By Edward Chaykovsky
Former champion and thriving boxing manager Barry McGuigan is calling for a ban on catch-weight fights. In recent years, catch-weights have really built up steam. This year alone, several key fights were based around catch-weights. Even the upcoming fall showdown between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Miguel Cotto will take place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds, which is one above the junior middleweight limit of 154.
McGuigan feels catch-weights are usually in favor of the lighter fighter and crosses the line in providing one fighter with a significant advantage in the contest.
"It is time to save fighters from themselves and scrap catchweight contests all together. There are enough weight categories in the game to accommodate all shapes and sizes so there is no need to manipulate the weights," McGuigan wrote in The Mirror.
"Invariably catchweight contests in the modern era favour the lighter man in a way that is tantamount to cheating. In order to meet Miguel Cotto last month Australia’s Daniele Geale, a big middleweight, agreed to take the bout at 157lbs, 3lbs under the division’s limit. Some reports suggest he was more than 20lbs heavier when he crossed the ropes 24 hours later but that didn’t save him. The effort required for a big man to shed those extra 3lbs killed his chances. He was utterly drained and lost in four."
"Cotto, who would arguably have won anyway, was more than 3lbs lighter at the weigh-in, so you can see he wasn’t engaged in the same debilitating weight loss exercise.
"Managing weight is central to the boxing business. Ninety per cent of boxers will be shedding a stone or more between bouts, but if they are aiming at the conventional limits then the struggle is equal.
"Furthermore the IBF have ruled that if a champion gains more than 10lbs by the morning of the fight, he loses his title or, in the case of the challenger, the title is no longer on the line. This should be mandatory across all the sanctioning bodies.
"In days of old fighters would regularly step up or down in weight to fight a bigger or smaller opponent, but there was no attempt to massage the weights. The fighter simply took the risk to go up or down. These days catchweight contests invariably decide the outcome before a punch is thrown and should be banned."