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heavyweight

 
American Heritage Dictionary:

heav·y·weight

Home > Library > Literature & Language > Dictionary
(hĕv'ē-wāt') pronunciation
n.
  1. One of above average weight.
    1. The heaviest weight division in professional boxing, having no upper limit, with contestants usually weighing more than 190 pounds (85.5 kilograms).
    2. A boxer competing in this weight division.
    3. A similar weight division in other sports, such as weightlifting.
    4. A contestant in this weight division.
  3. Informal. A person of great importance or influence.
heavyweight heav'y·weight' adj.

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Roget's Thesaurus:

heavyweight

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noun

    An important, influential person: character, dignitary, eminence, leader, lion, nabob, notability, notable, personage. Informal big-timer, somebody, someone, VIP. Slang big shot, big wheel, bigwig, muckamuck. See important/unimportant.

adjective

  1. Having a relatively great weight: heavy, hefty, massive, ponderous, weighty. See heavy/light.
  2. Being among the leaders in one's field: blue-chip, major, major-league. Informal big-league, bigtime. See important/unimportant.

The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang:

heavyweight

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[common] High-overhead; baroque; code-intensive; featureful, but costly. Esp. used of communication protocols, language designs, and any sort of implementation in which maximum generality and/or ease of implementation has been pushed at the expense of mundane considerations such as speed, memory utilization, and startup time. EMACS is a heavyweight editor; X is an extremely heavyweight window system. This term isn't pejorative, but one hacker's heavyweight is another's elephantine and a third's monstrosity. Oppose lightweight. Usage: now borders on techspeak, especially in the compound heavyweight process.

Answer of the Day:

Jack Dempsey

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Prizefighter Jack Dempsey  
Prizefighter Jack Dempsey
American World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey was born on this date in 1895. One of the men who made boxing a popular sport in the US, Dempsey won the heavyweight title from Jess Willard on July 4, 1919. Earlier in the year, he had won five fights in a row, each time knocking out his opponent in the first round. Dempsey's bout against Georges Carpentier was the first one to boast a $1 million prize. Dempsey won that match and continued his winning streak until 1926, when he lost his title to Gene Tunney.

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Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'heavyweight'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
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Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Heavyweight

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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
This article is about the boxing weight class. For other uses, see Heavyweight (disambiguation).
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 This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (May 2009)

Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds (14 st 4 lb/90.7 kg) are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation,[1] the World Boxing Association,[2] the World Boxing Council,[3] and the World Boxing Organization.[4]

Because this division has no weight limit, it has been historically vaguely defined. In the 19th century, for example, many heavyweight champions weighed 170 pounds (12 st 2 lb, 77 kg) or less (although others weighed 200 pounds and more). In 1920, the minimum weight for a heavyweight was set at 175 pounds (12 st 7 lb, 79 kg), which today is the light heavyweight division maximum. Today, for most boxing organizations, the maximum weight for a cruiserweight is 200 pounds. Thus, a fighter whose weight is over 200 lb may not fight as anything but a heavyweight.

Contents

Historical development

It is impossible to say with absolute certainty who the first heavyweight champion was, since the sport of boxing goes back as far as recorded history and there have always been large fighters. However, James Figg, "the father of modern pugilism", is most often referred to as the first champion of organized boxing. Even in the bare-knuckle era, "champions" were plentiful. Some of the most notable of these included the slave Tom Molineaux, Tom Cribb, Jack Slack, Jem Belcher, Ben Caunt and Jem Mace. The first heavyweight champion under the Marquess of Queensberry rules was John L. Sullivan, known as "The Boston Strong Boy." He weighed around 200 pounds when in shape and was a bare-knuckle champion. He was defeated by Jim Corbett on September 7, 1892, in 21 rounds.

It should also be noted that in recent years, the heavyweight title has become fractured amongst various sanctioning organizations, and so what was once known as the single "Heavyweight Champion," is now referred to as the "Undisputed Champion" as the one fighter that has defeated all the other titlists.

Professional champions

Current champions

Sanctioning Body Reign Began Champion Record Defenses
WBA Super July 2, 2011 Ukraine Wladimir Klitschko 56-3 (49 KO) 0
WBA Regular August 27, 2011 Russia Alexander Povetkin 23-0 (16 KO) 1
WBC October 11, 2008 Ukraine Vitali Klitschko 43-2 (40 KO) 7
IBF April 22, 2006 Ukraine Wladimir Klitschko 56-3 (49 KO) 10
WBO February 23, 2008 Ukraine Wladimir Klitschko 56-3 (49 KO) 6

Analogous uses

The word "heavyweight" is sometimes used in other fields (e.g. politics) to denote a person who is especially powerful or influential. In this context, "big beast" has a similar meaning. Other boxing analogies include "punching above his [their] weight" to denote a person or entity (e.g. a country) whose influence is arguably greater than his/its basic attributes would suggest.

Kickboxing

In kickboxing, a heavyweight fighter weighs between 88 kg (196 lb) and 100 kg (220 lb). Fighters over 100 kg (220 lb) are considered super heavyweights.

See also

References

  1. ^ "4. Weight Classes". IBO Championship Rules & Regulations. International Boxing Organization. http://www.iboboxing.com/ibo_championship_rules_and_regulations.html. Retrieved 2007-08-11. "Heavyweight Over 200 lbs." 
  2. ^ "11. Weight Category". World Bpxing Association World Championships Regulations. World Boxing Association. Archived from the original on 2007-08-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20070809084145/http://www.wbaonline.com/legal/LegalStatements/worldchampionships.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-11. "Heavy More than 200 Lbs." 
  3. ^ "Ratings Heavyweight (over 200-90.719)". World Boxing Council. Archived from the original on 2007-08-10. http://web.archive.org/web/20070810070242/http://www.wbcboxing.com/WBCboxing/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=94&docTipo=4&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC. Retrieved 2007-08-11. 
  4. ^ "3. Weight Classes" (pdf). Regulations of World Championship Contests. World Boxing Organization. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20070926061740/http://www.wbo-int.com/revised/WBORulesReg04APR07.pdf. Retrieved 2007-08-11. "Heavyweight Over 200lbs or 90.91 kg." 
Professional boxing
Olympic boxing
Other/Unofficial

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Translations:

Heavyweight

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - sværvægt
adj. - sværvægts-

Nederlands (Dutch)
kopstuk, zwaar persoon, dikkerd, zwaargewicht

Français (French)
n. - personne obèse, (Sport) poids lourd, (fig) grand ponte (fam), personne influente
adj. - (Sport) (catégorie) des poids lourds, sérieux, (Tex) lourd

Deutsch (German)
n. - Größe, Schwergewicht
adj. - Schwergewichts...

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πυγμάχος βαρέων βαρών

Italiano (Italian)
pezzo grosso, peso massimo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - peso-pesado (m) (Desp.)

Русский (Russian)
борец тяжелого веса, тяжелый грузовик, видный политический деятель

Español (Spanish)
n. - persona importante, pez gordo, peso pesado
adj. - de peso pesado

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tungvikt (sport), tungviktare (äv. bildl.), expert (krim.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
重量级拳击手, 聪明绝顶的人, 要人, 重的, 重量级的, 特别厚重的, 要人的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 重量級拳擊手, 聰明絕頂的人, 要人
adj. - 重的, 重量級的, 特別厚重的, 要人的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 평균 몸무게 이상의 사람, 헤비급 선수
adj. - 헤비급의, 체중이 무거운

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 平均の重さ以上の人, 重鎮, 有力者, ヘビー級の選手

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شخص بدين, ملاكم من الوزن الثقيل يزن ما لا يقل عن 175 باوند‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משקל כבד, משקל של 18 ק"ג ומעלה באיגרוף, מתאגרף במשקל כבד‬
adj. - ‮כבד משקל, שמשקלו מעל לממוצע, בעל השפעה רבה או חשוב‬

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Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang. The Jargon File. Copyright © 2007.  Read more
Answers Corporation Answer of the Day. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Heavyweight.  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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