When did all this catch weight started!

The earliest one I can think of is Joe Walcott vs. Joe Gans in 1904 at a catchweight of 141. It was a welter vs. a lightweight. I wouldn't be shocked if there are much earlier catchweight fights though.

 

What is the earliest catch-weight fight involving fighters of the same weight class ?

 

That would be much more recent. :yep

 

Leonard-LaLonde was one of them.

 

Leonard-Lalonde was the first big one I recall where the weight limit for a defending champ was set "WAY" below (168)what his weight class was (175).

It's because the smaller guy was the money guy and the huge draw, and the champ was virtually unknown grabbing a big payday.

Then again, Lalonde wasn't a big light heavyweight either. He rarely weighed 175 for fights. He was closer to a super middleweight. That's why he thought he could do it.

But it's really gotten out of hand today.

That said, even if the weight limits weren't agreed to in the contracts, there were always top guys in history who kind of "weezled around" the rules.

For instance, after Henry Armstrong had made headlines for holding the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles simultaneously, in 1940 he tried to grab the middleweight title.

But he was a small guy.

There were several guys who claimed the middleweight belt. One of them, Cerferino Garcia, was a welterweight who had moved up who Armstrong had beaten before in a welterweight title defense.

So, on one side of the aisle, you had six-foot-tall Al Hostak defending his middleweight title against Tony Zale. Two actual middleweights.

On the other, you had a 5'6" 153-pound Garcia defending his middleweight "title" against 5'5"142-pound Henry Armstrong. I don't know if they agreed to weight limits before the fight. But Armstrong knew Garcia well, he knew how big he was (or wasn't, I should say), and Armstrong was the name, so people bought into it.

So, even if there weren't "official" catchweight fights, there were tons of situations where two guys fought for titles and who barely cracked the 'bottom' of the weight limit, let alone came close to being over the limit.

Or, in the case of Armstrong and Garcia, didn't even crack the middleweight weight range when they fought for Garcia's title.

 

Can you imagine the uproar on this board if, let's say, Cotto weighed 153 and he defended his middleweight title against someone who weighed 142, like a Danny Garcia, while Golovkin waited on the sidelines.

People here would've just dropped dead of a heart attack.

 

wrong thread

 

Imagine this **** happening in other divisions? Like HW or LHW?

I wanna see Kov-Stevenson at 170...

 

It's as old as belts and weight classes but all the weight cutting from the day before weigh in era has made it more popular. That started in the eighties.

 

Roach and Pacquiao made it a norm

pair of ****roaches

 

And when did this recent turn of events start??

Who started this recent turn of events where catchweights in the same division started happening?

 

I think we all know the answer don’t we? Instead of waiting til Friday why don’t you answer the question : Who started this recent turn of events of catchweights in the same division?