Is bridgerweight a legit weight class

I’ve got an idea. How about creating a new Blubberbigtittyweight above Heavyweight and Skeletalweight below Minimum Weight. Might as well join the. Sure can’t stop them.

 

I think it’s ridiculous and nothing more then Sulaiman trying to create more cash grabs from sanctioning fees.

 

Boxing is diluted enough as it is. I’d suggest just never talking or paying attention to it so that it never catches on.

 

Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight. Less divisions and less belts.

 

Does that division even have a champion?

 

It's a dead division

Won't catch on ever

 

I don't think it needs to exist. We have had many elite heavyweights around a fit 220lb and if you weigh 210 you should be able to make Cruiser. For every Wlad and Fury there's 20 Gerald Washington's, being huge isn't always an advantage. Does anyone really think guys like Tyson, Holy, Ali, Usyk wouldn't beat Joyce or Zhang?

 

It's not a real division

 

Beterbiev could become the undisputed Bridgerweight champion today if he wanted.

 

Your other posts here on this topic raise good points.
The name Lt. HW (175 max) made perfect sense when the next division was called HW.

The boxing orgs were late to establish CW at 200 max. The last undisputed sub 200 HW champ was Patterson from the 1950s! Even by the 60s and certainly 70s the HW champs were over 200 lbs. Even the ones under 6 foot (Frazier, then Tyson). A top fighter that was undersized as a HW was J Quarry. In his prime he was at or under 200. He likely would've been CW champ if it existed in the 70s. From the 70s on, how many top or champ HWs were under 200? Even both Spinks were > 200.

As for the big jump from Lt HW to CW. There are more than one reason this made sense. I pointed to one of them above. They didn't want weight creep have them often redefining when CW started (wasn't CW 190 max briefly?). The 25 lb. jump from Lt HW to CW is reasonable given the next weight is unlimited. It does look a bit odd when you add BW at a 24 lb. jump. Except for the very wiry Wilder, and by today's standards smallish Usyk, most top HWs are north of 235/40 lbs. with many near or above 250! Look at the top 10, 15, 20. Over the past 100 (or more) years people have been getting bigger. The world pop has exploded so at the upper ends of size you have a much greater pool of coordinated big men (also all of Eastern Europe opened up). You had huge HWs 50-100 years ago (Willard, Carnera, etc). Recent and current similar sized HWs are better, e.g. Lewis, K bros, AJ, Fury, and others will defeat the Willard's & Carnera's of the past. Terrell was a top 60s HW that was tall although not very heavy. I think just about every top HW (very big or not) today defeats Ernie. I know that rubs some people here the wrong way. The people that respond that I'm obsessed w/ size are just missing the point, really points. Answer me this? Why even have any weight divisions?

Super CW seems to be a better name than BW. But you still have the problem of two weight div. between Lt HW & HW. That just looks odd. As someone mentioned above, at some point they need to rename Lt HW. But there won't be a solution that will please everyone and many will complain. What they could've done when they created the 200 limit div. was rename Lt HW to CW, and what's now CW become the new Lt HW. But again, many would've howled about that too. In that scenario BW isn't as cringy. Or go with HW up to ~225, and SHW unlimited. If the trend of people getting bigger continues in another generation or two the same problem will be evident. There aren't any easy solutions.

It does seem there's a few too many in the very light divisions, although 3-5 lbs. makes a difference for those weight classes.

The bigger problem is too many orgs, and therefore belts and champs. Add to that all of the odd names they have for different status of champs most orgs have Increasing weight divisions due to the expansion at the upper end makes sense.

 

In a way, we're on the same page, just writing it differently - same thought for the too many light divisions. I agree with the naming (including it's more logical to swap the light heavy and the cruiser names), I don't even consider it such a big problem. More concerning is the last three official categories and their limits and here I exclude the bridger. They must be changed a bit, more of moving the upper limits slightly up, so we can have the heavies starting at a higher weight. Wrestling even has an upper limit for the heaviest people, above which you simply are not allowed to compete. Or let's look at UFC which has way more adequate divisions (not perfect, but close to) and naming:

• Strawweight (115 lb/52.2 kg) - women only
• Flyweight (125 lb/56.7 kg)
• Bantamweight (135lb/61.2 kg)
• Featherweight (145 lb/65.8 kg)
• Lightweight (155lb/70.3 kg) - men only
• Welterweight (170 lb/77.1 kg) - men only
• Middleweight (185 lb/83.9 kg) - men only
• Light heavyweight (205 lb/93 kg) - men only
• Heavyweight (265 lb/120.2 kg) - men only
• Super heavyweight (above 265 lb/120.2 kg) - men only, but this one is rare case

I agree the heavier people become, the less significant are just few pounds/kilograms of difference, so we can have bigger gaps between, but this can't justify a heavyweight division starting limitless after 220 lb/90.7 kg - that's ridiculous.

 

I actually kinda like the idea of it, but I'd like it better under different circumstances. I feel like it'd go down smoother if we only had, say, 10 weight divisions right now, instead of 17 not including this new one. Also the name really needs to be something else like Super Cruiser.

Personally I think you could reasonably make 10-11 weight divisions just by merging sub-Cruiser divisions with the ones immediately below them. So Light Heavy and Super Middle, Middle and Light Middle, etc. You still end up with a few weight classes separated only by a few pounds, but that's in the lower weights and as you go up that becomes less of an issue, which makes sense because the bigger you get the less that sort of thing seems to matter. In this scenario, before any new weight classes, it'd end up being something like this:

Heavy - Unlimited
Cruiser - 200
Light Heavy - 175
Middle - 160
Welter - 147
Light - 135
Feather - 126
Bantam - 118
Fly - 112
Straw - 105

Of course the sanctioning bodies would never do this because that's less belts and therefore less sanctioning fees. I guess they could start making the mandatories "Interim champions" more often and charge them to make up the difference, but that wouldn't be a guaranteed thing and besides, if they decided to do that it'd be to double the money, not to make the same they're making (or less) in a different way.

But hey, it's fun to dream.

As far as light heavy goes I think right now it's okay, but once we get to two weight classes separating them I think a name change is warranted, which kinda sucks since it's one of the glamour weights. Dunno what you'd call it though... Brawnweight, yeah that sounds dumb enough to be a thing.

 

Wlad could have boxed at CW when he turned pro.