No room for woodweights

Divisions for woodweight and ironweight boxers were never introduced but the history of weight classes is a fascinating subject.

James Figg, a bare-knuckle fighter from a poor farming family in Thames Village, Oxfordshire, declared himself champion of England in 1719.

It made him probably the first heavyweight champion of the world when there were no weight divisions.

At 1.82 m and weighing about 84 kg, he was a rather big man for those days, but in the 21st century he would have been a cruiserweight or junior heavyweight.

When Figg fought, there were no weight classes. Only in 1746 a so-called lightweight division was introduced in England.

At the time, a fighter was considered to be a lightweight just because he was not a big man. Some sources mentioned a limit of the equivalent of 70 kg and another at 76 kg.

In old reports mention was also made of medium-sized men who were called middleweights.

LIGHTWEIGHTS UNIMPORTANT

The lightweights were not taken seriously. Most of their bouts were preliminaries before the big boys began fighting.

In 1792 there were also fighters who called themselves welters, a horseracing term that referred to a weight horses carried in a handicap races. A weight of ten stone (63.50 kg) was reported.

Despite the likely existence of other weights only fights between bigger men were recognised as championship bouts. But boxers were allowed to compete in them irrespective of their weight.

Only during the 1880s, after the general adoption of the Queensberry Rules, an effort was made to standardise weight divisions in England and the United States.

Some sort of agreement was reached between the British and Americans in 1910. However, many of the weight limits they set were later changed.

The limits often fluctuated by considerable margins. Lightweight champion Willie Ritchie raised the limit in 1912 from 133 to 135 pounds (60 to 62.6 kg), and in 1894 Bob Fitzsimmons increased the middleweight limit from 154 to 158 pounds (70 to 71.8 kg). In 1915 it was raised to 160 (72.5 kg), its present limit.

Champion George Dixon decided to raise the featherweight limit from 115 to 120 pounds (52.1 to 54.5 kg).

LIGHT-HEAVIES INTRODUCED IN 1903

In 1903, Lou Houseman, the sports editor of the Chicago Inter-Ocean and manager of Jack Root, who had outgrown the middleweight division, established the light-heavyweight division.

The limit of 175 pounds (79 kg) has remained ever since but the division was recognised in Great Britain only in 1913.

The junior middleweight division, also known as light-middleweight or super-welterweight, was first recognised in 1962 by the WBA, with a limit of 154 pounds (70 kg). It was introduced into Britain as light-middleweight only in 1973.

The welterweight limit was 142 pounds (64.5 kg) in the 1880s before it was increased to its present 147 (66.7 kg) in 1909.

The lightweight limit has moved up and down over the years. It was 133 pounds (60.56 kg) in the 1860s, then moved to 140 (63.5 kg) before dropping to 133 again. In 1912 it was raised to its present limit of 135 pounds (61.2 kg).

The limit for the bantamweight division was set at 112 pounds (51.8 kg) in the 1850s but has fluctuated between 105 pounds (47.6 kg), 108 (49.1 kg), 112 (51 kg) and 116 (52.7 kg) until the present limit of 118 pounds (53.5 kg) was accepted by the US and Britain.

DREADNOUGHT DIVISION

There have been attempts to introduce divisions such as paperweight (95 or 105 pounds; 43 and 47.6 kg), woodweight (128 pounds; 58 kg), ironweight (150 pounds; 68.1 kg), dreadnought (over 200 pounds; 91 kg) and heavy-featherweight (122 pounds; 55.3 kg).

The junior divisions struggled for years to gain acceptance. Junior lightweight (130 pounds; 59 kg) and junior welterweight (140 pounds; 63.5 kg) classes were created around 1920 by the National Boxing Association in the US. These divisions took about 40 forty years to gain international acceptance.

The World Boxing Union even introduced a super-cruiserweight division (210 pounds; 95.4 kg). In one of the bouts in this class, South African Peter Smith was stopped in the first round by John McClain of the US on January 25, 1997. The division never gained recognition.

After the split between the WBA and the WBC in 1963, and later the formation of the IBF and WBO, new divisions were created, including mini-flyweight, light-flyweight, super-flyweight, super-bantamweight, super-middleweight and junior heavyweight.

These increased the total to 17 divisions, which are generally recognised now. The names of the divisions are not standardised but the limits are.

WEIGHT CLASSES IN AMATEUR BOXING

Amateur boxing emerged during the 19th century as a safer and more scientific style of boxing and was practised mostly in schools, universities and the armed forces.

The Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) was formed in Britain in 1880 and in its first championships four weight classes were contested: featherweight (126 pounds), lightweight (140 pounds), middleweight (158 pounds) and heavyweight, with no limit.

When the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) was formed in 1946 they used metric weights and rounded the limits to the nearest kilogram.

The weight classes in amateur boxing are: Super-heavyweight (over 91 kg), heavyweight (81 to 91), light-heavyweight (75 to 81), middleweight (69 to 75), welterweight (64 to 69), light-welterweight (60 to 64), lightweight (57 to 60), featherweight (54 to 57), bantamweight (52 to 56), flyweight (49 to 52) and light-flyweight (46 to 49).