The announcement that Britain’s Lawrence Okolie will challenge Lukasz Rozanski for the WBC bridgeweight title on May 24 in Poland could generate as many Google searches for the weight pision as for the opponent.
New weight classes and more champions aren’t high on your wish list if you’re a fight fan. However, temptation finally got the better of WBC president Mauricio Sulaimán, who officially introduced the bridgeweight pision in November 2020.
Unlike younger weight classes like super middleweight and cruiserweight, the bridgeweight pision has been a slow process. Of the four sanctioning organizations, only the WBA did the same, and it took them three years to do so.
The Jugo Mobile delves into boxing’s latest weight pision.
What is bridge weight in boxing?
The bridgeweight pision could best be described as super cruiserweight. The weight limit is 224 pounds, with the idea that smaller heavyweights will no longer need to face giants, such as 270-pound WBC champion Tyson Fury, if they want to win a title.
In November 2020, the WBC issued a press release explaining his decision to implement an 18 weight class in professional boxing.
“We have decided to create a new pision, called ‘Bridger’, since it is the necessary bridge to serve the large number of boxers who weigh between 200 and 224 pounds.
This name is inspired by that hero of humanity, that 6-year-old boy who during the [Covid-19] The pandemic heroically saved his 4-year-old sister from a wild dog attack… Yes, this new pision is inspired by Bridger Walker!
Can Read more about Bridger Walker’s story via the New York Post, here..
Back on topic, interestingly enough, Oleksandr Usyk holds three heavyweight championship titles and has never weighed more than 221.5 pounds.
Will the other sanctioning organizations adopt the bridge weight?
The IBF has yet to address bridgerweight and there is nothing to suggest the New Jersey-based organization is interested in doing so.
Meanwhile, WBO president Paco Valcárcel felt the need to comment on the new weight class after the WBA made its move at the end of 2023 official.
“Having 17 pisions in professional boxing is more than enough,” Valcárcel wrote on Twitter (X). “Jr. heavyweights or cruisers, from 175 to 200 is a fairly ‘colorless’ pision. Imagine another ‘extended cruiser’… Changes are not always good and many times by trying to improve we damage the image of boxing “.
Neither Ring Magazine nor BoxRec recognize the bridgeweight pision at this time.
Who is Lukasz Rozanski?
Rozanski (15-0, 14 KOs) is a marauding heavyweight from Poland at 6-1. The 38-year-old is known to the British public thanks to his first-round demolition of previously undefeated British favorite Alen Babic last April.
It was the beating of Babic that saw Rozanski lift the WBC bridgeweight title which he will defend against Okolie in May.
How many bridgerweight champions have there been?
There have only been three bridgeweight champions.
The inaugural WBC champion was Oscar Rivas, who defeated Ryan Rozicki in October 2022. Rivas vacated the title in early 2023 and was succeeded by Lukasz Rozanski.
On December 9, Evgeny Tishchenko defeated Leon Harth to claim the first WBA bridgeweight championship.
