WBC to name new weight division as 'Bridgerweight' at 224lbs

WBC to name the division as 'bridgerweight' after Bridges Walker who bravely protected his sister from a dog attack

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has reportedly announced the creation of a new boxing weight division between the 200 lbs cruiserweight division and 200+ heavyweight division to be nown as 'bridgerweight' with the limit at 224lbs.

The weight class will be named after Bridges Walker who required 90 stitches after bravely defending his younger sister from a dog attack in July, and received an honorary WBC belt at the time of his injuries.

Deontay Wilder and Oleksandr Usyk are two fighters who are being touted to initially fight for the belt in the first bout in the division, with Oleksandr Usyk just having moved up to heavyweight and Wilder also speaking out about moving down to a smaller weight category after being refused his third rematch with Tyson Fury for the heavyweight belt.

Tony Bellew previously spoke highly about the creation of the new division and revealed his work with the WBC to ensure that the division caters for the smaller heavyweights.

He told talkSPORT: "I am a fighter who fought obviously at light-heavyweight.I boiled down to that weight category and then jumped up immediately and went to cruiserweight.

“I’ve done it, so I understand how tough the weight jump is. The difference in all the other weight categories is minimal – 4lbs, 3lbs, sometimes 6lbs. The weight jump from light-heavyweight to cruiserweight is from 175lbs to 200lbs – that’s 25lbs. That’s just too much, I get what Don Majeski’s saying because in the current game at heavyweight the big boys are too big and the smaller heavyweights are not able to compete with the bigger boys.

“As great as some of them are – the likes of Oleksandr Usyk – it’s looked at now that he’s not gonna be able to compete with the monsters. Not because of his boxing ability, purely because of his size. Here’s where my thinking goes with the WBC, and I’ve said this to Mauricio Sulaiman the WBC president.

“I actually like the divisions going from 175lbs up to 190lbs [instead of 200lbs]. That will make it a bit better for the guys who are struggling at light-heavyweight, but are not monster cruiserweights. Then, if I had my way, I would go from 190lbs to 220lbs. You’re looking at the ‘small heavyweights’. I would’ve fallen into that category quite comfortably, Oleksandr Usyk falls into that category quite comfortably.

“Deontay Wilder falls into that category quite comfortably, David Haye falls into that category quite comfortably.”

“This weight class we’re looking to bring in is the perfect thing and if I had complete control of something like this, the first match-up I would look to do would be Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk for the belt. It’s an amazing fight, the division would be relevant immediately with a fight of that magnitude.”

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