Catchweight title fights - right or wrong

why? if they were fighting for a 154 lbs title, then that should be the agreed weight limit, otherwise you end up comical inventions like the 150 or 152 lbs title, but to each his own, even if Floyd and Pac lost those fights, they at least would do it the honorable way by not coming up with some BS excuse to have an advantage over their opponent

 

They are wrong. If a guy can come up a division get the champion to drain down 3 or 4 pounds and then win the world title, that's unfair on the rest of the fighters in the world who are campaigning in the division. It makes a mockery of the divisions that were fully established 80 or 90 years ago.

The worst case was Pacquiao winning a VACANT light-middleweight championship .... a division he had no qualifications to be a 'contender' in .... made at 151.

 

And yet Mayweather fought him just a year earlier. People are even saying that Pac was cashing out by moving up 2 divisions after just 1 fight at 135. People thinks Oscar would knock Pac with his jab alone and is a clear betting favorite even after the weigh-in. It's not even made at a catch weight. It's at full WW limit.

 

The fighters don't complain about catchweights, so neither do I.

 

It's not always the smaller guys who wins in catchweight fights. If the bigger man knocked the smaller man, it would equally seen as him dragging up the smaller man. Bhop-Oscar or Floyd-JMM comes to mind.

 

that's just it, catchweights are BS either way, because you can have an advantage over your opponent by:

a) dragging someone up to a division where he's not comfortable (as you mentioned B-hop-DLH or Floyd-JMM)

b) dragging someone down to a division he hasn't fought at in years (Pac-DLH)

 

Fighters are so gay these days if thats what it takes to see the best fighters fight the best fighters then Yes to catchweights...hate that I had to take that side but this isn't the same sport.

 

That's 7 lbs Oscar had to come down to. He had outgrown the 147 lbs division long ago. And Floyd did fight a passed his prime Oscar, but to compensate for it, he went to Oscar's division. So Oscar was "old" for Mayweather, but not drained. I don't care what people thought, hindsight is 20/20, Oscar was drained and on the brink of retirement. Team Pacquiao took advantage.

 

It's all perception. We never know how the weight affects them until fight night so we can draw comparisons.

 

But Floyd JMM wasn't ultimately held at a catchweight and it would have lessened the impact of a) if it had been.

Ward vs Dawson would have been better at a catchweight than by dragging him down b) one entire weight class.:nut

Be careful to say catchweights are always bad. If they get a fight signed that would otherwise not then they are good in my mind.

 

And if Pac did not carry the weight going up 2 divisions, then he would be ****ed up. It's not like they didn't take risk. Pac fought a very disciplined fight that night employing a safety approach not knowing if they can take a punch from guys at WW and above. And it's not like that he Oscar was not punching. He just could not catch Pac with his movement.

 

Right or wrong though?

 

You keep defending Pacquiao. His win over Oscar deserves very little credit.

 

I don't think it is an issue. If both guys agree to it then fine. If somebody wants to fight for a title but does not want to fight at a catch-weight then they can earn their shot by climbing the rankings to get a mandatory shot (I am assuming a catch-weight cannot be forced in a mandatory title fight).