BoxRec

i still think they should raise the 14'4 limit its easy to say people are overweight but some are just neutral 15/16 stone and find it really hard to get under 14'4. If a light welterweight drains they selfs every fight to make the weight they move up to welter or if a super middle cant make the weight they move to light heavy etc etc. I agree it comes down to talent but that can only take you so far when you have a 6'7ft + 18stone+ guy in front of you. I just think we are missing a load of great fights because some guys think because they cant get under 14'4 they will not diet properly where as if the limit was 16 stone for example it would give us some more equal fights. We could give examples of ali,liston,foreman and frazier etc but they days are long gone and boxing needs to move with the times.

MachoMan09 wrote:MMA have it right. We should do what they do with weight classes. Weight limits are shown in lbs.

Flyweight 125
Bantamweight 135
Featherweight 145
Lightweight 155
Welterweight 170
Middleweight 185
Light Heavyweight 205
Heavyweight 265
Super Heavyweight (fatties & sted-heads) No weight limit

Agreed, also i would have weigh-ins on the day of the fight and again just before the and if the fighter has gained more than 5 pounds in that time, fight is off.

The current practice of drying out until near death, then gaining 20 pounds in 24 hours is utter crap.

MachoMan09 wrote:MMA have it right. We should do what they do with weight classes. Weight limits are shown in lbs.

Flyweight 125
Bantamweight 135
Featherweight 145
Lightweight 155
Welterweight 170
Middleweight 185
Light Heavyweight 205
Heavyweight 265
Super Heavyweight (fatties & sted-heads) No weight limit

Out of interest...how many guys over 250 do you think people would ACTUALLY watch? The top 2 heavyweights of today are in the 240's. In fact other than Shannon Briggs can you think of any notable heavyweight title fight with a guy OVER 260?

Rahman was 250 against Wladimir and was looking FAT, Solis was 246 against Vitali and looked FAT, Chris Arreola was 251 against Vitali and FAT, Danny Williams was 270 against Vitali and FAT, Samuel Peter was 253 against Vitali and FAT, Kirk Johnson was 260 against Vitali and FAT and Lennox Lewis may very well have been at his fattest when he was 256 against Vitali...

Only one of those guys over 250 lbs won...

iamasadlittleboy wrote:

MachoMan09 wrote:MMA have it right. We should do what they do with weight classes. Weight limits are shown in lbs.

Flyweight 125
Bantamweight 135
Featherweight 145
Lightweight 155
Welterweight 170
Middleweight 185
Light Heavyweight 205
Heavyweight 265
Super Heavyweight (fatties & sted-heads) No weight limit

Out of interest...how many guys over 250 do you think people would ACTUALLY watch? The top 2 heavyweights of today are in the 240's. In fact other than Shannon Briggs can you think of any notable heavyweight title fight with a guy OVER 260?

Rahman was 250 against Wladimir and was looking FAT, Solis was 246 against Vitali and looked FAT, Chris Arreola was 251 against Vitali and FAT, Danny Williams was 270 against Vitali and FAT, Samuel Peter was 253 against Vitali and FAT, Kirk Johnson was 260 against Vitali and FAT and Lennox Lewis may very well have been at his fattest when he was 256 against Vitali...

Only one of those guys over 250 lbs won...

i agree i think they should move limit to 224

For all those saying that the lowest division should be 125lbs, what would you do about the likes of Ivan Calderon? Segura? etc

I agree about same day weigh-ins too, the emphasis on weight cutting rather than on improving skills is one of the reasons why standards have slipped. Obviously allied to this the ridiculous number of weight classes and ''champions'' per weight.

I agree, there's no need for 105, 108, 112, 115, 118 & 122. Just daft.

I'd just have the three, 105, 112 & 118, or perhaps two, getting rid of 105.

There's no need for any of the light/super/junior divisions with the exception of 175.

Khaosai-Galaxy wrote: Agreed, also i would have weigh-ins on the day of the fight and again just before the and if the fighter has gained more than 5 pounds in that time, fight is off.

The current practice of drying out until near death, then gaining 20 pounds in 24 hours is utter crap.

iamasadlittleboy wrote:
Andy Ruiz has lost around 45lbs since his debut so should be able to trim a bit more...

The bloke has nice technique, good handspeed & a seemingly decent engine; however I would like to note that the fvcker looks like he does in that video AFTER dropping 45 lbs, which makes me wonder whether this is a picture of him on his debut:

MachoMan09 wrote:

milpool wrote:Having a super-heavy division would attract the Butterbean-esque fattys and would make boxing a laughing stock.

I disagree. A 245lb heavyweight limit would force fighters in the 250-260lb range to get their acts together in order to do the weight. The Super-Heavyweight division would attract little attention.

why would they lose weight to fight at heavy when they could just fight at super heavy?

a super heavy class with fighters the size of the klitschko's, fury, etc would become the flagship division. heavyweight would just become the new cruiser.

MachoMan09 wrote:

Mensa07 wrote:

MachoMan09 wrote: I disagree. A 245lb heavyweight limit would force fighters in the 250-260lb range to get their acts together in order to do the weight. The Super-Heavyweight division would attract little attention.

why would they lose weight to fight at heavy when they could just fight at super heavy?

a super heavy class with fighters the size of the klitschko's, fury, etc would become the flagship division. heavyweight would just become the new cruiser.

I think that could happen if the weight limit for heavyweight was below 230lbs but at 245lbs, the blue riband division would likely remain heavyweight rather than super heavyweight. Both Klitschkos are usually at or around 245lbs.

dunno, doesn't it undermine the HW championship somewhat. Would the Klits be satisfied staying as HW champ when the public think there's someone bigger and badder in the super HW champ? I still feel Super Heavy would become the flagship, with the bigger HW's moving up to take on the bigger dudes there, and fat cruisers chancing their arm at HW now that the 245+ guys are gone.

LeedsLad wrote:I agree, there's no need for 105, 108, 112, 115, 118 & 122. Just daft.

I'd just have the three, 105, 112 & 118, or perhaps two, getting rid of 105.

There's no need for any of the light/super/junior divisions with the exception of 175.

There is - there's a lot of boxing that goes on in places like Philippines, South Africa, Japan, Indonesia that have really small men - apart from South Africa never produce any good fighters over 140lbs so it has been argued that the 105 and 108 market isn't for Europe nor North America. 105 has 286 active fighters as of today so I feel it is necessary.

Personally woulden't mind having more divisions if it meant there could be one champion in each division-but that's too much to ask for i guess.

MachoMan09 wrote:

Terminator666 wrote:Personally woulden't mind having more divisions if it meant there could be one champion in each division-but that's too much to ask for i guess.

Fewer divisions with one champion in each would be even better, no?

Yeah sure--But if i was told that there would be one extra division but only one champ in each, that would still be a fantastic thing. Not going to happen though, mere fantasy.

one thing that could work and which is done by many white collar organisations is to put the light heavy limit at 13 stone , then put the cruiser limit upto 15 stone , theres a lot of smaller heavies that can still do 15 stone and would be then back in the cruiserweight division , people such as haye and mormeck , i reckon if a guy cant seem to get lower than 15 stone and therfore unable to reach 14 stone 4lbs they just decide to blow up thinking they need to go up in weight etc , if it was 15 stone then those who are at say 15 .4 - 15.7 might actually decide its better to get in shape and drop to below 15 rather than bulking up .
hope i made that make sense .

Insane. Who would be fighting in the super heavy class? A endless round robin between the Klitschkos, Tyson fury and Robert Helenius? Excuse me whilst I violently spew over my laptop.

And all the crap, fat, ordinary heavies who can't be arsed to get into shape would suddenly win once prestigious heavyweight titles without the threat of the K brothers.

Horrific to even consider altering the historic heavyweight division simply to accomodate fat, lazy bums who won't get in shape.

If they won't get in shape, quite simply, fornicate em.

I disagree, i believe it would undermine the HW division.

IMO limiting heavy wouldn't force the likes of Briggs to cut 15lb, they'd simply pick up a cheque at Super heavy instead.

By default though the heavyweight champ is the baddest man in boxing, because he's the best fighter in the heaviest weight class.

If you create super heavy, then the super heavy champ is the man. And the general public won't buy that the heavyweight champ will beat the super heavy champ, any more than they would the cruiser champ could beat the hw champ.

I do agree though in principle in as much as it's clearly wrong to have Valuev fighting Haye with a 100lb difference between the two.

What if you moved Light-Heavy up to 190, Cruiser from 190-220, and heavy 220+?

And somebody mentioned same day weigh-ins? Couldn't agree more, it's one of the fundamental problems in boxing today that you can have 2 middleweights fighting for the welterweight title.

The argument against is always that 'its dangerous as fighters will drain themselves on fight day', well they should be fighting at a higher weight then, one where they can safely make the weight without risking their health.

yeah but that was a made-up title, then. you legitimise the division, you legitimise butterbean's claim to be a champion.

I do like the idea, just with the caveat that the HW division will lose prestige (I know, like it has any to lose right now), in the eyes of the general public at least.

Do we need any more divisions full stop?