed and mobility) and a man weighing even up to 300 lbs makes no difference in favouring one fighter over another. The better boxer will likely win, an example most would expect David Haye to smash Nikolay Valuev, certainly the 70 lbs or so he gave up would be offset by the much greater speed of the smaller man.

This simply isn't the case at lower weights where size matters more, although I do feel truly great fighters are able to overcome that to a greater degree.

But regarding catchweights, for someone like Manny who began at straweight I believe he's already proven himself man enough by tearing through 7 weight classes. We can definitely cut him some slack here and imo it's Cotto who is not the 'man' if he feels unable to cut 3 or 4 lbs compared to the 20 or lbs Pacquaio would have moved up in the past couple years.

If it was Hatton wanting a catchweight at 143 I agree gay as fuck, but Manny has earned the right and the 'machismo' burden to give something up to allow the fight to happen and prove he's the best falls very much on Cotto, Floyd or Mosely in this case imo.

But this is it. WHY should Manny Pacquiao, or Anybody be given any ''Slack'' for a shot at Glory?

Did Roy Jones ask Ruiz to cut a stone to make a fair fight? No.
Roy bulked up as much as he saw reasonable and just got on with it.

Your Haye Valuev comments are a bit of a contradiction IMO. 70lbs difference is okay for two heavyweights but ''size matters more in the lower divisions''

That's absolute rubbish Bill. Manny Fighting at 147 is a problem but Haye fighting a 300lbs monster is cool?

Surely you can see this is nonsense?