The most necessary of the new weight divisions?

this is a good point. pryor, tszyu, ricardo lopez and carbajal come to mind. all in the hall but it depends on what your definition of atg is?

 

Elorde, Norris, Galaxy, Gomez, Locche, Zaragoza, Fenech are a few others.

 

Gomez, Fenech and Zaragoza all held titles in original divisions.

By all-time great lets say a consensus top 50 type.Someone you could justify in that kind of company using a balanced criteria

Gomez comes closest of the three in that the bulk of his legacy was sealed solely at 122, but it took the win over a more established original weightclass great to get him there.

Zaragoza was a good solid fighter, but has no claim at all for being an all-timer imo.

No all-timers solely at junior Fly or below.Chang and Lopez come closest, but even chang is still a handful of good wins away from getting there, nobody really considers him for a top 50 place despite being acknowledged as a great talent by most who watch him. Record just too top-heavy to be considered by anyone using a balanced criteria.

Tszyu, no imo.....a lot of wins over average to decent fighters and has an alarming unavenged prime loss to one that really hurts him in the absence of enough real quality wins to balance it out.A very good fighter, arguably a borderline great perhaps, but someone who would probably fit better in the 100-300 range on an expanded list.

Elorde, an excellent fighter with a strong record.Definitely one of the better ones, yet i'd say more top 80-200 borderline great than top 50 region.

Pryor, Gomez(if we cheat a bit and let him in)and Locche are arguable ones.

Galaxy and Norris? **** no both very good fighters with glaring flaws(or embarassing losses) and not nearly enough quality wins.

 

Lets start with the premise that if a division has not produced competitive matches and elite fighters then it clearly wasn't necesary.

While we might intuativley think that the cruiserweight division fit the model of a necesary weight class, it has clearly failed that test.

The jr welterweight class might be a good call, but it is virtualy the ninth traditional division.

The supermiddleweight division has always been exciting, in fact often moreso than the more traditional light heavyweight and middleweight classes. Perhaps that was where most of the action was at light heavyweight all along.

 

Although JL had been a very tough division in the past, i agree the division really sucks right now... You are correct on Pryor and Chavez both could have made LW, although it they would have struggled to make weight especially later on. Pryojr only moved up and fought Cervantes because h e could get a fight at LW... As for KT well the win over Vernon was in the amatuers and at Super lightweight, i dont seem him being succesful against vernon in the pros at ww... Well i agree id rather see him vs those 3 then, Sharmba and Judah.. But ill tel you one thing he would have loss to all of them fighters.. Would have ended up being like a Oba Carr a very good welter but not good enough to beat the good top champions.. We also would not be talking about his recent induction into the IBHOF.

 

surprised no one has mentioned 154. i've always thought of 147 as being the highest that 'little guys' can get to, and 160 as the first weight where the fighters are ordinarily pretty tall (this is not something i've studied, just a feeling).

always seems pretty competitive between 126 and 160 so i can see why 130, 140 and 154 were introduced before the other new divisions.

 

If stressed then CW is the most necessary.
140 , 154 , 168 are all necessary but there is no reason whatsoever to prefer one over the others between these 3.
But I repeat , as long as weight classes exist , all the "new" ones are necessary.
Could a 19 years old Roid Jones win gold/silver @ 165 ?
Depends on the year .
could he be hydrated enough to do it @ 152 ?
Power Puncher will of course say yes , but it is far from true.

 

steroids and the decline in the Heavyweight division has probably played a role in the cruiserweights lack of depth

 

The only one i would do away with is strawweight

Ive got nothing against the weight classes. its just the titles that really bother me

 

154 isn't necessary.Most of the really good 154'lbers are welters who moved up or boiled down middles like McCallum and Kalule.

The ones who really genuinely needed it because they wouldn't have found nay success at 147 or 160 are mostly all forgotten marginal talents, not because the absence of the weightclass would have unfairly removed them from the equation.Terry Norris is probably the best of those who really needed it and thats because he had an appalling chin and bad enough ring-generalship to often not realise it.His success there kind of proves the point of it not being genuinely needed for fighters of genuine ability.