Weight of opinion changing the boxing landscape

FORGET the history-making heavies, the marvellous middles and the lightning lights – boxing’s traditional weight divisions are facing meltdown at the hands of a new phenomenon designed to meet the credit crunch head-on.

For today’s billboard-hogging superstars, dominating their natural division against the best available contenders is no longer enough. Money talks, and it talks loudly enough to persuade them to look elsewhere.

Floyd Mayweather called out the middleweight Oscar De La Hoya. Kelly Pavlik had the world at his feet in the middleweight division but chose to jump up in a bid to get the better of Bernard Hopkins. De La Hoya will shortly fight Manny Pacquiao – a fighter whose natural weight is at least two divisions lower, but whose status as one of the pound-for-pound kings is enough to sweep such issues aside.