Feather, fly and superfly, rooster and supercooster - all these specific expressions do not refer to the field of poultry farming or insect control, but to professional sports. More precisely - to professional boxing. And it means the weight categories in which such famous boxers as Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez, Rio Miyazaki and others compete.
What is a weight category?
This is a boxer's own weight limit controlled by the arbiters. Within its framework, an athlete has the right to take part in official competitions in the ring. The final weigh-in is carried out immediately before the start of the tournament or fight on an electronic scale. Where boxers become without outerwear, or even completely negligee, shyly hiding behind sheets. These numbers give the judges the right to determine their weight categories for the participants.
In 1936, in the USSR, for the first time, a fight for the title of the absolute champion of the country took place without taking into account the categories. Heavyweight Viktor Mikhailov and light heavyweight Nikolai Korolev met in it. Korolev won a confident dinner - 7: 2. He won a year later - 3: 0.
Boxing without gloves
Sports historians argue that at the beginning of its history, boxing was only professional, without a clear division into categories that exists today. However, he did not have many other things - gloves, helmets, caps, even the ring with ropes that is so familiar now.
As for the fights, they took place practically without rules: two people, often of different heights, weight and physique, converged where they agreed, and began to box with their bare hands. Such boxing, or rather a banal men's fight, could go on for hours, ending in the victory of a more enduring opponent who dealt a decisive blow.
How much do you weigh?
A similar situation lasted until the end of the 19th century, until spectators and organizers finally realized: in a fight between a boxer weighing 100 kg and his opponent weighing 75 kg, the first will surely win. This means that the whole point of organizing public commercial battles and accepting money bets on them disappears.
It was no longer possible to exist, as before, bringing together fighters of different weights and levels in an improvised ring. This is how such a concept as "weight category" was born. At first there were only two - light and heavy, then there were eight, ten. And all of them were used only in professional competitions.
Yes, in fact, no one knew amateur boxing at the dawn of the development of sports for people with strong fists and jaws. It arose only at the beginning of the last century, making its debut at the 1904 Olympics. And how many athletes the introduction of categories saved, perhaps, health and life, the history of boxing is silent.
Professionals
Nowadays, professional boxers (that is, receiving a lot of money and not competing for their country at the World Amateur Championships and the Olympics) compete in 17 weight categories. Or just 17 different weights.
The lightest of them is considered to be the weight of the "feather", which is equal to 105 pounds (47, 627 kg) according to the international measurement system. The most imposing is the heavyweight one, fought in by guys weighing over 200 pounds. For reference: 1 kilogram is equal to 2.2 pounds.
The categories called so amusingly: the weight of the "feather", "fly" and "rooster" is a tribute to tradition and a play on words. In the English original, they sound like this: featherweight - up to 105 pounds, flyweight - up to 108 and bantamweight - up to 112.
Lovers
Once they had 12 categories, but a few years ago, for the sake of television, apparently, only ten remained. Minimum - up to 49 kg (lightest weight), maximum - over 91 kg (super heavy).
Women's boxing
In Olympic London, 36 amateur women competed in three categories - flyweight (48-51 kg), light (56-60 kg) and medium (69-75 kg).
