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True. Leonard, who had been fighting at lower weight divisions, was made to go up to 165 while Lalonde who had won tne then vacant WBC LightHeavyweight title from Eddie Davis while weighing 173 lbs. then defended the title against Leslie Stewart at 172, went down to 167.
Leonard's heaviest prior to the Lalonde fight was 160; vs. Hagler. Lalonde weighed less than 170 only thrice in his career that spanned 47 fights and the last time was about three years prior to facing Leonard. He even debuted at 175 and didn't get down to less than 170 (he went down to 169) until his 5th engagement when he beat Jean Claude LeClair who weighed close to 14 lbs heavier. Odd, that matter of going down in weight to fight a much heavier guy...Strange, indeed.
165 vs. 167 was a range that effectively had no division in the WBC, which was a situation tha the geniuses of that governing body who have a well acknowledged distate for money and are possessed of hearts that have only the welfare of boxing at its core, quickly rectified by coming up with a Super Middleweight belt, then putting it on the line although they already santioned the contest as Lalonde's LighHeavyweight defense.
And, thus, a new division was born...from catchweight.
Leonard's heaviest prior to the Lalonde fight was 160; vs. Hagler. Lalonde weighed less than 170 only thrice in his career that spanned 47 fights and the last time was about three years prior to facing Leonard. He even debuted at 175 and didn't get down to less than 170 (he went down to 169) until his 5th engagement when he beat Jean Claude LeClair who weighed close to 14 lbs heavier. Odd, that matter of going down in weight to fight a much heavier guy...Strange, indeed.
165 vs. 167 was a range that effectively had no division in the WBC, which was a situation tha the geniuses of that governing body who have a well acknowledged distate for money and are possessed of hearts that have only the welfare of boxing at its core, quickly rectified by coming up with a Super Middleweight belt, then putting it on the line although they already santioned the contest as Lalonde's LighHeavyweight defense.
And, thus, a new division was born...from catchweight.
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