Anybody know why there isn't a Strawweight or Light Flyweight division in Britain or Europe ? Some of my favorite fighters have competed in these divisions like Michael Carbajal, Chiquita Gonzalez, Ricardo Lopez & Ivan Calderon. Yet there isn't these weight classes over here, some would say that there aren't any fighters to compete in these divisions but I'm sure alot of Guys who fought at Fly would've tried to move down if these weights were available. So why are these weight classes not available over here ?
The Light Flyweight-Strawweight divisions are dominated by Asian and Central/South America fighters because you simply don't have men that size in Europe & North America because of genetics/evolution etc. In Asia and the Americas they have a higher number of little men because there naturally smaller people. I just checked on Boxrec and there only 1 active Light Flyweight in Europe right now. It was only 2 years ago that they split the Super Flyweight & Flyweight divisions in the UK. Theirs still only one Fly division for the EBU. Theirs only 6 Light Flys from the USA and 1 Strawweight. In contrast theirs a guy on a forum in the Philippines asking wheres all the Heavyweights.
So there's no Super Flyweight division in the UK or Europe any more ? It makes what you're saying about size due to location but Britain has a storied history in the Flyweight class, we produce a lot talent in that division so it wouldn't be far fetched to think if smaller divisions existed we would have fighters wanting to compete there.
There's 8 guys in Britain at flyweight according to boxrec, 15 at superfly. Just don't have the fighters small enough. Even if some of those fighting at fly could make lightfly how many would that be out of 8? Like Rob says, even in the US they don't have guys that light.
But lets say if a fighter like Paddy Barnes turned pro and wanted to compete in those divisions he couldn't as there is no British, CW or Euro title for him to go after. Hell even if he decided to go straight for world titles there's nobody around domestically for him to build with, they'd have to import all his opponents right from the beginning, which just doesn't seem feasible so in order for him to compete in those divisions he'd most likely have to emigrate. I get why the divisions don't exist but something should be there for the few lads who can compete in them.
