Early forms of the middleweight divison sprouted up in the 1800s. The first official middleweight limit was marked at 154 lbs in 1909. Due to a US law called Walker’s Law, the limit was raised to 160 lbs.
ProBoxing-Fans.com takes pride in our in-depth weight class rankings for every division. But there’s much more to the boxing weight divisions than simply who is in the top 10 right now. The sport has evolved a great deal over the years and as such, today there are many more divisions than there used to be.
First established in 1979 by the WBC with a limit of 190 lbs to fit smaller heavyweight fighters who couldn’t compete with the growing size of the other boxers in the division. The first sanctioned cruiserweight champion fight was between Mate Parlov and Marvin Camel for the new WBC Cruiserweight belt. However, with the first match ending in a draw, it was the rematch in which Camel emerged victorious to become the very first cruiserweight world champ.
Walker Smith, later known as Sugar Ray Robinson, had a stellar ring career that lasted between 1940 and 1965. He was one of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time. Robinson was a five-time middleweight champion as well as the welterweight champion for five consecutive years. Sugar Ray Robinson was not just the most charismatic sportsman that ever lived. He also had an incredibly versatile boxing style with an ability to find a weakness in any opponent.
The beginnings of the current version of the belt were initially created in 1889 by the Amature Boxing Association of England. It was later modified and officially established by the National Sporting Club (NSC) in 1909 at the weight limit of 160 lbs.
Frazier was born January 12, 1944, the twelfth child of Dolly Alston-Frazier and Rubin in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was raised in Laurel Bay, South Carolina, a rural community in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Frazier said that he was always close to his father, who carried him when he was a toddler "over the 10 acres of farmland" the Fraziers worked as sharecroppers "to the still where he made his bootleg corn liquor, and into town on Saturdays to buy the necessities that a family of 10 needed." He was affectionately called "Billie Boy".
Notes: Josh Taylor is in at No. 8. He was a borderline guy for me even when we first started including the P4P rankings, he was someone I thought strongly about at the back end of the top 10, and he’s fully made his case as one of the 10 best fighters in the sport regardless of weight.
Hailing from Panama, Roberto Durán is one of the most iconic figures in the Lightweight division. Known as "Hands of Stone," Durán’s aggressive style and formidable punching power made him a dominant force in the lightweight category.
In the United Kingdom, "light heavyweight boxing weight division heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably before the current cruiserweight class was introduced. The current weight limit for this division is 200 pounds (90.7 kg).
Spence came up short in his highly anticipated showdown against Crawford, getting dropped three times before the fight was stopped in the ninth round. A career-long welterweight, Spence, 33, will head north to 154 pounds for his next fight. Will it be against Crawford? Spence has the contractual right to a rematch, but it may be wiser to take a fight (or two) at junior middleweight before getting back in with Bud.
In their first fight, which took place at the Staples Center in LA on December 1, 2018, it was Wilder who provided the spectacular. After being outboxed for most of the contest, "The Bronze Bomber" landed a ferocious two-punch combination that dropped Fury hard in the 12th and final round. Incredibly, the Englishman found his feet and fought back hard until the final bell.
Back in the early nineteenth century, there were no established weight classes in boxing. According to the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1823, a "lightweight" had a limit of 12 stone (168 lb, 76.2 kg), while Sportsman's Slang in the same year cited the limit as 11 stone (154 lb, 69.9 kg).
Biggest moment or accomplishment: Anderson's toughest test came in July when he faced former titleholder Charles Martin in a homecoming bout in Toledo, Ohio. Anderson appeared hurt at one juncture and didn't come that close to putting Martin away (as Luis Ortiz did last year), but he did win virtually every round against a legitimate gatekeeper.
He stays unbeaten and moves to 22-0 after adding the WBC belt to his WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles, also having a major claim to beat the likes of Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue to pound-for-pound No1 status. Fury, meanwhile, drops to 34-1-1 after suffering an agonising first loss of his professional career.
There’s some ridiculous fighting records on this section of the list, with the biggest name arguably Lennox Lewis, The Lion was undisputed heavyweight champion in 2002, with no other man being able to achieve the feat since, showing us the size of his accomplishments when you consider some of the greats who have come after him.
ProBoxing-Fans.com takes pride in our in-depth weight class rankings for every division. But there’s much more to the boxing weight divisions than simply who is in the top 10 right now. The sport has evolved a great deal over the years and as such, today there are many more divisions than there used to be.
First established in 1979 by the WBC with a limit of 190 lbs to fit smaller heavyweight fighters who couldn’t compete with the growing size of the other boxers in the division. The first sanctioned cruiserweight champion fight was between Mate Parlov and Marvin Camel for the new WBC Cruiserweight belt. However, with the first match ending in a draw, it was the rematch in which Camel emerged victorious to become the very first cruiserweight world champ.
Walker Smith, later known as Sugar Ray Robinson, had a stellar ring career that lasted between 1940 and 1965. He was one of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time. Robinson was a five-time middleweight champion as well as the welterweight champion for five consecutive years. Sugar Ray Robinson was not just the most charismatic sportsman that ever lived. He also had an incredibly versatile boxing style with an ability to find a weakness in any opponent.
The beginnings of the current version of the belt were initially created in 1889 by the Amature Boxing Association of England. It was later modified and officially established by the National Sporting Club (NSC) in 1909 at the weight limit of 160 lbs.
Frazier was born January 12, 1944, the twelfth child of Dolly Alston-Frazier and Rubin in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was raised in Laurel Bay, South Carolina, a rural community in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Frazier said that he was always close to his father, who carried him when he was a toddler "over the 10 acres of farmland" the Fraziers worked as sharecroppers "to the still where he made his bootleg corn liquor, and into town on Saturdays to buy the necessities that a family of 10 needed." He was affectionately called "Billie Boy".
Notes: Josh Taylor is in at No. 8. He was a borderline guy for me even when we first started including the P4P rankings, he was someone I thought strongly about at the back end of the top 10, and he’s fully made his case as one of the 10 best fighters in the sport regardless of weight.
Hailing from Panama, Roberto Durán is one of the most iconic figures in the Lightweight division. Known as "Hands of Stone," Durán’s aggressive style and formidable punching power made him a dominant force in the lightweight category.
In the United Kingdom, "light heavyweight boxing weight division heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably before the current cruiserweight class was introduced. The current weight limit for this division is 200 pounds (90.7 kg).
Spence came up short in his highly anticipated showdown against Crawford, getting dropped three times before the fight was stopped in the ninth round. A career-long welterweight, Spence, 33, will head north to 154 pounds for his next fight. Will it be against Crawford? Spence has the contractual right to a rematch, but it may be wiser to take a fight (or two) at junior middleweight before getting back in with Bud.In their first fight, which took place at the Staples Center in LA on December 1, 2018, it was Wilder who provided the spectacular. After being outboxed for most of the contest, "The Bronze Bomber" landed a ferocious two-punch combination that dropped Fury hard in the 12th and final round. Incredibly, the Englishman found his feet and fought back hard until the final bell.
Back in the early nineteenth century, there were no established weight classes in boxing. According to the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1823, a "lightweight" had a limit of 12 stone (168 lb, 76.2 kg), while Sportsman's Slang in the same year cited the limit as 11 stone (154 lb, 69.9 kg).
Biggest moment or accomplishment: Anderson's toughest test came in July when he faced former titleholder Charles Martin in a homecoming bout in Toledo, Ohio. Anderson appeared hurt at one juncture and didn't come that close to putting Martin away (as Luis Ortiz did last year), but he did win virtually every round against a legitimate gatekeeper.He stays unbeaten and moves to 22-0 after adding the WBC belt to his WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles, also having a major claim to beat the likes of Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue to pound-for-pound No1 status. Fury, meanwhile, drops to 34-1-1 after suffering an agonising first loss of his professional career.
There’s some ridiculous fighting records on this section of the list, with the biggest name arguably Lennox Lewis, The Lion was undisputed heavyweight champion in 2002, with no other man being able to achieve the feat since, showing us the size of his accomplishments when you consider some of the greats who have come after him.