How boxing would look today with the 8 original divisions

[larry x]

i just got an erection reading this...

[boxasmash]

Pacquiao and Khan would stay at 135

[dans]

Pacquiao and Khan would stay at 135

Yeah I think Pacquiao would move down. I'm not so sure about Khan though, I think he'll move to welterweight at some point. Maybe he would still be at LW now, but then move to WW in a couple years. Who knows.

[dans]

i just got an erection reading this...

Haha, tell me about it.

Can you imagine? I think top guys would lose much more often.

[dans]

If this set up were true today, would Floyd go to middleweight to fight for a title? Could Oscar have had an effective career as a middleweight?

[blacksocks]

So much is made of fighters like De La Hoya, Mayweather, and Pacquiao. Guys that go up the scales and win multiple titles. But I got thinking about how much harder it would be if we only had the 8 traditional divisions. Here's what the boxing landscape would look like starting at Bantamweight (I skipped Flyweight, sorry). Just the top guys.

Batamweight - Hasegawa, Johnny Perez, Nonito Donaire, Darchinyan, Montiel, Agbeko
Featherweight - Caballero, Juanma, Vasquez, Rafa Marquez, Chris John, Elio Rojas, Luevano, Gamboa, Rocky Juarez
Lightweight - Robert Guerrero, Soto, Juan M. Marquez, Guzman, Reyes, Valero, Katsidis, Demarco
Welterweight - Pacquiao, Hatton, Bradley, Campbell, Juan Diaz, Maidana, Khan, Devon Alexander, Kendall Holt, Victor Ortiz, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Cotto, Margarito, Mosley, Berto, Clottey
Middleweight - P. Williams, S. Martinez, Kirkland, Spinks, Cintron, Angulo, Phillips, Pavlik, Sturm, Mundine, Geale, Winky Wright, N'Dam N'Jikam
Light Heavyweight - Abraham, Froch, Bute, Kessler, Bika, Dirrell, Ward, Taylor, Stieglitz, Allan Green, Andrande, Miranda, Dawson, Jones Jr., Hopkins, Cloud, Pascal, Diaconu, Tarver, Johnson, Henry, Cleverly
Heavyweight - Basically the same except add Cunningham and a couple others.

Looking at this and how many times old school fighters fought, I would say it was a lot harder back then. Because there's less titles and less glory to be spread around, you get better fights more frequently.

I can only dream.

Including Flyweight, Pacquiao can still be gunning for his 5th title in as many divisions. That is more amazing than 7 titles in different divisions today!

[aether]

Including Flyweight, Pacquiao can still be gunning for his 5th title in as many divisions. That is more amazing than 7 titles in different divisions today!

i was thinking the same thing..

if that was the case, then pacquiao has already won a title in half of all the weight classes in boxing

[adrian62]

If we went back to the old school weight classes there would be less opportunity for fighters to "Be on top". It would make more interesting fight cards though. Imagine a fight card like this:
Main Event: Mayweather vs. Cotto
Victor Ortiz vs. Amir Khan
Joshua Clottey vs. Shane Mosley
Antonio Margarito vs. Andre Berto

This is just Welterweight. It would be great for boxing. A champ would be a true champion because of who he has to go through to get there. Great Post!!

[Poet682006]

Not only that, bring back same day weigh-ins so fighters will actually be fighting in their true divisions instead of signing for a Welterweight and showing up as a Light-Heavy.

Poet

[dans]

Including Flyweight, Pacquiao can still be gunning for his 5th title in as many divisions. That is more amazing than 7 titles in different divisions today!

True, but not completely true. As shown here, each division would have better depth, therefore it would be harder to get a title. It would take someone much longer to conquer divisions in this format.

For instance, Pac wouldn't have been able to just beat David Diaz and call it a day at LW. He'd have to beat several opponents and the best in the division. Not saying he wouldn't beat them, just that it would be harder, and in all likelihood take much longer.