Is there a link between pro wrestling and the disdain for lighter weight classes?

[Lucifer Alpha]

boxing has weight classes and noone argues that david haye could beat up floyd mayweather because noone cares.

Boxing promotes individual fighters and matchups whereas the UFC and its fans are obsessed with weight classes. In boxing they just weigh in the day before and stfu about it. It took me ten years to find out that Barrera was a flyweight (MMA).

 

[Brueskie]

How?

It's kind of hard to quantify, for me anyway. You can just tell they're not moving around and throwing kicks and punches with the mass and power of a larger man. Even if they fought alone in a featureless room with nothing to give away their true scale

 

[welcometohavoc]

some of the most popular wrestlers are fairly small guys, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio

But small by wrestling standards is probably a lot bigger than 125-155

Yeah all the guys you listed are 220+, which is considered small in pro-wrestling, but HW in MMA

 

[kidcaustic**]

It's kind of hard to quantify, for me anyway. You can just tell they're not moving around and throwing kicks and punches with the mass and power of a larger man. Even if they fought alone in a featureless room with nothing to give away their true scale—such as a normal-sized ref, cage height, whatever—I could still tell they were little guys.

Don't see how that's like watching kids fight. Have you seen kids fight?

 

[IloveTHIS]

It's kind of hard to quantify, for me anyway. You can just tell they're not moving around and throwing kicks and punches with the mass and power of a larger man. Even if they fought alone in a featureless room with nothing to give away their true scale

 

[kflo]

Boxing promotes individual fighters and matchups whereas the UFC and its fans are obsessed with weight classes. In boxing they just weigh in the day before and stfu about it. It took me ten years to find out that Barrera was a flyweight (MMA).

weight class titles were alot bigger issue in boxing when there wasn't a different weight class every few pounds for every sanctioning body.

 

[Concrete]

Yeah all the guys you listed are 220+, which is considered small in pro-wrestling, but HW in MMA

....Are they though? Especially if they did a weight cut?

 

[kflo]

the fact is the more time we've had to care about a weight class, the more we've cared about that weight class.

 

[kidcaustic**]

weight class titles were alot bigger issue in boxing when there wasn't a different weight class every few pounds for every sanctioning body.

Lol, "Light Flyweight"...

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

weight class titles were alot bigger issue in boxing when there wasn't a different weight class every few pounds for every sanctioning body.

I like it better that way. Create a bunch of titles so people can't keep track of them which puts the focus on the fighter, not the weight. For instance, my fav boxer now is Golovkin. I don't know what he weighs (I think it's 160) and I don't know if he's a champion of anything. I just know that's he a badass boxer and that's all that matters to me.

 

[kflo]

I like it better that way. Create a bunch of titles so people can't keep track of them which puts the focus on the fighter, not the weight. For instance, my fav boxer now is Golovkin. I don't know what he weighs (I think it's 160) and I don't know if he's a champion of anything. I just know that's he a badass boxer and that's all that matters to me.

it helps to determine just how big of a badass he is by knowing who he is fighting near his weight class. boxing as a more fractured, individually promoted sport just has a different presentation and marketing. i don't know how mma could replicate such an approach.

 

[RedRackham]

But at the same time

Because that guy in the gif is small and very popular.

 

[welcometohavoc]

....Are they though? Especially if they did a weight cut?

The point being that small in the WWE is alot bigger than small in MMA. So using "small" WWE guys as an example that "small" performers can still be popular, when they're still larger than the average UFC fighter, doesn't work.

 

[Pem123]

if only your opinion held any value ):

if only your opinion held any value to the rest of the forums, WHITE BELT !!

 

[RedRocket44]

I haven't had an interest in pro wrestling since I was like 11, and I've never really been able to get interested in the divisions below 155, despite trying on numerous occasions, so if that's the link then sure.

I don't know why people try to draw absolute conclusions.
-If you like pro wrestling, or you're a casual fan then you must not like the light weight classes.
-You're not a real fan of the sport if you don't like the smaller weight classes.

shit gets old pretty quick.

 

[Lucifer Alpha]

I haven't had an interest in pro wrestling since I was like 11, and I've never really been able to get interested in the divisions below 155, despite trying on numerous occasions, so if that's the link then sure.

Watching 155 but not 145 makes no sense at all. These five fighters were once considered number one at lightweight:

Jens Pulver
BJ Penn
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Frankie Edgar
Shinya Aoki

All compete at FW now aside from Pulver who fights at 135. Jose Aldo has also beaten the former champ and #1 contender at LW.

 

[JayElectra]

I like it better that way. Create a bunch of titles so people can't keep track of them which puts the focus on the fighter, not the weight. For instance, my fav boxer now is Golovkin. I don't know what he weighs (I think it's 160) and I don't know if he's a champion of anything. I just know that's he a badass boxer and that's all that matters to me.

Golovkin has one of the big 4 titles at MW. Many would consider him to be the best MW in the world even though he has one win over a genuinely top level MW (Macklin). Macklin isn't exactly a world beater, either. Sergio Martinez is still the Ring MW champion (the Ring championship belt traditionally is who Ring magazine recognizes to be the "man" at a given weight class; it is reasonably reliable in my view), and the lineal champion of the world (in addition to the WBC titlist and formerly the WBO titlist, though that was unjustifiably stripped from him). As much as people complain about the multiple belts that there are in boxing, they actually make it much harder for legitimately talented fighters to slip through the cracks (there is a very long history of this happening in boxing). Golovkin has also been calling out various JMWs (mostly Mayweather who is technically the Ring champion at JMW, though, he will likely never fight at JMW again seeing as he only goes there for super fights, and he is already a small WW that could conceivable still make LW if he ever chose to cut weight, which he doesn't). Golovkin has been notably quiet regarding Andre Ward, though (a man that fights on the same network as himself and is universally regarded at the #2 p4p fighter in the world who weighs negligibly more than himself).

 

[Frank23]

Size does matter.

 

[cakemuncher]