Are weight divisions a failed experiment?

Maybe something other than adding or subtracting weight is called for given we keep adding and it keeps being ineffective.

 

I probably should have written a little more conclusion but the reason I left it open was so you guys could take it in any direction. I honestly did not anticipate the situation being condensed to two POVs, neither of which would be effective imo.


1. Not calling for the end of weight divisions. We had that, it didn't work out well.

2. Not calling for a return of classic weight divisions. We had those too and they too did not solve the issue.


Tweeners struggle to get noticed, promotion might help that. The tweeners have little identity probably because being an in between weights champion is right in their divisional names. Might could do with a name change.

I wrote Fly, I don't think I was called out on my mistake, it's Feather that sees the most deaths. in pounds the 120s-130s. The heads will know why I mixed that up. Anyway I wonder if some time based rules might change their fates? Make them fight 5 minute rounds, bet they pace accordingly.


I don't have any good answers, that's why I made a thread, but just chuck it in a fire or revert to what caused this in the first place isn't a good answer either.

 

We don't know.

Fly was the focus because Feather has the most deaths and I misremembered as Fly, but why Feather has the most deaths is not known. The truth is, you start to see a sharp uptick in deaths at 140 and below. From 110s-130s being clearly the deadliest divisions to fight in. Then it goes away as you get to min or atom.


Here's a 2019 study that shows exactly what I'm talking about:
https://www.abcboxing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Boxing-Deaths.pdf


2019 was a particularly bad year in boxing history. All of it. I mean, you can go back to speculative history for higher speculative figures and that is it. So to say adding weights has not worked for them is an extreme under statement.

In my last post I pitched time rules. I'm not confident in that. The idea is to slow their pace but they had timeless fights once and that is what caused weight divisions in the first place.

Their KO vs TKO ratios are also interesting. The larger weights tend to score TKO. These little guys who weigh as much as most of us when we were children score KOs more often than the larger side of boxing. I can not speculate on why, but I do think a safe speculation is TKOs mean the man going down had some level of activity still. Maybe he's out but he's trying to get up. Maybe he stumbled down. Whatever. What is sure is that flat KO means dude the matt hard, less likely to have any half ass attempt to save themselves or continue.


So, as silly as this sounds, maybe they need bigger gloves?

 

Okay, let me start over with less, I may have just over complicated it needlessly.

The goal of weight divisions is to allow a fair playing field for all body types in the sport. I think.

Given the same weights are being killed in the ring the divisions have failed to keep them safe.

Given the tweener weights are still over shadowed by the classic divisions, the added divisions have failed to capture public attention.

Safety and attention are the corner stones of fairness in boxing. The whole point of the bodies is so you can be a good boxer with no personality and gain status on merit alone.


None of this is to deny the good the divisions have brought. Maybe you guys don't like it but there are more champions which does bring more eyes to fighters who don't get as much attention on their own. Likewise, weight divisions are not a total failure in safety. They have failed to save the small men does not mean we should allow feather to fight bridgers.

Something else is the obvious answer. Or we can keep trying what's failed us for the past 120 years.