The History Of Weight Classes In Combat Sports: Why They Matter

You’ve probably heard terms like “featherweight,” “middleweight,” and “heavyweight” being thrown around if you’ve ever watched combat sports or competed at tournaments. Weight classes have become fundamental to modern combat sports, making contests more evenly matched.

The History Of Weight Classes In Combat Sports

Let’s explore the history behind the weight classes used in combat sports and how dividing athletes based on what they weigh leads to fairer, safer, more technical competitions.

The Early Days Of Combat Sports: No Weight Classes And Lots Of Chaos

Weight classes didn’t exist in the 19^th century, leading to insane lopsided matchups where one contestant was bigger and stronger than the other. As you can imagine, these led to some rather brutal outcomes as smaller fighters often found themselves getting overpowered.

It also made contests less technical since larger fighters could dominate most opponents with their strength. Smaller fighters had to rely on their speed and technique, but that wasn’t always enough against much bigger opponents.

Without weight classes, fights were skewed in favor of larger, stronger fighters, leading to matches that were neither fair nor safe.

The Birth Of Weight Classes In Boxing

Boxing was the first sport to recognize that weight classes were needed to make bouts fair as it started gaining popularity in the late 19^th century. The Marquess of Queensberry Rules were introduced in 1867 to bring much-needed structure to the first combat sport to enjoy considerable popularity.

The Queensberry Rules introduced boxing gloves and established weight divisions to make matchups fairer.

By 1909, the National Sporting Club in London had formalized the first set of weight classes, dividing fighters into eight divisions: flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.

The introduction of weight classes led to more balanced fights that allowed fighters to showcase their skills instead of relying on brute strength. These changes were needed to make boxing the sweet science it has evolved into today.

The Evolution Of Weight Classes In MMA

Weight classes had already been established when mixed martial arts emerged at the end of the 20^th century, but there weren’t enough competitors to use early MMA promoters to use weight classes. The new combat sport also marketed itself as a no-holds-barred combat sport where martial artists from different martial artists tested their skills against one another.

The lack of weight classes arguably helped the growth of MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as it led to some iconic matchups that didn’t go down how fans had anticipated, like Royce Gracie vs. Kimo Leopoldo, which came to an abrupt end when Gracie secured an armbar. Kimo weighed 250 pounds for the contest, while Royce weighed 176 pounds.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship introduced weight classes in 1997, dividing fighters into two categories: Heavyweights and lightweights. Heavyweights were fighters who weighed more than 200 pounds, while lightweights weighed under 200 pounds. More divisions were added over the years, creating the divisions we see today.

The introduction of weight classes in MMA leveled the playing field, increased fighter safety, and helped to legitimize the sport, allowing it to gain mainstream status a decade later.

Why Weight Classes Matter

Weight classes were developed to match fights evenly, so outcomes are determined by skill and strategy, not brute strength.

1) Fairness

Sparring with someone twice your size isn’t the same as competing against someone double your size. Your larger training partners will typically take things easy on you, but you can’t expect that treatment from strangers.

Fighting someone significantly larger than you nullifies many of your techniques. You’d typically have to be considerably more skilled than your adversary to overcome their strength advantage over you.

2) Safety

Combat sports are dangerous enough when your opponent isn’t 50 pounds larger than you. The risk goes up exponentially when there’s a significant size mismatch. Heavier fighters tend to hit harder than smaller ones and can absorb more strikes.

It’s why ONE Championship‘s heavyweight division sees way more knockouts than its flyweight division. Weight classes help to reduce the risk of fighters getting injured during their fights.

3) Strategy

Weight classes force fighters to rely more on strategy instead of trying to overpower their opponents. Weight classes ensure you aren’t significantly stronger than your opponents and vice versa. You might be taller or have longer limbs, but your strength levels will be close to each other, forcing you to work on implementing game plans that allow you to capitalize on your other attributes.

Weight classes lead to more entertaining contests where the more technically skilled fighter is more likely to emerge victorious.

The Art Of Weight Cutting

If you’re a fan of combat sports, you’ve probably noticed that many fighters appear much bigger on fight days than during their weigh-ins. Weight cutting is a sometimes controversial practice involving fighters dropping significant water weight before their fights to compete in lower divisions where they might have a strength advantage. These fighters rehydrate after weigh-ins and can weigh as much as 30 pounds more by the next day.

While weight-cutting gives fighters an advantage that allows them to compete in lower divisions, it’s not always done safely. Excessive weight cutting can lead to issues like kidney failure, which can be fatal. It can also leave fighters dehydrated, more prone to fatigue, and easier to knock out during fights because their bodies haven’t fully recovered from their weight cut.

Major MMA promotions like ONE Championship have added hydration tests as part of their weigh-in process to ensure fighters aren’t cutting excessive amounts of water weight. The safe way to cut weight leading to competition is to burn excess fat on your body to make it leaner and more compact.

The Future Of Weight Classes

Weight classes have continued to evolve as combat sports do the same. There’s been an ongoing discussion in MMA circles for years about adding more weight classes to eliminate the wide range of the middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions.

There’s also been talk of adding a new weight class between the lightweight and welterweight divisions.

Ready To Find Your Weight Class?

Weight classes play a role in how you train and compete. Many gyms will pair you with different-sized training partners to get you comfortable with diverse body types, but most of your time will be spent working with similarly-sized training partners.

You’re forced to focus on techniques, timing, and speed when training with people of similar size, which helps to grow your skills.

At Evolve MMA, we offer classes that can help you find the right balance between skill, strategy, and technique as you develop your fighting style. Come to one of our complimentary classes to work with our world-class instructors.

Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!

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