Cruiserweight should be abolished

All weight classes should be abolished because they are now meaningless. In effect, every fight is a catch weight bout, with one exception. In the old days, catchweight bouts were at a contracted weight and both guys had to weigh that on the day of the fight. Now, you weigh a set amount 36-40 hours before the fight but nobody knows what anybody will weigh when they get in the ring.
When HBO still did boxing, Leo Santa Cruz was on the undercard of Canelo v Cotto. He was making his debut at featherweight- the featherweight limit is 126 pounds- and he weighed 144. Dingbat Lampley said that Leo was, in fact, a full fledged featherweight when he was, in fact, a full fledged welterweight. It is clownworld.

 

/thread

 

So's mine!!

 

I don’t know. Cruiser has been around since what ? The early 80’s? That’s a long time. It’s also a good stepping stone from light heavy to heavy which with how big heavies are today is probably a good thing.

 

Generally speaking, cruiser sized fighters (205-220, 6'1-6'3) have had trouble adjusting to the "super heavy" era. With lenient refs allowing excessive leaning/clinching, shorter rounds, slower paces, the advancement of sports medicine and the incorporation of weight training, the division is almost unrecognizable compared to even 30 years ago.

But what's interesting is that the truly elite historically cruiser sized men have skills that are rarely replicated during the super heavy era. I don't think for example, that a prime 6'3 , 215 Holmes would fail to pick up a single title in today's time and he's often favored to win over many of the guys in the top 10 today. That tells me many people believe men those size are the better fighters overall in spite of the height/weight difference and ideal to the ideal heavyweight specimens.

The issue is that as their careers continue, traditional sized heavies and modern cruisers struggle to stay below 215 as they naturally age and put on muscle. Stuffing themselves or bulking up with weights to get to 230+ is counter productive as they lose their edges in speed, stamina, coordination, etc. Usyk's team seems to have understood this and wisely chose not to bulk up against Fury. I'm not sure what the solution is, but perhaps extending the weight limit for cruiser another 5-10 lbs and calling that "heavyweight" while making the 230+ guys the "super heavyweight" division is an option. No idea why the heck they gave the division such an ugly name that never caught on.

 

Think a lot of you guys missed OPs point...if I understood it correctly.

They need to fight at the actual weight class, which means and end to rehydration and weight bullying.

I agree with this.

I don't think OP literally wants cruiser abolished. He just wants them to be real cruisers.

 

abolish prior day weigh ins. Weigh ins should be same day.

 

How come we have all these "junior" and "super" divisions, but then once it gets over light-heavyweight, then the weight goes crazy?

I thought cruiser was 176 -190, but now I see where it's 200. That's a 24 lb. span. Then over that, it's unlimited....

 

I think like 188lbs would be a solid limit for Crusierweight, the guys that won’t be able to get down to that would be like 210lbs lean when hydrated anyway, so they’d be fine at heavyweight.