I can't be the only boxing fan that's getting sick of all these stupid weight classes and catchweights controlling modern day boxing. I've only really followed boxing properly for the last 4 years or so but it seems to me that it's only getting worse as well. Forget the nonsense that's the alphabelt soup family we have at the moment, there's also 17 recognised weight divisions. That makes for a maximum of 68 'world champions' at any given time, which is beyond ridiculous and that's before you factor in the lineal champions and interim, super blah blah blah bollocks. We get boxers complaining that "oo I can't fight him he's two pounds heavier than me". Ricky Hatton who used to walk around at about 13 stone, made a career of losing 2 or 3 stone just to make a weight which he'd then go 15-16 lbs back above before the fight itself. He'd then beat these guys because he has this size advantage (which is fair enough if that's the weight he can make) yet when he loses this advantage, that's the reason he's not as good against Collazo and Floyd. I know that weight can sometimes be a factor in outcomes of fights and Hatton has a point that with his style he's less effective against bigger guys. Sometimes boxers lose too much weight before a fight so they're then weaker in the fights themselves. Take the Pacquiao-Marquez situation at the moment. Now I know Marquez was at a size and weight disadvantage against Floyd and that wasn't really a fair fight. But Manny and Marquez both weighed exactly the same in their most recent fights. Yet we're being told that Manny's now too big for Marquez. Why is this? Is it just me that's sick of the way a boxer's weight seems to be so massively overestimated now or has it always been like this?
I don't really no what your complaining about. Just seems like a random rant. Are you annoyed about catchweights, there being to many divisons or the alphabets? I personally hate catchweights but I think fans just like to see big names fighting big names even of one fighter gets a significant disadvantage. The calls for Martinez vs Pacquiao or Mayweather just to see marquee names fight each other. I would rather see Martinez clean up his division in fights at 160lbs. Pacquiaos 8 divisions title was meaningless as it was a catchweight for a vacant belt. Too many weight divisions. I disagree with and you need 24 away weigh ins for the saftey of the fighters. There are to many alphabets but I don't think they are the problem with boxing. All of the governing bodies allow unifications to take priority over unifications, and quite often its mandatorires being ordered by the belts that makes the best fights happen (Katsidis was JMM mando). Regarding fight night weight. Marquez and Mayweather were 2lbs apart when they entered the ring.
You're entitled to your opinion but I'm not with you on that one, I think 8-10 is plenty. Just as a convenient example, the OP mentioned Hatton outweighing guys and you have to remember Warren was feeding him superfeatherweights and lightweights who were coming in overweight to get pummeled by a guy who was basically a big welterweight who was supposed to be ten stone. That's bad for the little guy accepting a cheque for a guaranteed loss's career and it's hardly as good experience for Hatton as taking on someone his own size. Also weightclasses like light and super flyweight, super bantamweight, superfeatherweight....what's the point? It's just diluting the talent pool. With the 24 hour weigh ins, I think forcing them not to dehydrate in the first place makes more sense than letting them fight a weightclass or two above what they're supposed to be. What about the safety aspect of the guy who puts on a lb or two over night getting in the ring with someone who's going to be ten lbs heavier or more?
Catchweights have no place in a world title fight. Catchweight fights should be voluntary non-title fights. Have the incidences of serious brain injuries declined since the introduction of the 24-hour weigh-in?
In terms of the entertainment value i agree but its a fact theres been less serious injurys and fatalitys since they moved to 17 divisions and moved the weigh ins to the day before.
To be specific here, since the OP was a bit random and weirdly constructed, you don't like the emphasis people put on weight, inparticular when its only a small amount? This has been one of my bug bears for a long, long time. I'm not sure that Pacquiao is too big for Marquez, its more the fact Pacquiao is a far more explosive athlete and seems to have the ability to fight at any weight and retain his strengths. Whereas with Marquez, putting weight on above 135lbs is a bit of a concern, he didn't have much about him at 147.
Granted, world titles nowadays are pretty meaningless but at least they are attached to weight divisions. Do you have any data or references to support your comment that there has been a reduction in serious brain injuries because of the day before weigh-in?