How Are We Faring in Our Traditional Weight Classes? (Last of Four Parts)
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 26 Dec 2022
Introduction
The unbundling of the original eight boxing weight classes has, through particularly last more than forty years, resulted in the what we have as 17 Divisions, 18 if we will consider the newly coined bridgerweight class, currently.
Be that as it may, there have been boxing purists that still reckon professional boxing based on the original eight to ten weight classes, i.e. flyweight as the lowest division and the heavyweights as the biggest which it is still now, despite the call by some to institute the so called super heavyweight class. Their main argument is that the original weight classes have been instituted based on sound scientific grounds taking into consideration physical and physiological factors, though those were determined more than a century ago.
Purists agreed to give some more grounds beginning the late 80s though as the combined factors of physiologically growing population and the fact that the weight difference in certain higher divisions is indeed too huge to overcome or compensate (especially for those moving up, or down, in weight), resulted to the creation of the minimumweight otherwise known as straw weight as the smallest division and the institution of the light/junior and super classes between and among the other divisions.
From the dawn of boxing back at the turn of the last century and through the years and decades that followed, Filipino boxers have established themselves and even created a niche in certain weight classes, particularly in the flyweight and lightweight divisions, to include the junior and super classes.
In the first three parts, we reviewed, assessed and discussed how Filipino fighters fared in the past three to five years in the flyweights, the bantamweights and the featherweights which for the purpose of this study, included the minimumweight and the light flyweight classes and the junior classes in the 118 lbs and 126 lbs divisions.
In this fourth and last part, we will endeavor to review and assess our performance and prospects if any in traditionally the first glamour weight class moving up, the lightweights which for years has been regarded as a Mt Everest for our hardluck fighters from boxing earliest days, with the extraordinary exception of one Manny Pacquiao.
Part 4: The Lightweights-Pinoy Boxers "Mt Everest"
Given our physique and physical stature, it seems that in boxing, the higher the weight class, the harder is the degree of difficulty.
Apart from the physiological factor, this is borne out of how the heavier divisions have been originally conceived and designed to suit primarily fighters from the West where boxing originated.
Through the years, certain rules were also modified and liberalised to cater to the naturally bigger Anglo Saxon and Caucasian fighters like the changing of official weigh-in schedule from the day of the fight to the day before the fight and allowing for higher overweight allowance before the fight.
For like the featherweights which is seen as jump-off point for the lightweights, the lightweights is generally regarded as pre-departure for the welterweights and beyond.
The greatest boxer Sugar Ray Robinson started briefly as a lightweight before establishing his legendary career in the welterweight and middleweight. Henry Armstrong also had a pit stop at 135 lbs before fully settling as one of the greatest welterweight champions of all time.
In the more recent times, we have had Roberto Duran, Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and our very own Manny Pacquiao.
Now Pacquiao being a freak of nature, his case is also a freak in boxing as far as the lightweights is concerned.
Before Pacquiao, no Filipino fighter had come near to winning a major world title at lightweight from boxing's earliest days.
Ceferino Garcia started out as lightweight but did not come close to vying for the world title, not even getting high world ranking.
The late great Gabriel Flash Elorde twice tried to unseat Puerto Rican great Carlos Ortiz in the 60s but twice he was separated from his senses. The main reason was Elorde was a blown up featherweight at best while Ortiz was essentially a sawn off welterweight at fight time. Earlier Bert Somodio tried to take the world crown from Ortiz predecessor Joe Bones Brown in Manila but was outgunned losing by wide decision. In both cases, the prevailing rule was still day of the fight weigh in and yet, the Filipinos never had a ghost of a chance of winning.
(Yet, oddly certain Filipino fighters managed to win world championships at the super lightweight class as Roberto Cruz and later Pedro Adigue and FilAm Morris East).
Hence the lightweight began to be considered as a Mt Everest for Filipino fighters from then on with our record of futility piling up through the years.
Until Manny Pacquiao came along and broke the jinx in 2008 by winning the country's first and only world lightweight championship by brutalising and knocking out American David Diaz for his fifth division world title in Las Vegas.
But even then, before the fight, Philippine Congress had to hold a hearing to dissuade Pacquiao from fighting Diaz, our legislators wanting Manny to be spared from what happened to Elorde versus Ortiz one winter night in New York in 1966.
The day before the fight weighin did not give Diaz, a sawnoff welter like Ortiz, any advantage as Pacquiao, despite having his first fight at 135, tore through the barrel chested former Olympian from almost from the get go, relenting only when Diaz was down for the full count on the canvas, a bloody mess in the eighth round
But again, Manny Pacquiao is a generational wonder who would later wreck havoc at 140, 147 and even 154 lbs weight divisions. The bigger they were, the harder they fall from Pacquiao's unique combination of speed and power.
Therefore it would be foolish to make Pacquiao as pattern for Filipino fighters campaigning at lightweight going forward.
In the recent years, certain Filipino fighters had the chance to fight for world lightweight titles as Cesar Amonsot (WBO) and Michael Farenas (WBC) but both were outclassed by their taller and bigger opponents.
For a while, there also emerged Filipino fighters at lightweight fancied to give at least stiff competition at global stage as Mercito Gesta and Romero Duno but they have since been proven as no more than hype jobs.
As mentioned before, Genesis Servania who made some impact at the featherweight has moved up to the lightweights but his sojourn has been marked by crushing defeats including a first round knockout to a bigger American foe.
It will take another generational fighter for us to gain credibility and respectability in this talent laden division.
Part I: What Are We Missing At Flyweight?
Part II: The Bantamweight Bubble is Still On
Part 3: The Featherweights Continuing Enigma
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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