How Long Will Boxing Allow Weight Disparities Like Last Nights?

Clottey came in near 170lbs for his fight with Corrales. It's clear he has stamina issues due to making the weight. Cotto also had similar problems at 140lbs fighting in spurts but he looks much better in that department at 147. Williams will not be fighting for much longer at 147lbs.

 

I agree. 10 pounds is a great limit.

 

I got an interesting idea. How about getting weighed in 6-12 hours before the fight?

That allows the majority of fighters to still shed some water weight... maybe 15 pounds maximum, but there's no incredible drain or controversy because replnishing yourself in a shorter time is very difficult and in most cases not feesable.

What do ya think?

 

Agreed.

 

Fighters should be weighed as close as possible to the fight. Sure, there may be some cancelled fights because of people not being able to make weight, but that's fine, as they will be held responsible for the fight being cancelled and they'd have to pay damages unless otherwise specified beforehand.

Boxing is already a dangerous sport, and this is potentially damaging to both the weightdraining athlete as well as his (undersized) opponent.

A 147 fighter, ideally, should weigh 147 on fight night. No more. If a fighter chooses to drain, they will do so at no matter how close to the fight weighing in is, but we should make it as hard as possible for them.

 

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Exactly, the half that are currently cheating the scales would have to move up to the next division.
The half that are currently doing it safely will stay where they're at and wont be at the disadvantage that they're in now.
.....is'nt that what it should be? Reward the fighter that is weighing in safely?
As it stands now with the day before weighin's, this current system rewards fighters who cut extreme weight and do it unsafely.

I say reward the fighter that does it the right way by returning the system back to the day of the fight weigh-in!

Phuey for the idea of having two weighin's, the day before and the day of the fight.
If we want fighters stepping into the ring at roughly the same weight class, the day of the fight weighin is the only solution!

 

That's one thing I never liked in boxing, it's starting to catch up with boxers though(Miranda, Williams). Boxing should definitely set some rules about it.

 

Has anybody missed the fact that the guy who weighed 164 got his ass kicked?
And besides, what else are we gonna do? Weigh them the day of the fight again, so that they go into the ring all dehydrated? There's no perfect solution to this problem.

 

There is a solution.

Go back to the same day weighin, and reward the fighter that weighs in safely and fights in the division that he should be fighting in the first place.

It cant get simpler than that. This rewards the fighter that fights in their proper divsion.


Reward the fighter that is safety conscious. Those who are'nt are going to find a way to cheat the system by cutting weight unsafely no matter when the time of the weighin's are held.


Reward the safety conscious fighter by holding weighin's on the day of the fight!

 

I get your point, and it's very reasonable, but there's a reason they got rid of day of the fight weigh-ins. Fighters would kill themselves to make weight, just like they do now, but then they had to fight that same day, causing a big health risk.
But then again, that way the perpetrator is the one who suffers, and not the more responsible fighter who's competing in the right weight class.
So come to think about it: **** it! I agree with you!

 

Who killed themselves? Give me names?

Great fighters I grew up watching, Arguello, Hagler, Leonard, Chavez, etc....these fighters did it the right way.

A fighter like Arguello and Chavez moved up in weight once they realized it was getting to difficult to make the weight.

The change to the day after weighin came from a political move because of a few tragedies that would most likely have occured anyways no matter when the weighin was held.
.....it was like boxing's way of saying, "look, we're doing something about it."
The only problem is that its backfired in boxing's face, and they dont have the balls and courage to admit that the day before weighin is'nt an improvement from what it was before.

Boxing does'nt want to admit that it was wrong.

 

One of the sanctioning bodies (I want to say WBA) already has a rule like this in place - can't weigh more than 10 lbs more than your weigh-in weight. IIRC, this was one of the reasons Baldomir didn't pay all of his sanctioning fees against Judah.

 

In this case, extra wight hurt Paul Williams. Williams lost that fight on the scale. Gaining 18 pounds in one day is destined to make one sluggish, and quite frankly, the fact that he would or could gain that much in one day says something about his preparation. Just how dehydrated was he in making weight?

 

Just go back to the weigh-in on fight night...