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WHY WE NEED THE CRUISERWEIGHT DIVISION

posted by Kathleen Holland on August 6, 2007, in Features

Story by Jim Amato

The cruiser weight divsion brings up some interesting scenarios. First of all I DETEST all these weight divisions. When I first started following boxing, there were the original eight standard weight divisions. Then eventually, the 140 and 130 pound weight classes were accepted. Now it has become ridiculous !

I guess at this time you may be able to justify a 200 pound division.This "bastard" division has been under scrutiny from its inception as the 190 pound weight class.Later it was bumped up to 200 pounds. In my opinion there have only been two recognizable cruiserweight champions, Evander Holyfield and Dwight Muhammad Qawi. There epic first fight when Vander dethroned Quwi was a fifteen round classic.For the most part though the cruiserweight division has been a colorless weight class.

These heavyweights today are MONSTERS ! When I was growing up, Sonny Liston was a BIG heavyweight at 212. Big heavyweights after Sonny were usually on flabby side. Guys like Buster Mathis who was an under rated boxer did not possess a cut physique. If you doubt Buster Senior's talents, get a tape of his bout with rugged George Chuvalo. Buster showed in that bout that he was a world class fighter. Even "Big" George Foreman in his first career was a tight and ready 220 to 225 pounds. Again small by today's standards. The Joe Frazier who beat Ali in the March 8th, 1971 "Fight Of The Century" weighed less then 210 pounds.

Later you had talented but over weight boxers like Tony Tubbs, Tim Witherspoon and James Broad. Today these big guys like Lennox Lewis and the Klitschko brothers are around 250 pounds of rock solid muscle. Kenny Norton was an extremely well built heavyweight in his day but by today's standards he would be considered a small heavyweight.

So yes, I think the 200 pound division is very viable in this day and age.

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