Catchweights

No i simply dont give any importance to meaningless bogus titles with or without catchweights, thats all.

 

But 150 is within the limit.

The Light Middleweight division starts at 148 (1 lb over the Welterweight division's limit) and ends at 154.

150 is between 148 and 154.

 

Sorry, my bad.

I thought you were arguing against it.

 

Ah, but in a lightmiddleweight contest there is no restriction between148 and 154, whereas here there is a restriction, effectively not making it a true light-middle fight.

 

I agree and disagree with you at the same time.

Yeah, I guess if it were a "real" Light Middleweight fight they should come in at any weight within the division.


But then imagine Manny coming in at 149 and Margarito coming in at 154, that wouldn't be fair.

But yes it is still a Light Middleweight fight because they both agreed to come in a set weight within the division. Restriction or not, as long as it's between 148-154 it's Light Middleweight.

 

Thus why such unnatural fights should not be made.

 

And that's why they both set an exact weight within the division that they will both make.

 

All too often, the above facts are ignored. :verysad

 

Which shouldn't be allowed to happen as it's creating a contracted restriction within a weight class. If they made a normal 154 match, but then decided to weight in at 151 without any contractual obligation to do so, that's different and absolutely fine.

But this contracted catchweight rubbish is just promoting a weight-class within a weight class, mutating the sport of boxing further and creating fights that shouldn't happen and creating disadvantaging at least one and possibly both fighters. Greed is ruining the sport.

 

If both fighters agree, then I don't see what the problem is.

It's not as if they greatly compromise the integrity of the sport, because the number of weight classes in existence is a joke as it is. I don't really see how these modern divisions such as 154 or 168 really deserve to be adhered to, they are bull**** limits introduced for financial gain, so moving the limit up or down a couple of pounds doesn't really make any difference, as long as both guys agree to it.

As I've said many times before - Ray Leonard, Pernell Whitaker, Julio Cesar Chavez, Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya - these five ATGs all fought for world titles in catchweight fights, so if it was good enough for them then it's certainly good enough for any active fighter.

If a catchweight was not agreed on, we probably would never have got Whitaker vs Chavez, so we should be thankful for catchweights, as that was one of the defining fights of that decade.

 

But why is contracted weights so bad?

As long as they are within the weight limit and make the contracted weight its all good.

It's not a "weight class within a weight class" as you put it, it's just assurance for a fair fight.

 

I don't give a damn how many wonderful fighters of the recent past were involved in catchweights, doesn't make it any less wrong. The difference is that catchweights used to be a rare event, a

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event and so I could tolerate it back then. But now that fool Bernard Hopkins has put it en vogue, and now there seems to be more catchweights than legitimate title fights.

You want to know why boxing doesn't have the same esteem it used to - the oversaturation of catchweight fights is the reason. Mess about with a basic, long established concept too much and of course people are going to get alienated.

 

But that's what you fail to understand - it's NOT a fair fight, in a catchweight, one fighter is always going to suffer for the arrangement more than the other. If you can't bulk up to fight at 154 for real, don't do it - stay at 147, don't continue with the *******ization of the sport.

 

I think you are becoming a little hysterical, don't you? :think

Catchweight title fights are few and far between, and even when they do happen I don't see any problem with them as long as both guys are happy with it.

To say that catchweights are the reason that boxing has declined is getting a bit silly. The fact that we have so many title organizations is a far, far more serious and damaging problem.