Weight Classes

Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. This reduces the exclusion of smaller athletes in sports where physical size gives a significant advantage. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, wrestling, and mixed martial arts).

The existence of weight divisions gives rise to the practice of weight cutting. It is generally considered an advantage to be the largest individual in a weight division, therefore some athletes will work hard to lose weight through dieting and dehydration prior to weigh-ins to meet the required weight class.

Two alternatives exist to formal weight classes: catch weight and openweight.

In general, the lightest class is called "Mini Flyweight" and is just 105 lb or under, and the heaviest is called "Super Heavyweight", which is 220.1 lb and over.


Read more about Weight Classes:  See Also

Famous quotes containing the words weight and/or classes:

    Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)

    When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.
    William James (1842–1910)