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boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
, a weight class is a measurement
weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...
range for boxers. The lower limit of a weight class is equal to the upper weight limit of the class below it. The top class, with no upper limit, is called
heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
in
professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...
and super heavyweightAIBA, ''Technical & Competition Rules'', §1.2 & Appendix K in
amateur boxing Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...
. A boxing match is usually scheduled for a fixed weight class, and each boxer's weight must not exceed the upper limit. Although professional boxers may fight above their weight class, an amateur boxer's weight must not fall below the lower limit. A nonstandard weight limit is called a
catchweight A catchweight is a term used in combat sports, such as boxing or mixed martial arts, to describe a weight limit that does not adhere to the traditional limits for weight classes. In boxing, a catchweight is negotiated prior to weigh-ins, which are ...
.


Weigh-in

A boxer who is over the weight limit may strip naked to make the weight if the excess is minimal; otherwise, in a professional bout, one can try again later, typically after losing weight in the interim through
dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...
by vigorous exercise in a
steam room A steam bath is a steam-filled room for the purpose of relaxation and cleansing. It has a long history, going back to Greek and Roman times. History The origins of the steam bath come from the Roman bath, which began during the height of the R ...
. If the excess weight is too great, the effort expended trying to "make weight" will make the boxer unfit for the fight itself. In such cases the fight may be cancelled with the over-weight boxer sanctioned or the fight may proceed as a catchweight non-title fight. The
International Boxing Federation The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
(IBF) has a unique weigh-in policy in title fights. In addition to making the weight at the official weigh-in the day before the fight, the boxers are required to submit to a weight check on the morning of the fight. During this later weigh-in, the fighter must weigh no more than above the weight limit for the fight. If a boxer skips the morning weigh-in, or fails to make weight at that time, the fight can still proceed, but the IBF title will not be at stake. In heavyweight title fights, the second weigh-in is still mandatory, but since there is no upper weight limit in that class, a boxer can only be sanctioned for failing to submit to the weigh-in. An amateur boxer must make the weight at the initial weigh-in; there is no opportunity to try again later. Boxers who fail to make their projected weights are eliminated from their bouts. If the boxer fails a drug test, they are eliminated from the bout as well. There is a "general weigh-in" before the start of the tournament and a "daily weigh-in" on the morning of each of a fighter's bouts.AIBA, ''Technical & Competition Rules'', §5.1 At the general weigh-in, the fighter must be between the weight class's upper and lower limits; at the daily weigh-in only the upper limit is enforced. A fighter outside the limit at the initial weigh-in may be allowed to fight in a different class if there is space in the tournament. At major events such as boxing at the Olympics, there is a limit of one boxer per country per weight class.AIBA, ''Technical & Competition Rules'', §2.2


Culture

A boxer may fight different bouts at different weight classes. The trend for professionals is to move up to a higher class as they age, with muscle mass and bone density increasing over time. Winning titles at multiple weight classes to become a "multiple champion" is considered a major achievement. In amateur boxing, bouts are much shorter and much more frequent, and boxers fight at their "natural" weight. One boxer is said to be better "
pound for pound Pound for pound is a ranking used in combat sports, such as boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts, of who the better fighters are irrespective of their weight, i.e. adjusted to compensate for weight class. As these fighters do not compete direc ...
" than another if he is considered superior with due regard for their difference in weight. Theoretical comparisons of the merits of boxers in different weight classes are a popular topic for boxing fans, with a similar speculative appeal to comparing sports figures from different eras; in both cases, the competitors could never face each other in reality.


History

In the early nineteenth century, there were no standard weight classes. In 1823, the '' Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' said the limit for a "light weight" was 12
stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
(168 lb, 76.2 kg) while ''Sportsman's Slang'' the same year gave 11 stone (154 lb, 69.9 kg) as the limit. Size mismatches were dangerous for the smaller boxer and unsatisfying for the spectators. National and world titles could only become recognised if standard weight classes were agreed upon. Important sets of weight classes were those specified in 1909 by the
National Sporting Club The National Sporting Club was a club founded in London in 1891, which did more to establish the sport of boxing in Great Britain than any other organisation. Origins The club was founded on 5 March 1891 as a private club. Its premises were at ...
of
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, and those contained in the 1920
Walker Law The Walker Law passed in 1920 was an early New York state law regulating boxing. The law reestablished legal boxing in the state following the three-year ban created by the repeal of the Frawley Law. The law instituted rules that better ensured ...
which established the
New York State Athletic Commission The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, is a division of the New York State Department of State which regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, ...
(NYSAC). After the split in the 1960s between the WBC and the WBA, the divisions were narrowed, creating more champions simultaneously, and making it easier for fighters to move between different weight divisions. Among the professional bodies, the names of the new divisions are not standardized between different sanctioning bodies, although the cutoff weights are. These weights are specified in pounds, reflecting the historic dominance of Britain (and, later, the United States) in the sport.


Glamour divisions

Boxing has its own "Original Eight" weight divisions, also known as the "traditional", "classic", or "glamour" divisions. These divisions are the most prominent and widely recognized weight divisions in boxing.
Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He served as a Senator of the Phil ...
has won world championships in the greatest number of the glamour divisions, winning championships in the flyweight, featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight divisions.


Tweener divisions

The newcomer weight divisions or "tweener divisions", mostly recognized with either a "super", "light" or "junior" in front of their names, took many years to be fully recognized as legitimate weight divisions in boxing. Manny Pacquiao has won world championships in four of these divisions; super bantamweight, super featherweight, light welterweight and light middleweight.


Catchweights

A nonstandard weight limit is called a ''catchweight''. A catchweight may be agreed to for an individual bout—sometimes even for a championship bout—but championships are awarded only at the standard weight classes. For example, when
Manny Pacquiao Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr. (; born December17, 1978) is a Filipino politician and former professional boxer. Nicknamed "PacMan", he is regarded as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He served as a Senator of the Phil ...
fought
Antonio Margarito Antonio Margarito Montiel (born March 18, 1978) is a Mexican-American former professional boxer who competed between 1994 and 2017. He held multiple welterweight world championships, including the WBO title from 2002 to 2007, the IBF title in ...
at a catch-weight of 150 pounds, the
World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...
sanctioned this as a title fight for jr. middleweight, whose limit is 154 pounds.


Professional boxing

This table gives names and limits recognised by the four widely regarded sanctioning bodies ( WBA, WBC,
IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
, WBO), the label used in Boxrec.com's data, and by the magazines '' The Ring'' and '' Boxing News''.
Bridgerweight Bridgerweight is a weight class in professional boxing created and used by the World Boxing Council (WBC). The weight is named after six-year-old American Bridger Walker, who saved his four-year-old sister from a stray dog in July 2020. History Af ...
has been recognised by the WBC since November 2020, but is not currently recognised by any other bodies. The date is that since which a continuous world title has been recognised by a major sanctioning body; some classes had earlier champions recognised intermittently or by minor bodies. One current weight class with only minor recognition is " super cruiserweight"; widely used as an informal descriptor, it is a formal weight class of the lightly regarded International Boxing Association at a limit of 210 lb; the IBA's cruiserweight limit is 190 lb.


Amateur boxing

When the (amateur) International Boxing Association (AIBA) was founded in 1946 to govern amateur boxing, it metricated the weight class limits by
rounding Rounding means replacing a number with an approximate value that has a shorter, simpler, or more explicit representation. For example, replacing $ with $, the fraction 312/937 with 1/3, or the expression with . Rounding is often done to ob ...
them to the nearest kilogram. Subsequent alterations as outlined in the
boxing at the Summer Olympics Boxing has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since its introduction to the program at the 1904 Summer Olympics, except for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, because Swedish law banned the sport at the time. The 2008 Summer Olym ...
article; these have introduced further discrepancies between amateur and professional class limits and names. The lower weight classes are to be adjusted in September 2010, to establish an absolute minimum weight for adult boxers. Amateur weight classes also specify the ''minimum'' weight (which the same as the maximum weight of the next highest class). For safety reasons, fighters cannot fight at a higher weight. This also meant that even the heaviest weight class has a limit, albeit a lower bound. The lower limit for "heavyweight" was established in 1948 at 81 kg. When a new limit of 91+ kg was established in 1984, the name "heavyweight" was kept by the 81+ kg class, and the 91+ kg class was named "super heavyweight", a name not currently used in professional boxing. Classes are as follows: At the Olympics, each weight class is a separate
single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
awarding one gold, one silver and two bronze medals in each weight class. The event format is geared so that the finals of all represented weight classes are held over the last two days of the competition, entrants that fail to win on the penultimate day being the Bronze medal recipients with the finals deciding Gold and Silver on the final day, all of the bouts are scheduled in ascending order of weight with the super heavyweight final last of all. Each weight class conducts preliminary and qualification bouts, for all represented classes where the number of entrants requires multiple match-ups before the finals, with the match-ups of the lightest weight class requiring such fighting first and continuing with each subsequent higher weight class as required, further, second, third and fourth round match-ups may be required to complete the schedule using the same weight class progression to ultimately reach the finalAIBA, ''Technical & Competition Rules'', §7.6


See also

* Brazilian jiu-jitsu weight classes *
Kickboxing weight classes Kickboxing weight classes are weight classes that pertain to the sport of kickboxing. Organizations will often adopt their own rules for weight limits, causing ambiguity in the sport regarding how a weight class should be defined. For a variety of ...
*
Mixed martial arts weight classes Mixed martial arts weight classes are weight classes that pertain to the sport of mixed martial arts. Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts Prior to state sanctioning, weight classes were not mandatory since the competitions were held without the a ...
*
Taekwondo weight classes In taekwondo, a weight class is a standardized weight range for taekwondo practitioners. The upper weight limit for each class is the maxiumum weight for that class. The minimum weight for each class must be above the maximum weight for the next lo ...
*
Professional wrestling weight classes In professional wrestling, a weight class is a standardized weight range for the wrestlers. The top class in almost every promotion is heavyweight, but super heavyweights exist. Weight class matches in modern-day American professional wrestling a ...
*
Wrestling weight classes In most styles of wrestling, opponents are matched based on weight class. Olympic and international weight classes In international competition, men's freestyle wrestling, men's Greco-Roman wrestling, and female wrestling utilize following weigh ...


References


External links

* * {{World boxing champions Boxing