A Toast To The Welterweight Division

LOS ANGELES (April 21)…Check your almanac: On the night of September 16, 1981, time stopped for one hour while welterweight champions Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns traded punches in Las Vegas. Thats how big a fight it was. On May 1, welterweights Floyd Money Mayweather and Sugar Shane Mosley will clash in the biggest bout of 2010. The mega-matchup of multi-division champions, pound-for-pound kings and future Hall of Famers summons memories not only of Leonard-Hearns, but also of the rich history of American welterweights.

In recent years, boxings headlines have been made largely by foreign-born fighters like Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao, Joe Calzaghe and Juan Manuel Marquez. At welterweight or otherwise, there have been precious-few all-American matchups. In that sense, Mayweather-Mosley is a throwback fight.

In the boxing-rich 1980s, the majority of super-fights were contested between Americans. Among the memorable matchups were Leonard-Hearns, Leonard-Marvin Hagler, Hagler-Hearns, Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney, Holmes-Muhammad Ali, Michael Spinks-Holmes and Mike Tyson-Spinks.

The same can be said for many of the major fights of the 1990s, including Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe, Holyfield-Tyson, Holyfield-George Foreman, Michael Moorer-George Foreman Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins, Jones-James Toney and Pernell Whitaker-Oscar De La Hoya.

The first decade of the new century has seen a shift. There have been big fights involving Americans (De La Hoya-Mayweather, De La Hoya- Hopkins, Mosley-De La Hoya I and II), but nowhere near as many as in previous years. Perhaps Mayweather-Mosley represents the beginning of a shift back to the way it used to be.

No one is quite sure of the origin of the word welterweight, but boxing historians are certain that the 147-pound divisions first world champion was Bostons Paddy Duffy, who was crowned in 1888. In the 122 years since, the division has been dominated by Americans.

Consider the following:

*In 1939, St. Louis Henry Armstrong, who is usually ranked below only Sugar Ray Robinson on all-time pound-for-pound lists, defended his welterweight title an incredible 11 times. This feat took place only a year after Armstrong defeated Chicagos Barney Ross, an all-time great himself, to win the title.

*New York Citys Sugar Ray Robinson is remembered primarily as a middleweight, but was at his fighting best as a welterweight. He defended his title five times and was beaten only once, by a middleweight…Jake LaMotta.

*A handful of the fighters who have held the mythical pound-for-pound title did so as welterweights, including Whitaker (Norfolk, Virginia), Leonard (Palmer Park, Maryland), Mayweather (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Mosley (Pomona, California), De La Hoya (Los Angeles) and Donald Curry (Fort Worth, Texas).

*Other legends who held the welterweight title before jumping to middleweight include Mickey Walker (Elizabeth, New Jersey) and Carmen Basilio (Canastota, New York).

*Four of Ring Magazines 10 best welterweight fights of all time were all-American affairs: Basilio-Tony DeMarco II, Leonard-Hearns I, Simon Brown-Maurice Blocker and De La Hoya-Mosley I.

American athletes have historically been bigger than their foreign counterparts. Scan boxings various divisions and youll see that while the vast majority of heavyweight champions have been American, the United States has produced very few notable flyweights and bantamweights.

With a limit of 147 pounds, the welterweight division lies somewhere near the middle of boxings eight original weight classes. One might say it is the average or median of all weight classes and as a result, there have been great fighters from all over the world competing in the division. Pacquiao hails from the Philippines; Miguel Cotto, Felix Trinidad, and Wilfred Benitez from Puerto Rico; Ike Quartey from Ghana; Ted Kid Lewis from England; Joe Walcott from Barbados; Jimmy McLarnin from Ireland; Pipino Cuevas from Mexico; Roberto Duran from Panama and Jose Napoles and Kid Gavilan from Cuba.

Still, Ring Magazine lists Americans as the four best fighters in the history of the division (Armstrong, Robinson, Leonard, and Ross). Until the recent influx of titlists from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, Americans dominated at heavyweight, and their excellence was best explained by genetics. Not so at welterweight, where the fighters have always battled on an even playing field.

Mayweather-Mosley serves as a reminder not only that Americans remain among the worlds best fighters, but also that the welterweight division is still red, white and blue.

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Mayweather vs. Mosley: Who R U Picking? is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions, and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate, AT&T, Dewalt Tools and StubHub. The 12-round welterweight battle is set for Saturday, May 1 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

Tickets, priced at $1,250, $1,000, $600, $300 and $150 not including applicable service charges, are on sale now and limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $150 are limited to two (2) per person with a total ticket limit of 10 per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.