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.
Famous quotes containing the words weight and/or class:
“The only thing of weight that can be said against modern honour is that it is directly opposite to religion. The one bids you bear injuries with patience, the other tells you if you don’t resent them, you are not fit to live.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)