Catchweights, a necessary evil or a diminishes the sport of boxing?

Neither. ....it's a logical middle ground that facilitates match ups between fighters from different weight classes that evens the playing field. If anything catch weights have been responsible for making fights happen that otherwise wouldn't have materialized.

Oh.....and there's no such thing as a rehydration clause......no commission responsible for the health of professional athletes would ever enforce or approve something even remotely similar to a stipulation preventing any athlete from rehydrating after the mandatory 24 hour weigh in pe4iod for the sport.

And Pac faced Oscar at welterweight. ....no a catch weight. But you could replace that fight with the Floyd vs JMM as that was a real catch weight event.

 

No bigger disadvantage than a smaller man who is at a physical disadvantage when it comes to having to scale up in weight. There's always a middle ground. And a man always has a choice. .....no one is making them jump up in weight or move down. It's a choice that comes with big risks and equally big rewards on both sides of the coin.

 

I think Catchweights can be necessary but then i think at other times they are used to gain an advantage not make even terms for an otherwise uneven matchup

as in Pac Cotto at 145, Floyd vs Canelo at 152, Cotto Margarito 2

those examples are for the guys who are in the same weight class and request a catchweight for no reason either than to gain some form of edge before the fight

fights that could have benefited from a catchweight would include Ward vs Dawson, they should have met in the middle with no titles at stake

 

Catchweight and Rehydration are problem in boxing period !!

making a fighter cut below their fighting weight is a big problem also letting fighter re-hydrate 20lb above their weight class in my opinion is cheating. many fighter have been hurt by other fighters who outweigh them by 15 or more pounds. Its an unfair advantage and it should stop.

 

The alternative is that less little men take the risk to fight big men less often, and the big fights between different divisions don't get made.

 

Without catchweights, bigger fighters would have to harm their body and rehydrate 20+ pounds. Pick which one is worse, an agreed upon compromise, or a ban on catch-weights with makes it necessary for big fights to either not get made or force the bigger man to drain his body?

Besides, if you can make the weight, you can make the weight.

 

On one hand you have people saying it's unfair for a guy to outweigh his opponent on the night of the fight and on the other you have people saying that the bigger guy draining is at a disadvantage. The truth is somewhere in the middle I guess and every case is different.

 

If fighters were required to inter into the ring at their campaign weight there would be little need for catch weights. Fighter would make the extra effort to stay at or near their weight between fights or move up to a weight their body are more comfortable.

Making the weight the day of weigh ins then re-hydrading 20lb over the next day is not making weight, It masking a weight issue.

 

Back 20 years ago, when a catchweight meant cutting a little bit more weight for someone who didn't cut a lot was not a big deal.

Now we are talking about making catch weights for guys who are cutting 15+ lbs.

It makes a difference.

 

We already have 17 divisions we don't need anymore. Catchweights just cheapen the sport.

 

Catchweights help get big fights made. It's pretty cheap though when a fighter who is in the same division and brings the man down from th limit to gain an advantage.

 

You would think with all these "Jr." and "super" in between weight divisions, fighters wouldn't have to be making such a big deal with weight. I think it kills the bigger fighter in most instances who have to drop down in weight substantially already, and then have to cut a little more. Its hard to say how well same day weigh ins would work, but i doubt a lot less guys would be cutting so much weight in the first place if that were the case

 

they never needed them in the old days, where there were fewer weight classes so the smaller guys had to make even bigger leaps