How many weight divisions are there in pro boxing these days? You may well have lost count. There’s certainly a whole lot more than the traditional eight weight divisions our great sport once had – flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.
And now, in news that may depress a fight fan, yet another weight division has been created, has been announced into existence. The folks at the WBA have just announced the arrival of the super cruiserweight division, this for “small heavyweights” who tip-in at the 200 to 224 pound range.
Here’s the official statement from the WBA:
“The creation of this new weight will mainly help to avoid bouts in which the fighters enter the ring with excessive weight differences, as tends to happen at heavyweight occasionally, where there can be differences of 20 pounds or more. Fighters considered “small heavyweights” will have the option to move down to super cruiserweight and seek opportunities against more balanced weight opponents, in the quest to make the sport increasingly fairer. The WBA ranking committee has already begun working on the creation of the rankings for this weight and the first divisional match-ups will be announced soon. The WBA will continue to work on making boxing a fairer sport that provides opportunities and fairness to all involved, especially the boxers.”
However, as you might have expected, the new division – pretty much the same as the WBC creation known as bridgerweight – has been met by quite a bit of negativity from fans. Bridgerweight, now over three years old, has still not caught on with the majority of fight fans (and may never do so), and there is no real reason to think it will be any different with super cruiserweight. The average fan has a heck of a tough time following and being able to name all the current world champions as it is; in fact, it’s been this way for years.
The addition of yet another world title (or titles – interim, super, in recess and the like will surely come with the new division) will only add to the confusion. Heck, how long did it take for the cruiserweight division to become accepted?
Safety for all fighters is something we all recognise as important, for sure, but then the integrity of the sport is also very important. I can just hear an old time boxing fan now, asking ‘what the hell is a super cruiserweight!’
What do YOU think of the new weight division?