The rest of the civilized world is drawn to round numbers: 100th birthdays, 50th wedding anniversaries, .300 batting averages. But in boxing, which isn?t quite so civilized, an odd number has for decades held a special mystique: 147
When Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. step into the ring on May 2 in Las Vegas, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds. Mayweather is the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council welterweight champion; Pacquiao wears the World Boxing Organization belt. It is most the anticipated bout in years, yet it is just one of history?s great showdowns to take place at that seemingly random number.
Roberto Duran?s upset of Sugar Ray Leonard; the no m?s rematch, in which Duran quit in the eighth round; Leonard?s miraculous technical knockout of Thomas Hearns?all were fought at 147. A disproportionate number of pugilism?s cr?me de la cr?me were welterweights, including Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson.
Today, the welterweight class is the division heaviest in talent. Besides Mayweather and Pacquiao, boxing elites Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan, Juan Manuel Marquez, Keith Thurman and Kell Brook, the International Boxing Federation champion, all claim a 147-pound address.
This concentration of fistic perfection is anything but an anomaly. Among boxing?s 17 weight divisions, the glamour of the 147-pound welterweight classification is rivaled only by the heavyweight division, which has generated far fewer stars in recent years despite covering a much wider group of weights. (Heavyweights are anyone over 200 pounds; welterweights span from 140 to 147.)
How did 147 become boxing?s magic number?
The origin of the 147-pound division, boxing experts say, goes back more than a century to England, where modern boxing was developed. ?In the 19th century, champions would pretty much decide what their weight limit was going to be,? historian Robert Yalen said. ?However, early in the 20th century, the National Sporting Club of England voted to standardize weight divisions. They used the English unit of the stone as a measure of weight. They came up with eight traditional weight classes and wanted something between the light and middleweight?something at 10.5 stone?which is 147 pounds.? ENLARGE Floyd Mayweather Jr. poses with his corner and his champion’s belt after his welterweight title victory over Marcos Maidana in May. Photo: Isaac Brekken/Associated Press
As for the name of the division, the term ?welter? derives from horse racing, said historian Barry Hugman, where it referred to the amount of weight that a horse was to carry in a steeplechase or hurdle race.
Still, why such supremacy at this poundage?
The reason lies primarily in the unique mix of talents that the 147-pound boxer possesses. ?Welterweight is the perfect middle ground where speed, power and boxing technique meet,? said Mauricio Sulaim?n, president of the WBC, one of the four major bodies that sanction championship fights. ?Go lower and you lose power; go higher into the middleweight division and you lose some of the speed.?
The constant depth of the 147-pound division also is owed to pure numbers. ?Most men walk around at around 160,? said former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi. ?If they were boxers, they would come down to 147 to fight.?
Boxers move through different weight classes over the course of their careers, typically drifting upward in weight as they mature. Pacquiao, who has won titles in a record eight different divisions, won his first as a professional in the 112-pound flyweight division. Mayweather, a five-division champion, won his first belt in the 130-pound super-featherweight class.
The 147-pound division, though, has tended to be where the glory is. Before the current crop of welterweights, the division was inhabited by still more legends: Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad.
?Up until the time of Sugar Ray Robinson, boxing revolved around the heavyweights in the mind of the public,? said Leonard, the former welterweight king. ?Sugar Ray Robinson changed that. He was the first non-heavyweight to become the focal point of attention in boxing.? Almost universally regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in history, Robinson punched up the grandeur of the division over which he reigned in the 1940s.
Leonard?s welterweight-title defeat of Hearns in 1981 was the ultimate exhibition of what the division has to offer. In a twist of roles, the powerful ?Hitman? Hearns outboxed the crafty Leonard for much of the fight. Leonard, trailing on the scorecards, stormed back and won by TKO in the 14th round.
It is that combination of speed and explosive power that again will have the boxing world rapt when Mayweather and Pacquiao meet. As De La Hoya, another former welterweight champion, put it: ?We like to think we are as fast as flyweights and hit like heavyweights.?
