From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
- For the mixed martial arts division of the same name, see Middleweight (MMA)
Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1867. Chandler won, becoming known as the American middleweight champion.
The first middleweight fight with gloves may have been between George Fulljames and Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey (no relation to the more famous heavyweight of the same name). Dempsey knocked out Fulljames on July 30, 1884.
In the modern era, middleweight means that the fighter's official weight does not exceed 160 pounds (73 kg). (In practice, however, since weigh-ins take place usually 24 hours before the actual fight, many fighters show up at the actual ringside weighing more.)
The current middleweight champion, Jermain Taylor, won a controversial split decision victory in July 2005, upsetting the defending champion, Bernard Hopkins, who had held the title since 1995. Taylor solidified his claim to the middleweight title by again defeating Hopkins in a December 2005 rematch, this time by unanimous decision.
Some notable middleweights have been:
- Harry Greb, arguably the greatest of all the middleweights, and like Robinson, among the all-time greatest pound-for-pound
- Stanley Ketchel
- Charley Burley, who along with Archie Moore and Loyd Marshall was most notable among the Black Murderer's Row, Burley was renowned for his defensive skill
- Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta
- "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, who unified the title and defended it 12 times
- Carlos Monzon, who defended the title 14 times
- Nino Benvenuti, world champion in 1967 and again from 1968 to 1970
- Bob Fitzsimmons, who was the first fighter - there have only been a handful since - to hold titles in three of the original eight divisions, this was his "natural" weight class
- Tony Zale
- Mike McCallum
- Mickey Walker
- Gene Fullmer
- Dick Tiger
- Emile Griffith
- Sugar Ray Robinson
- Bernard Hopkins
- Rocky Graziano
[edit] Olympic champions
- 1904 –
Charles Mayer (USA)
- 1908 –
John Douglas (GBR)
- 1920 – Harry Mallin (GBR)
- 1924 – Harry Mallin (GBR)
- 1928 –
Piero Toscani (ITA)
- 1932 –
Carmen Barth (USA)
- 1936 –
Jean Despeaux (FRA)
- 1948 –
László Papp (HUN)
- 1952 – Floyd Patterson (USA)
- 1956 –
Gennadiy Shatkov (URS)
- 1960 –
Eddie Crook, Jr. (USA)
- 1964 – Valeriy Popenchenko (URS)
- 1968 – Chris Finnegan (GBR)
- 1972 – Vyacheslav Lemeshev (URS)
- 1976 – Michael Spinks (USA)
- 1980 –
José Gómez (CUB)
- 1984 –
Shin Joon-Sup (KOR)
- 1988 –
Henry Maske (GDR)
- 1992 – Ariel Hernández (CUB)
- 1996 – Ariel Hernández (CUB)
- 2000 – Jorge Gutiérrez (CUB)
- 2004 –
Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov (RUS)
[edit] Professional Champions
- List of middleweight boxing champions