The world title situation

[El Kabong]

I think catchweights are crap because when you look back in history you see that someone like Carmen Basilio fought (and beat) Ray Robinson at middleweight. Basilio was never a true middleweight but he didn't ask for a catchweight or anything, he was a ballsy motherfucker.

[generalbulldog]

I think catchweights are crap because when you look back in history you see that someone like Carmen Basilio fought (and beat) Ray Robinson at middleweight. Basilio was never a true middleweight but he didn't ask for a catchweight or anything, he was a ballsy motherfucker.

Ray also fought at LHW and was only a few pounds over the MW limit when he fought Joey Maxim and was winning before the heat caught up to him.

I agree cw's are crap, catchweights started by Leonard in the 80s and caught on to guys like Chavez, De La Hoya, and now Pacquiao.

It is what it is in today's boxing.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

I think catchweights are crap because when you look back in history you see that someone like Carmen Basilio fought (and beat) Ray Robinson at middleweight. Basilio was never a true middleweight but he didn't ask for a catchweight or anything, he was a ballsy motherfucker.

Ray also fought at LHW and was only a few pounds over the MW limit when he fought Joey Maxim and was winning before the heat caught up to him.

I agree cw's are crap, catchweights started by Leonard in the 80s and caught on to guys like Chavez, De La Hoya, and now Pacquiao.

It is what it is in today's boxing.

Good Post

It would be very interesting to see just how different boxing's history would have been had it kept only the core weight classes.

[Spicoli]

As if 17 weight classes are not enough..they are well on the way to unofficially adding a few more. Its all convoluted and watered down. We should call bullshit on catch weight as often as possible. Would be fans do not have the tolerance for the splitting of hairs.

[No Contest]

I always thought the weight classes should be 10 lbs division between them, with cruiser being 20lbs
Heavy 200+
Cruiser 180-199
lt hvy 170-179
smw 160-169
mw 150-159
ww 140-149
lw 130-139
fw 120-129
bw 110-119
fw 100-109

[blegit]

As if 17 weight classes are not enough..they are well on the way to unofficially adding a few more. Its all convoluted and watered down. We should call bullshit on catch weight as often as possible. Would be fans do not have the tolerance for the splitting of hairs.

You make the greatest point. 17 weight classes not enough? Kind of like the nearing 17 belts in each division not enough? Margarito/Pac and Abraham/Froch for a title? How? Boxing is digging its own grave.

[luvfightgame]

17 weight classes with at least 4 "world" titles per class.

68 "champions" without even getting into regionals.

Everytime I read about a fight with someone who I know as a fighter beating a no name they won some title. Minto won something this week. Toney is a belt holder. No wonder it's hard to find it on tv.

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

An interesting character I once met on holiday told me that years ago, he'd considered the idea of buying a Lordship as he was tired of being shunned in various business ventures.
He figured people would take him more seriously if he was 'Lord Businessman' rather than 'Mr. Businessman'. Not a bad idea as a stand alone implementation but can you imagine if everybody started doing it?

Exactly!

[Fenster]

I don't see the big problem with catchweights. The most important thing is the fighters agree to fight not the title or weightclass. The agreed upon weight is meant to make the contest more of an even playing field. So if both fighters can comfortably meet the requirements what's the problem?

Catchweights have been around forever. It's not a modern phenomenon (Both fighters take risks in catchweight bouts - Boxing - ESPN)

Pacquiao seems to be unfairly targeted as the catchweight bully yet just in recent times we've had another "great" fighter - Bernard Hopkins - recording some of his best wins at a catchweight - Winky and Pavlik 170. I don't think history will focus on Hopkins dragging naturally smaller men way above their optimum fighting weight just that he scored a great win.