What is the origin of the word cruiserweight

Good question - I don't know. I've also wondered whether straw weighs less than a fly.

 

Entertaining thread on arbitrary naming of boxing's weight divisions:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/why-are-straw-weights-lighter-than-flyweights.3117237/

 

Could be naval in origin. A cruiser is a warship just under the size and armament of a full-on battleship (which could be inferred to be heavyweights in this context).

 

That sounds plausible.

 

Certainly does

 

Thanks for that Sal. That's very cool

 

Well it's a guess, really.......

 

At one time it was also known as the junior heavyweight division but that term fell out of use for some reason.

 

I'm glad personally. That's a horrendous name. It sounds like a fat kid

 

my understanding is it goes back to the era of only 6 Divisions, where there were Middleweights and then there were Heavyweights and nothing in between...

the Top and Qualified Good Middles could and did challenge and fight the Bigmen, the HWs and as this became more regular among these Top MWs, the name 'Cruiser' was applied to them. Yeah and it would have been in England with probable Naval reference as previous poster suggested.

thats what I understood anyway.

 

This is the explanation I saw in some old articles from 1913-14, when the term was created.

 

Really? The term "cruiserweight " goes back that far?

 

This 1916 article explains that:

The cruiserweight is the boxer we used to know as the light-heavyweight. Cruiserweight because he ranks as a fighter as the cruiser ranks with the battleship. The term has been adopted all over the world.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/121177342?searchTerm=cruiserweight