First, my little rant: Once upon a time, "catchweight" meant "you come in at whatever weight you want, I'll come in at whatever weight I want" -- a fight with no set weight division. So Jake LaMotta might fight at 163 against a welterweight who comes up to, say, 149. Now that term has somehow come to mean the opposite -- "we'll meet at a certain agreed-upon weight in the middle." Other than "bad" coming to be an expression that means "good," I can't think of many cases where a phrase -- especially a jargon word specific to just one sport and circumstance -- has come to mean the opposite of its original meaning. But enough with that. How would you feel about this as a solution: instead of a catchweight stipulation with a rehydration clause, let the fighters agree to a same-day weigh-in. The most obvious example would be this: GGG vs. Cotto, weigh in at noon on the day of the fight, flat 160. So they are both middlweights and can come in all the way up to the limit. And they both come in as heavy as they want that night when they fight. To do this kind of thing, there would have to be massive penalty for coming in heavy -- like 50 percent of the purse of the overweight guy going to the guy who makes weight, something like that. Would that be OK and satisfy the "middleweights should be able to come in at the 160 limit" stance, or does it really mean middleweights have to be able to hit 160 and then still be full-blown, full-strength, fully-rehydrated light heavies (or even cruisers) when they fight? I'm curious what people think about this.
Then these fighters would have to fight at their real body weights instead of draining down and bulking up overnight. Less fighters would die from brain damage and dehydration. Many of these cowards are dodging the heavier weight classes because a knockout is waiting for them there.
In many ways, the day before weigh in has necessitated more catch weights. You have guys in the same division being separated by 15-20 lbs. on fight night. However, there are guys who abuse catch weights and simply use them to handicap their opponent. All catch weights are not the same. I judge them on a fight by fight basis.
A lot of fighters these days would not be world class if they had to fight at their true weights rather than doing the dehydrate/rehydrate thing. I love watching Canelo but no way would he be a top guy at light heavy, which is basically what he is.
