A short (incomplete) history of catchweight fights in boxing

Agreed mostly except it WAS a catchweight fight. Lalonde came in at a weight Leonard asked for so both titles could be on the line.

 

Its called one. Lalonde came in at the weight Leonard asked for alright and yet it was Leonard who was challenging for his 175 title. Not sure what 168 had to do with anything and yet Donny had to make the weight. Thats not a catch weight. That's a stacked deck.

 

Lalonde had no issue with it because of the ridiculous payday he received. The biggest name he fought prior was Mustafa Hamsho and I doubt that was a big payday.

 

Yeah the start of the sell outs. With all due respect I do not care what the pay day was. The fight is meaningless from a pugilistic stand point.

 

boxrec shows that their fight was at 160lbs. but, what amazes me srr after more than 35 months hiatus came back to challenge the bigger hagler. i think there is another guy after 22 months came back to challenge a smaller guy and even came in over the agreed weight.

 

**** man....Glad you took the time to put this down. It's not my job to save anyone round here but I think your knowldege and the effort you put into this will help educate those who were NOT in the know.

There's far too many un-educated boxing fans on ESB who seem to lack depth in their knowledge of the sweet sceicne and the history of the sport.

They think Catch weights are something new and that PAC is the only one who's done it. When in fact....Catch weights have been around for a LONG long time and are very much a part of boxing that has allowed for some great fighters to meet at a common ground in order to make the fight possible.

Good post!

 

Case in point! We have Floyd ***s who forget that their boy fought at a catch weight too but only chose to remember PAC's 2 fights at a catch weight so they have something to hate on. This is what we call "selective memory".

And YES....Catch weights ARE good for boxing!

 

Stacked deck? Lalonde came in at a contracted weight or a "catch weight" so he could FIGHT the smaller man. While Leonard was challengeing for the 175 title it was Lalonde who was in position to become GREAT by this opportunity. Unfortunately he fell short. Ray is a great fighter who beat a very good bigger man at catch weight title fight.

 

Lots of joke fights in there. and Norris was NOT the smaller man against Taylor.

 

Don't forget Trinidad/Jones at 170 for no reason at all.
The circus of Delahoya/Hopkins
Margarito/Pacquiao
Marquez/Pacquiao III

 

Good list, thanks. What stands out to me is "why was it used?" I'm not a fan of catchweights in title bouts, but that is always my first question.

In Pac's case, the fact that he fought at 147 both before and after Cotto, the only logical answer is "to gain an advantage." It is blatantly obvious to all but his biggest fans.

In cases in which fighters are separated by more than one weight class, the answer is equally obvious.

 

man, you have to get over the fact that pac fought at 147 before he fought cotto. to this day, he's not a true welterweight.

that is just one fight removed from fighting at 17 pounds less and within 10 months.

 

Basically catchweight titles don't mean **** because they're not earned at the correct weight. If somebody wants to fight outside of the weights, then so be it but titles should never change hands as a result.